Additional public intellectuals: Stephen Kotkin, Zvi Mowshowitz, Greg Cochran. A point about public intellectuals: in many fields you can only settle for specialists, but you need to be a specialist in a given field to know which specialist is worthy of trust--a point Machiavelli made forcefully in The Prince. As the case of Paul Samuelson demonstrates, the most influential guy in the field isn't necessarily the wisest. The discussion of American defense policy was too vague to be of much use. A major problem is that America is falling behind in some areas of defense tech, especially drones. American surface naval vessels are likely too vulnerable to Chinese ballistic missiles to function in a Pacific war. Another issue is that a conventional warfare defense of Taiwan is increasingly untenable given the differential logistical challenges the two sides face.
The world's greatest living philosopher is Alasdair MacIntyre.
Mead is absolutely correct, our military and foreign policy has been a catastrophe since the end of the Cold War.
Additional public intellectuals: Stephen Kotkin, Zvi Mowshowitz, Greg Cochran.
A point about public intellectuals: in many fields you can only settle for specialists, but you need to be a specialist in a given field to know which specialist is worthy of trust--a point Machiavelli made forcefully in The Prince. As the case of Paul Samuelson demonstrates, the most influential guy in the field isn't necessarily the wisest.
The discussion of American defense policy was too vague to be of much use. A major problem is that America is falling behind in some areas of defense tech, especially drones. American surface naval vessels are likely too vulnerable to Chinese ballistic missiles to function in a Pacific war. Another issue is that a conventional warfare defense of Taiwan is increasingly untenable given the differential logistical challenges the two sides face.