ChinaTalk

Today’s guest is the legendary strategist Edward Luttwak — the Machiavelli of Maryland. He’s consulted for presidents, prime ministers, and secretaries of defense, and authored magnificent books on Byzantine history, a guide to planning a successful coup, and an opus on the logic of strategy and the rise of China. He raises cows, too.

We recorded this episode in Feb of 2024.

Thanks to the Hudson Institute for sponsoring this episode.

Our conversation today covers…


Luttwak’s childhood and formative encounters with war, including an early fascination with the mafia in Sicily,


Technological step-changes in warfare,


Books that shaped Luttwak’s view of war, from Clausewitz to the Iliad,


The costs of “removing war from Europe” post-1945,


China’s strategic missteps,


The psychology of deterrence, including what kind of Middle East policy would actually deter Iran,


The strengths of democracies vs. autocracies.

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whole gang is here. Also a little Minnesota and 30 seconds of NDS (which is all it deserves)

suno: https://suno.com/s/SJ0FoEPMVZ3QS441

'He couldn’t capture Canada, but captured infamy—
The only general in history who failed at treason and geography!'
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Jon Czin, former CIA analyst and NSC staffer, returns to talk purges. We have far too much fun.

The disney take on PLA purges: https://suno.com/s/Wv1yQyxdUhWBzyA0

08:50 Deep read into the WSJ nuke traitor allegations

22:10 Xi getting paranoid?

26:13 Taiwan implications

32:38 Succession implications

45:55 It must really suck to work in Chinese politics
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Jasmine Sun of https://jasmi.news/ and Nathan Lambert of https://www.interconnects.ai/ report for duty. Athena makes a brief guest appearance before dipping for pilates.

Jordan's flower app: https://cut-from-the-masters.vercel.app/

Jordan's acting app: https://acting-trainer.vercel.app/

Jordan's mahjong trainer app: https://mazel-jong.vercel.app

Suno song: https://suno.com/s/BArMAm90qTxbupUz
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Bryan Clark (former submariner at Hudson), Eric Robinson, and Justin McIntosh report for duty.

Davos disco: https://suno.com/s/2SpR62beigk2JeDr
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