Professor Stephen Walt comes on the show to talk about his new book on American foreign policy. He explains the doctrine of “foreign policy realism,” which tries to objectively evaluate the consequences of military endeavors, and not focus excessively on the morality of stopping bad people across the world. For example, if the United States keeps trying to remake the Middle East, the unintended victims tend to want retribution, no matter how noble the intentions of spreading liberalism were. Of course, it’s not even a given that American intentions are noble to begin with, which Scott presses Walt on. Walt goes on to discuss his idea of “offshore balancing.”

Discussed on the show:

• The Hell of Good Intentions: America’s Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy
• Henry Kissinger
• Arab Spring
• Likud Party

Stephen Walt is Professor of International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School, and the author of Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy. He is a regular contributor to ForeignPolicy.com. Follow him on Twitter @stephenWalt.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Kesslyn Runs, by Charles Featherstone; NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Roberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.; Zen Cash; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; and LibertyStickers.com.

Check out Scott’s Patreon page.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download