Scott interviews Richard Hanania of Defense Priorities. They discuss the reality of how the American military’s presence impacts global events. Hanania argues that, if it were true that the U.S. was out there defending its allies, you’d expect those countries to want U.S. troops present more than the U.S. wants to have troops stationed there. But in reality, we often find the opposite. Hanania also gives the reasons he thinks China is all but certain to become the dominant power in East Asia but that right-wing fears over a global Chinese takeover are overblown. 

Discussed on the show:

• “Phantom Empire” (Defense Priorities)
• “The Inevitable Rise Of China” (Defense Priorities)
• “Nord Stream II Sanctions Are Not About Security” (The American Conservative)
• Public Choice Theory and the Illusion of Grand Strategy by Richard Hanania
• “China has been a failure at hegemony, so let’s just chill” (Responsible Statecraft)

Richard Hanania is a research fellow at Defense Priorities and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University. His work focuses on political psychology, the causes of civil war, and the effects of interest groups on U.S. foreign policy. Follow him on Twitter @RichardHanania

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State and Why The Vietnam War?, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; EasyShip; Free Range Feeder; Thc Hemp Spot; Green Mill Supercritical; Bug-A-Salt and Listen and Think Audio.

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Robert Murphy, scholar at the Mises Institute and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal, discusses the large amount of government spending relative to GNP, calls for dictatorial government power in the face of epic incompetence, the disagreement on whether the Fed’s increased money supply will cause price inflation and how Bernanke’s actions (assuming good intentions) can’t be adequately explained by any major economic discipline.

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