Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs

Political scientist John Mearsheimer joins Jeffrey Sachs to discuss his book on the rationality of foreign policy. They analyze historical case studies, including the US invasion of Iraq, and explore the rationality of states in decision-making. The podcast covers topics such as the Ukraine war, NATO expansion, and the role of diplomacy in foreign policy.

Send us a textJoin Professor Jeffrey Sachs and economist Francisco Rodriguez as they discuss Professor Rodriguez’s newest publication, The Human Consequences of Economic Sanctions. Prof. Rodriguez is an expert on the use of unilateral economic sanctions - when one country imposes economic costs on another, and shares insights on the US as the main user of such unilateral economic sanctions.Professor Rodriguez offers us a comprehensive assessment of the effects of unilateral sanctions on the living standards in target countries. The effects of sanctions are dramatic: rising poverty, falling living standards, and premature deaths. These consequences go far beyond politics, and hit the civilian population very hard. Professor Sachs and Rodriguez offer a fascinating discussion that sheds light on economic warfare, and how it is deployed in the world today.The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.Footnotes:Economic SanctionsCrisis in VenezuelaVenezuela Economy  The Rise and Fall of a PetrostateHugo Chavez History of the Venezuelan Oil Industry US Economy US SanctionsInternational Financial Statistics US Maximum PressureNicolás MaduroUnilateral Sanctions Secondary SanctionsJuan GuaidóCitgoSanctions During the Venezuela CrisisHow Latin America Has Been Shaped⭐️ Thank you for listening!➡️ Sign up for the newsletter: https://bit.ly/subscribeBCJS➡️ Website: bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org 🎉 Don't forget to subscribe and share your favorite episode with your friends! 📣 Leave a rating and tell us what you thought about this episode!

Send us a textJoin Professor Jeffrey Sachs and two of the world's leading experts on the economics of wellbeing, Lord Richard Layard and Professor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve to discuss their newest book, Wellbeing: Science and Policy. Together, they examine how wellbeing can be measured and how it can be promoted today and for future generations.What produces a happy life and a happy society? Layard’s and De Neve’s new book offers a systematic exploration that brings together a fascinating and vast body of research in the past 20 years. This thought provoking conversation explores the new science of wellbeing and how it can improve public policies and our lives. The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.Footnotes:World Happiness ReportWellbeingAristotleNicomachean EthicsHappiness as GDPMartin SeligmanSubjective Happiness ScaleAffective Component of HappinessEudaimoniaNobel Prize Winner Daniel KahnemanStoicism Positive PsychologyCognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)Set point - stable point of genetic disposition Twin studies Mental Health Diagnosis with happinessDiminishing marginal of impact on wellbeing⭐️ Thank you for listening!➡️ Sign up for the newsletter: https://bit.ly/subscribeBCJS➡️ Website: bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org 🎉 Don't forget to subscribe and share your favorite episode with your friends! 📣 Leave a rating and tell us what you thought about this episode!

Send us a textJoin Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Professor Bruce Cumings, renowned historian and  expert in East-Asian history, to discuss Cuming’s book, The Korean War. Together, they discuss the factors that led to the Korean War, its brutal trajectory, and its powerful and fateful impacts US foreign policy. The Korean War, though little known or understood today, continues to cast a long shadow on geopolitics and US foreign policy up to this day.  Cumings offers a profound and essential look into a war that is widely misunderstood, forgotten, or willfully ignored, but that still deeply shapes our world.    The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.Footnotes:Korean WarWorld War IIAmerican Military in WWII US Second Amendment NSC6838th Parallel Pro-Japanese Collaborators Five Theories of Korean UnificationDean AchesonMarshall Plan SpeechKorean War and Japan’s RecoveryCold WarDeclaration of Neutrality George Kennan Guerrilla Operations in North Korea US in the Korean WarAmerican Armed Forces StatisticsNuclear Arms Race⭐️ Thank you for listening!➡️ Sign up for the newsletter: https://bit.ly/subscribeBCJS➡️ Website: bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org 🎉 Don't forget to subscribe and share your favorite episode with your friends! 📣 Leave a rating and tell us what you thought about this episode!

Kim Stanley Robinson, a bestselling science fiction author, joins Jeffrey Sachs to discuss his works on climate change, specifically 'The Ministry for the Future.' They explore how climate crises could lead to global instability, rising sea levels, and potential acts of climate terrorism. The conversation contrasts slow political negotiations with the urgent need for action. Robinson emphasizes the role of literature in imagining possible futures, advocating for collective action and a new economic model that supports both humanity and the environment.

Send us a textJoin Professors Jeffrey Sachs and Chris Coyne, economist and author of In Search of Monsters to Destroy: The Folly of American Empire and the Paths to Peace, for an eye-opening examination on whether interventionist methods should ever have a place in foreign policy. Together, they discuss American imperialism and militaristic culture around the world, proving that nonviolent approaches to domestic and international conflicts not only minimize violence, but also promote cultures of peace throughout the world. Coyne presents his compelling arguments as to why such interventions are a threat to liberal values and alternative methods can preserve freedom and promote security between nations. The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.Footnotes:Afghanistan Papers Pentagon PapersJohn Quincy Adams Liberalism Joe BidenAutocracies January 6th resurrection Manifest Destiny Westward Expansion Imperialism Militarism in the USBanana Wars CronyismAdam Smith United Fruit - Guatemala Dulles Brothers Game TheoryUS Surveillance State  Church Committee (CIA violating its charter)American military spending Capturing Osama Bin Laden US War on Drugs in Afghanistan Taliban Latin American war on drugs⭐️ Thank you for listening!➡️ Sign up for the newsletter: https://bit.ly/subscribeBCJS➡️ Website: bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org 🎉 Don't forget to subscribe and share your favorite episode with your friends! 📣 Leave a rating and tell us what you thought about this episode!

