A British Minister on Why Being a Politician Is the Worst Job Imaginable, Brexit and a View of the US and the World: Rory Stewart (#88)

Rory Stewart provides an unconventional perspective on the US and the world, including the mistake of our all-in and all-out mentality, politics without detail and how politicians live in a perpetually paranoid universe and don’t accomplish much in their lives.

It doesn't matter whether you're talking about Afghanistan, climate change or populism in the US and Europe, Rory believes the fundamental problem is a problem of jargon and abstraction. Let's take Afghanistan. President Biden left Afghanistan, because instead of focusing on the fact that the US actually only had 2,500 soldiers on the ground, was doing very little fighting and had had no casualties for 18 months, he labeled it a "forever war". And by doing so, he convinced himself and 70% of the American people that we were still back in 2012 in this huge military operation which no longer existed. And the same basic problem underlies all our politics, which is that we are now in a world of politics without detail.

Rory also shares an ally’s perspective on the US, what Europeans see as a joke, and the 50% likelihood that China will make an aggressive move to reincorporate Taiwan.

Rory Stewart is a British diplomat, politician, author and explorer who has walked solo across Afghanistan. He has served across the UK government as Secretary of State for International Development, Minister of the Environment, Minister of State for Justice, and as Chair of the House Commons Defense Select Committee.

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