The Secrets of Statecraft
Hoover Institution
Secrets of Statecraft is a bimonthly podcast hosted by Distinguished Visiting Fellow Andrew Roberts that explores the effect that the study of history has had on the careers and decision making of public figures. The podcast also features leading historians discussing the influence that the study of history had on their biographical subjects. The title is taken from Winston Churchill’s reply on Coronation Day 1953 to a young American who had asked him for life advice, to whom he said, “Study history, study history, for therein lie all the secrets of statecraft.”
Episodes
Mentioned books
Apr 11, 2022 • 23min
Dambisa Moyo Finds Echoes of the Gilded Age
Zambian-born and Harvard- and Oxford-educated economist Dambisa Moyo is the author of several important books on the interaction between finance and statecraft. Here she examines America’s Gilded Age, and finds a surprising number of comparisons with our own.
Mar 31, 2022 • 1h 14min
A Masterclass In History from Dr. Henry Kissinger
How does having made history affect one’s view of the past? The wry yet still spry 98-year-old Henry Kissinger talks about Richard Nixon, Clemens von Metternich, the Chinese view of the 19th century, why Russia invaded Ukraine, and the influence of history on his life and career.
Mar 17, 2022 • 40min
Christopher Buckley on The History of the Social Faux Pas
In this episode of Secrets of Statecraft, actual historian Andrew Roberts talks to humorist and self-appointed “historian” Christopher Buckley about the faux pas and its celebrated and checkered past. This episode is brimming with witty repartee and hilarious anecdotes featuring several historically significant figures, and not one faux pas (that we know about ).
6 snips
Mar 7, 2022 • 48min
The View From Next Door: John O’Sullivan on the War in Ukraine
John O’Sullivan runs the Danube Institute in Budapest, Hungary. From this vantage point (Hungary shares a common border with Ukraine), he has special insights on the conflict across the border in Ukraine and on the use of statecraft to find a resolution to the conflict.
Mar 3, 2022 • 46min
Secrets Of Statecraft: What The Greeks And Romans Can Teach Us According to Victor Davis Hanson
A surprising aspect of human nature during warfare is its immutability over the millennia, as classical scholar and Hoover Institution fellow Victor Davis Hanson shows in our discussion about the Peloponnesian War and the Roman Empire. He illustrates what 5th Century BC Greece can tell us about invasions, charismatic leadership, national honor and courageous resistance today.
7 snips
Feb 24, 2022 • 55min
The Education of General David Petraeus
An important part of statecraft is learning from the past, and in my first podcast I ask General David Petraeus, who commanded the US-led coalition in Iraq and Afghanistan and was director of the CIA, what he learned about the Vietnam War from his PhD studies at Princeton that helped him in the war against terror.
