March 1, 2022

This is a recorded lecture from 2015 by Professor John Mearsheimer. In the perspective of what has just happened with and in Ukraine, this is simply prophetic. Here is a rather complex set of intertwined arguments that makes an incredibly clear-headed analysis – and warning.

No decision-makers listened and thus, we are where we are today.

Mearsheimer is in many ways a classical Realist thinker. It’s indeed deplorable that that approach – combined with tremendous knowledge and great skills at conveying it all in a delightfully pedagogical manner – has become so rare and that those who operate US/NATO/EU politics these very days would hardly be able to understand what he is saying – and much less, take in his analysis. Because, as he also hints somewhere – “we” know better and “we” never did anything wrong!

And, so: Why listen to knowledge-based critics?

Now sit down. Listen to these 74 minutes of splendid American scholarship that the “gang” in Washington and Brussels wouldn’t even know how to respond to. It’s been seen by over 12 million people, liked by 130 000 – and disliked by none.

  causes of the Ukraine conflict, John Mearsheimer