PodcastLessons from History for an Unstable World
Here’s what he said:
History almost never repeats itself. Therefore, you have to be very careful with all kinds of parallels or similarities.
Even though it has many problems and faults with it, we were used to a relatively stable world. That stability is now gone, and I don’t think it’s going to come back in our lifetime.
For a long time, it’s likely that the United States and China are going to be the most powerful poles within the multipolar system. But there are certainly others that are emerging very quickly.
Europe is in many ways a great power, but it’s a very one-sided great power – just like Japan is – with enormous economic potential and significance, but no significant military power.
It took, at least three generations before the suffering that was rooted in the First World War went away. […] It’s not just about what happens at the battlefield, disastrous as that was, it’s about the longer-term consequences.
Diplomacy […] will be much more significant in the time period that we are moving into now, if we are going to avoid a real clash among great powers that could lead to another world war.
