Humanitarian Interventions - What Is the Binding Constraint?

6min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

If we think of the cases where us humanitarian interventions should not happen, by your judgment, what is most likely the binding constraint when we should not intervene? Is it the attention of the president? The tolerance of the public? Having enough quality senior diplomats? The money it would cost, number of military troops? What's the relevant margin? At the margin, you're going to hate me, but i find it very hard to discuss in the abstract. It is so multifactoral and so for example, if you're talking about looking historically, let's a theas temor intervention,. which was what i have seen as a success.

A former war correspondent and UN ambassador, Samantha Power has had her share of tough assignments. But writing a memoir about it all is also a daunting prospect. The format itself is a challenge: how do you convince the reader you’re worth spending time with? How do you paint a relatable portrait without oversharing and losing your dignity? For Samantha the answer was settling upon a purpose for her memoir and ruthlessly cutting out everything not in service of that.

Tyler and Samantha discuss that purpose and more, including what she learned as an Irish immigrant, the personality traits of good diplomats (and war correspondents), relations with China, why democracy is so rare in the Middle East, the truth about Richard Holbrooke, what factors mitigate against humanitarian intervention, her favorite memoir, how to get NATO members to spend more on defense, and whether baseball games are too long.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

Recorded July 30th, 2019 Other ways to connect

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
Follow Tyler on Twitter
Follow Samantha on Twitter
Email us: cowenconvos@mercatus.gmu.edu
Subscribe at our newsletter page to have the latest Conversations with Tyler news sent straight to your inbox.