Conversations with History: Jack F. Matlock Jr.
2024 ж. 22 Мам.
4 060 Рет қаралды
In this edition, UC Berkeley's Harry Kreisler talks with Ambassador Jack Matlock who served as the last U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union. Ambassador Matlock offers his reflections on the fall of the Soviet Union, the policies of the Reagan administration, and how students should prepare for the future. Series: Conversations with History [Humanities] [Show ID: 7980]
The overall strategy of forcing arms controls via a hypthetical arms race (SDI) within the global framework of 'containment' sounds realistic. His view on a more loosely _federalized_ Russian sphere of influence - e.g. in regard to _an independent, neutral_ Ukraine - is also grounded in aquaintance with the history of the region (unlike current US diplomats who pick the episodic 'Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth' as the origin of Ukrainian identity). Matlock also makes a solid argument that the United States and _any state_ that isn't driven by idealizing ideology on the Russian territory won't have a conflict of interest - although Halford Mackinder who helped to define strategy within the British Empire constructed Russia a major problem to maritime powers, seated overseas to Asia. He could have addressed the mission of NATO in the absence of a Soviet Union as an anchronism, postulating the need for completely novel alliance system, to keep the European powers from turning against another - as the *OSCE* offered such an approach ('no shift of the status quo if that violates already established security interests'), which could have been solved by institutionalizing a neutral, solely defensive 'Visegrad' buffer. 'International terrorism' isn't an existential threat to states if not backed up by state actors - as historically, political terror usually is (e.g. the Carbonari, opposing Austrian influence in Italy). Whether Russia's orientation toward China will 'work out' - as a response to a most aggressive NATO expansion - will be proven within this generation... The same way Matlock appears deluded by liberal 'totalitarianism theory', ignoring inconsistencies within 'oligarchic parliamentarism' - although he's right about the necessity of pluralistic discourse and basic civil rights as stabilizing societies. In the same time Matlock displays an _elitism_ in which the public can only grasp international relations as a 'soccer game' (why would there be any actual soccer games, then ?) while diplomates can mediate between national interests. If the electorate shouldn't have a say in scrutinizing and defining national interest and negotiating international policies, why have elections at all ? Either 'commoners' can be taught political realism and foreign cultures and their long standing interests in college courses or the country is to be run by a 'camarilla'... His argument on 'timing' in politics, however is memorable - so is his recommendation of 'liberal arts', the medieval 'trivium' of convincing someone of the plausibility of an argument and his reservations to mere 'theoriticians' (e.g. a 'political science' that can't predict _anything_ for a practical purpose like economic productivity of the Soviets or the scale and impact of corruption and social alienation). 30:30 I don't get the suggestion about Boris Yeltsin being 'very talented' - _at all_ ... Is he known for any savy domestic policy, apart from being 'Washington's Man in Moscow' who dissolved the Soviet Union ? In the end, if someone like Jack Matlock is _the very best_ , US diplomacy could muster for assessing international affairs and Russia's interests and and potential, then God may have mercy on America...
2022 Feb 25 you know what is happening now and the future might know what has happened then.
big fan of this guy.
very important post! even with whats going on today!!
Pretty important post, especially since Russia and the US are having trouble agreeing on a lot of things.
I think that any student of history or politics from a post-soviet state will find this post very interesting. At least I did. :)
Reagan chose well.