Stalin Was Rubbing His Hands in Glee

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In America, support for Zionism was pretty strong. So when Britain is seen as banning Jewish desperate survivors of Nazi concentration camps, this was so damaging to US-British relations that Stalin was rubbing his hands in Glee. The fact that the British were basically unable to prevent the rise of a Jewish state in Palestine, radicalized Arab public opinion throughout the Middle East and everywhere undermined the British imperial position. Do you watch Israeli TV? If so, what do you learn from it? Share your story with CNN iReport.

A leading expert in foreign policy, Walter Russell Mead believes his lack of a PhD—and interest in actually going places—has helped him avoid academic silos and institutional groupthink that’s rendered the field ineffective for decades. Mead’s latest book, which explores the American-Israeli relationship, is characteristically wide-ranging and multidisciplinary, resulting in “less a history of U.S.-Israel policy than a sweeping and masterfully told history of U.S. foreign policy in general”, according to a New York Times review.

He joined Tyler to discuss how the decline of American religiosity has influenced US foreign policy, which American presidents best and least understood the Middle East, the shrewd reasons Stalin supported Israel, the Saudi secret to political stability, the fate of Pakistan, the most likely scenario for China moving on Taiwan, the gun pointed at the head of German business, the US’s “murderous fetishization of ideology over reality” in Sub-Saharan Africa, the inherent weakness in having a foreign policy establishment dominated by academics, what he learned from attending the Groton School, and much more.

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Recorded August 31st, 2022 Other ways to connect

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