Russia's invasion of Ukraine is not just a seminal moment in world history, but a teachable one. Pranay Kotasthane and Nitin Pai join Amit Varma in episode 268 of The Seen and the Unseen to discuss concepts and frameworks of foreign policy that can help us make sense of this turmoil. If this subject interests you, consider signing up for Takashshila's GCPP: Defence & Foreign Affairs course. Registration is open for the May Cohort. Also check out: 1. Pranay Kotasthane Talks Public Policy -- Episode 233 of The Seen and the Unseen. 2. Foreign Policy is a Big Deal — Episode 170 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Manoj Kewalramani). 3. Radically Networked Societies — Episode 158 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane). 4. Democracy in Pakistan -- Episode 79 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Hamsini Hariharan.) 5. Older episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 6. Understanding Foreign Policy — Episode 63 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nitin Pai). 7. Anticipating the Unintended — Pranay Kotasthane’s newsletter (with RSJ). 8. Puliyabaazi — Pranay Kotasthane’s podcast (with Saurabh Chandra). 9. Selected episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on China: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 10. Ram Guha Reflects on His Life -- Episode 266 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. Dhanya Rajendran Fights the Gaze -- Episode 267 of The Seen and the Unseen. 12. The End of History? -- Francis Fukuyama's essay. 13. The End of History and the Last Man -- Francis Fukuyama's book. 14. The Great Man Theory of History. 15. Russia's War on Ukraine: A Roundtable -- Bari Weiss speaks to Niall Ferguson, Walter Russell Mead and Francis Fukuyama. 16. Around the halls: Implications of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine -- Brookings roundup of expert views, including from Marvin Kalb. 17. Modi’s Domination – What We Often Overlook — Keshava Guha. 18. The Median Voter Theorem. 19. Social Theory of International Politics -- Alexander Wendt on constructivism in international relations. 20. Hindutva -- VD Savarkar. 21. The Intellectual Foundations of Hindutva -- Episode 115 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Aakar Patel, discussing Hindutva among other things). 22. Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India — Akshaya Mukul. 23. The Gita Press and Hindu Nationalism -- Episode 139 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshaya Mukul). 24. Whole Numbers and Half Truths — Rukmini S. 25. Rukmini Sees India’s Multitudes -- Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 26. Why I am a Hindu -- Shashi Tharoor. 27. The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of A Nation -- Granville Austin. 28. A People's Constitution -- Rohit De. 29. Three Conundrums -- Anticipating the Unintended  #159 by RSJ and Pranay Kotasthane. 30. Through The Looking Glass --  Anticipating the Unintended  #160 by RSJ and Pranay Kotasthane. 31. No man is an island entire of itself... --  Anticipating the Unintended  #161 by RSJ and Pranay Kotasthane. 32. The Overton Window. 33. India's Strategies for a New World Order -- Anirudh Kanisetti, Anupam Manur, Pranay Kotasthane and Akshay Alladi. 34. The Uses and Abuses of Weaponized Interdependence -- Daniel Drezner, Henry Farrell and Abraham L Newman. 35. Nuclear Power Can Save the World -- Joshua S Goldstein, Staffan A Qvist and Steven Pinker. 36. Public Choice Theory -- Episode 121 of The Seen and the Unseen. 37. The Idiot -- Fyodor Dostoevsky. 38. 'Stop the war.' 44 Top Russian Players Publish Open Letter To Putin -- Sam Copeland. 39. Alexander Grischuk's emotional press conference after Russia invaded Ukraine. (Watch from 4:20.) 40. Power and International Relations -- David A Baldwin. 41. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers -- Paul M Kennedy. 42. The Power of Nations: Measuring What Matters -- Michael Beckley. 43. The game theory concept of Chicken. 44. India in the Nuclear Age -- Episode 80 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Lt Gen Prakash Menon). 45. National Power After AI -- Matthew Daniels and Ben Chang. 46. Why liberal democracies have a distinct edge on cyber capability -- Nitin Pai. 47. The Business of Winning Elections -- Episode 247 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shivam Shankar Singh.) 48. Can Democracy Survive in the Information Age? --  Eric Rosenbach and Katherine Mansted on the Authoritarian Information Paradox. 49. The Use of Knowledge in Society -- Friedrich Hayek. 50. ये लिबरल आख़िर है कौन? — Episode 37 of Puliyabaazi (w Amit Varma, on Hayek.) 51. Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas -- Natasha Dow Schüll. 52. Irresistible: Why We Can’t Stop Checking, Scrolling, Clicking and Watching -- Adam Alter. 53. The Dark Psychology of Social Networks -- Jonathan Haidt and Tobias Rose-Stockwell. 54. The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium -- Martin Gurri. 55. Social media are turbocharging the export of America’s political culture -- The Economist. 56. America in South Asia -- Episode 93 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 57. The Geopolitics of the Bangladesh War -- Episode 113 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 58. The India-Pakistan Conflict -- Episode 111 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 59. Public Choice Theory and the Illusion of Grand Strategy -- Richard Hanania. 60. Narendra Shenoy and Mr Narendra Shenoy -- Episode 250 of The Seen and the Unseen. 61. The Lessons of History -- Will and Ariel Durant. 62. Fallout of the Ukraine-Russia Conflict + -- A constantly evolving note by the Takshashila Institution. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free!

