Mearsheimer and Walt on the BBC; and the best policy towards Iran
Writing by abuhatem on Saturday, 24 of November , 2007 at 4:45 am
So after a barrage of malicious and slanderous ad hominem attacks by The Washington Post, The New York Times, FoxNews, Foreign Affairs, and every other newspaper or news magazine in the country, Mearsheimer and Walt are out to promote their book in the UK. I discussed one of the strawman arguments here.
Mearsheimer and Walt today have an interview with the BBC! And it is definitely worth a read.
The interview with the BBC is pretty interesting, considering that these two scholars are two of the greatest minds alive in the world of international relations. With regard to war with Iran, Mearsheimer makes a very strong point - a halmark of balance of power theory of which I posted a few days ago:
With regard to your point that the United States and other countries should play hardball with Iran, that strategy effectively means keeping the military option on the table. However, as long as that option remains on the table, you are in effect giving the Iranians powerful incentives to acquire nuclear weapons of their own…
The great foreign policy scholar, and former National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, (who endorsed their book) argued the same case the other day on MSNBC’s Morning Joe:
Mearsheimer and Walt’s book is worth a read by everyone. You may not agree with all of their assertions, I certainly didn’t, but in regards with foreign policy they are a new refreshing force instead of the typical neocon hawks we are now so used to hearing. Mearsheimer and Walt are not isolationists, they are not non-interventionists, and they are foreign policy realists - meaning they support an extremely high defense budget, and American global supremacy. However, the understand the concept of blowback - which is essential in understanding the post-9/11 world.
I accept peace with Israel, and I blame the Palestinians and Arabs for most of their problems. None can say I am not independent, as I have shown various times concerning my numerous case-by-case positions on the issues on this blog. However, you have to be intellectually weak, or just plain lying, to state that the Israel lobby does not have vie for very significant influence in our foreign policy. Mearsheimer and Walt make the case, as do many others from all backgrounds. Israeli Jew Daniel Levy, of the Israeli daily, Ha’aretz, makes the best case for the book, and has an intelligent review here.
Category: International Relations
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