Speaker 2
It has been a dream on and off for many Americans over the years to stay clear of troubles overseas. My guest today, Hal Brands, returning to the show, makes the case, however, that the struggle for Eurasia is, whether we like it or not, the struggle for the control of the world. And so America has an enduring interest in the outcomes of such competitions. We'll talk about the history of this idea and how it applies today. Let's get into it. It is a prescription for war, this Iraqi invasion of Hawaii. December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy. The bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a state. We continue to face the race.
Speaker 1
We shall fight on the beaches.
Speaker 1
shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall never surrender. For
Speaker 2
more, follow School of War on YouTube, Instagram, Substack, and Twitter. And feel free to follow me on Twitter at Aaron B. McLean. Hi, I'm Aaron McLean. Thanks for joining School of War. I'm delighted to welcome back to the show today Hal Brands, the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins Seis. He's a columnist from Bloomberg. He's a senior fellow at AEI. He's the author, most recently, of The Eurasian Century, Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern World. Hal, how the heck are you? I'm doing great, Aaron. Thank you for having me. It's always good to have you on the show. You've been on the show actually to discuss the subject of this most recent book before. We had a whole episode, I want to say, at least most of an episode about Mackinder. And I have to say, Halford Mackinder is so hot right now. You see a lot of Mackinder out there. What's up with that? Did you do that? It's
Speaker 1
a Eurasian moment, and so people are going back to the greats on this. I've been writing about Mackinder sort of on and off for the past three or four years. So that might have a tiny bit to do with it. But candidly, I think it's just the state of world politics where wherever you look, you've got bad guys that are trying to upset the balance in crucial Eurasian regions. They're working together in creating this League of Eurasian autocracies, which is sort of kind of what Mackinder was warning about 120 years ago. And so it's one of those things where history has come back around in a way that makes it more relevant than ever. I want to get into that.
