Ep 254: Frank Gavin on History and Statecraft

Frank Gavin, Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and Director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins University SAIS and author of Thinking Historically: A Guide to Statecraft and Strategy, joins the show to discuss the promise and perils of using history to guide today’s statecraft.

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Times

02:20 Political Science vs. History

05:37 The Importance of Historical Thinking

08:13 Historical Interpretation

11:22 Counterfactuals 

14:26 The Misuse of History in Policy Making

17:19 Thinking in Time

22:27 Errors When Thinking Historically

31:57 Putin’s View of History

40:01 Philosophical Understanding

47:05 Does History Have a Direction?

53:34 A Checklist for Historical Thinking

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