The task of nation-building did not end with our founders, and does not stop at our politicians. It's up to us to build the India we want to see. Nitin Pai joins Amit Varma in episode 318 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life, his learnings and his liberal nationalism. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Nitin Pai on his own website, Mint & Mastodon . 2. The Nitopadesha -- Moral Tales for Good Citizens. 3. The archives of The Acorn, Nitin Pai's blog. And its current avatar. 4. Nitin Pai's ideas, notes and current research and teaching. 5. The Takshashila Institution. 6. Seven Tenets of Indian Nationalism -- Nitin Pai. 7. In support of a liberal nationalism -- Nitin Pai. 8. A republic - if we can keep it -- Nitin Pai. 9. Saving the Nation From Nationalists -- Nitin Pai. 10. The real problem is that we have too little republic -- Nitin Pai. 11. The operating system of liberal democracy needs a major upgrade -- Nitin Pai. 12. Social harmony is a matter of national interest -- Nitin Pai. 13. Liberal democracies must protect their citizens’ minds from being hacked -- Nitin Pai. 14. Understanding Foreign Policy — Episode 63 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nitin Pai). 15. Russia, Ukraine, Foreign Policy -- Episode 268 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane and Nitin Pai). 16. The City and the City — China Miéville. 17. The State of Our Economy -- Episode 252 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra and Mohit Satyanand). 18. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 19. Who We Are and How We Got Here — David Reich. 20. Early Indians — Tony Joseph. 21. Early Indians — Episode 112 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tony Joseph). 22. The Moral Arc: How Science Makes Us Better People — Michael Shermer. 23. History of European Morals — WEH Lecky. 24. The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress — Peter Singer. 25. How the BJP Wins — Prashant Jha. 26. The BJP’s Magic Formula — Episode 45 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Prashant Jha). 27. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 28. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen w Pranay Kotasthane: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 29. Rohini Nilekani Pays It Forward -- Episode 317 of The Seen and the Unseen. 30. Samaaj, Sarkaar, Bazaar : A citizen-first approach — Rohini Nilekani. 31. The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind — Gustave le Bon. 32. Crowds and Power — Elias Canetti. 33. EO Wilson on Amazon, Wikipedia and Britannica. 34. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards — Amit Varma (on Modi, Mao and locusts). 35. FAQ: Why Anna Hazare is wrong and Lok Pal a bad idea -- Nitin Pai. 36. Sadanand Dhume on Twitter -- and this podcast! 37. Social media is an existential threat to civilisation -- Nitin Pai. 38. Reframing the social media policy debate -- Nitin Pai. 39. The coming regulation of social media is an opportunity for India -- Nitin Pai. 40. The Double ‘Thank-You’ Moment — John Stossel. 41. Thinking Fast and Slow — Daniel Kahneman. 42. Human — Michael S Gazzaniga. 43. The Interpreter — Amit Varma. 44. The Elephant in the Brain -- Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson. 45. Freedom to Think -- Susie Alegre. 46. Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas — Natasha Dow Schüll. 47. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 48. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 49. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 50. The original Takshashila. 51. Understanding Gandhi. Part 1: Mohandas — Episode 104 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 52. Understanding Gandhi. Part 2: Mahatma — Episode 105 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ram Guha). 53. Hind Swaraj — MK Gandhi. 54. Nikita -- Elton John. 55. The Importance of Cities — Episode 108 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Reuben Abraham & Pritika Hingorani). 56. The Gentle Wisdom of Pratap Bhanu Mehta -- Episode 300 of The Seen and the Unseen. 57. The Arthashastra -- Kautilya 58. On Exactitude in Science — Jorge Luis Borges. 59. Emergent Ventures. 60. Friedrich Hayek on Wikipedia, Britannica, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Econlib. 61. Milton Friedman on Amazon, Wikipedia, Britannica and Econlib. 62. Arshia Sattar and the Complex Search for Dharma -- Episode 315 of The Seen and the Unseen. 63. Every Act of Government Is an Act of Violence — Amit Varma. 64. The Generation of Rage in Kashmir — David Devadas. 65. Counterinsurgency Warfare — David Galula. 66. We Won’t Need To Fight A War If We Can Win The Peace — Amit Varma. 67. Kashmir and Article 370 -- Episode 134 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 68. Think the Unthinkable (2008) -- Vir Sanghvi. 69. Independence Day for Kashmir (2008) -- Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar. 70. The Anti-Defection Law — Episode 13 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra). 71. Our Parliament and Our Democracy — Episode 253 of The Seen and the Unseen (w MR Madhavan). 72. Abby Philips Fights for Science and Medicine — Episode 310 of The Seen and the Unseen. 73. Why Read the Classics? — Italo Calvino. 74. History Of Western Philosophy -- Bertrand Russell. 75. Ideas: A History from Fire to Freud -- Peter Watson. 76. Arthashastra -- Kautilya (translated by Shama Shastri). 77. The Upanishads. 78. The Mahabharata -- translated by Bibek Debroy. 79. Brihatkatha, Kathasaritsagara, Panchatantra and Hitopadesha. 80. Charvaka and Jayarāśi Bhaṭṭa. 81. Tattvopaplavasiṃha -- Jayarāśi Bhaṭṭa. 82. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams. 83. Catch 22 -- Joseph Heller. 84. Commanding Hope -- Thomas Homer-Dixon. 85. Paul Auster, David Mitchell, Haruki Murakami, Ryu Murakami and Terry Pratchett on Amazon. 86. Piercing -- Ryu Murakami. 87. 2021 - The Year in Fiction -- Nitin Pai. 88. Bhimsen Joshi, Kishore Kumar, Hemant Kumar, Radiohead, Norah Jones, Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone, Himesh Reshammiya and Yehudi Menuhin on Spotify. 89. Take Five -- The Dave Brubeck Quartet. Check out Amit’s online course, The Art of Clear Writing. And subscribe to The India Uncut Newsletter. It’s free! Episode art: ‘The Bigger Picture’ by Simahina.