Send us a textJoin Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Professor Glenn Denning, a world-leading specialist in agricultural and food policy to discuss Denning’s new book Universal Food Security: How to End Hunger While Protecting the Planet. Together, they explore how we can achieve a food-secure world while protecting the planet through sustainable agricultural technologies, farm practices, and healthy diets.   Their discussion ranges broadly over the choices of agricultural technology, food policy, dietary choices, and public institutions needed to achieve global food security with environmental sustainability. Denning shares his wealth of personal experiences as an agricultural policy advisor in many parts of the world, and vividly describes pivotal achievements in food policy. He describes vividly how our complex food challenges can be systematically addressed and solved. The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.Footnotes:Food SecurityFood System Impacts on Climate ChangeSustainable Development GoalsEnergy System TransformationIntegrated Rural DevelopmentAgronomySustainable AgricultureInternational Rice InstitutePlant ArchitectureHarvest IndexIR 8IR 36Green Revolution Rice VarietyPhilippines 3 Rs - rice roads and arithmeticKhmer RougeGene BankAnthropogenic GreenHouse Gasses Cows Methane ReleaseGreen House Emissions - AgriculturePost Harvard Stewardship⭐️ Thank you for listening!➡️ Sign up for the newsletter: https://bit.ly/subscribeBCJS➡️ Website: bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org 🎉 Don't forget to subscribe and share your favorite episode with your friends! 📣 Leave a rating and tell us what you thought about this episode!

Send us a textJoin Professors Jeffrey Sachs and Orlando Figes, historian and author of The Crimean War (2012) and his new book, The Story of Russia (2022), in a fascinating discussion of Russian history and ideas about Russian history.Together, they examine the 19th century Crimean War and the powerful light that the Crimean War, 170 years ago, sheds on the current conflict in Ukraine. More generally, Sachs and Figes explore Russia’s complex relationship with the West, and the ideas that Russian and Western thinkers and politicians have held about Western-Russian international relations throughout history.The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.Footnotes:Books by Orlando FigesCrimean WarVladimir PutinAnti-Russian SentimentNicolas II of RussiaWars Involving RussiaOttoman EmpireTreaty of Paris 1856Lord Palmerston The Crimean War Crises of 1853Anglo-Russian WarForeign Policy of the Russian EmpireMikhail GorbachevSoviet UnionAnnexation of CrimeaUkraine War Nikita KhrushchevCossacksRussian OligarchsNATO⭐️ Thank you for listening!➡️ Sign up for the newsletter: https://bit.ly/subscribeBCJS➡️ Website: bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org 🎉 Don't forget to subscribe and share your favorite episode with your friends! 📣 Leave a rating and tell us what you thought about this episode!

Send us a textIn this special episode, join Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa, and Professor K. Srinath Reddy for their discussion of The Lancet Commission Report on lessons for the future from the COVID-19 pandemic. Together, they discuss the background to the Commission and the key findings after two years of research. They discuss the possible origins of the virus that causes Covid-19, SARS-CoV-2; including the possibilities that the virus emerged from laboratory research or from an infected animal in the marketplace. They discuss failures of international cooperation and national public-health policy-making - failures that have contributed to 18 million deaths worldwide from Covid-19.  Most importantly, they discuss the Commission’s recommendations for the future on how to prevent or confront future global health emergencies, most importantly by strengthening WHO as the core pillar of global policy.The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.⭐️ Thank you for listening!➡️ Sign up for the newsletter: https://bit.ly/subscribeBCJS➡️ Website: bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org 🎉 Don't forget to subscribe and share your favorite episode with your friends! 📣 Leave a rating and tell us what you thought about this episode!

Send us a textJoin Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Professor Christopher Blattman, to explore the dynamics of war and peace as they discuss Blattman’s, Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace.  In his newest book, Blattman argues that violence is not the norm; that there are five reasons why wars break out; and how peacemakers can draw on these reasons to prevent and stop wars. Together, they explore the dynamics of war and peace: how communities resolve conflicts, and why such efforts sometimes fail, leading to war. As conflict rages in Ukraine, listen in on this timely and vital conversation to learn more about “Why We Fight" and how we can end wars. The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.Footnotes:Mao ZedongUkraine War Clausewitz: War as Politics by other MeansMilitary History of RussiaThe Rise of Personalist RuleWashington as Land SpeculatorFrench and Indian WarPerpetual Peace: A Philosophical SketchSemi-sovereigntyGame TheoryReversed Industrialization StalemateThucydides TrapThe Peloponnesian WarNATOWar of Attrition Frozen Conflict AutocratVietnam WarVolodymyr ZelenskyyUnited Nations Security ⭐️ Thank you for listening!➡️ Sign up for the newsletter: https://bit.ly/subscribeBCJS➡️ Website: bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org 🎉 Don't forget to subscribe and share your favorite episode with your friends! 📣 Leave a rating and tell us what you thought about this episode!