Dear thinkers:
Earlier today, Tim talked with Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer, two former senior national security aides to President Biden on their new show, “The Long Game.:
They began with Iran — and, specifically, the power the United States has effectively surrendered through this war. As Tim put it during the conversation: “We’ve lost this war, and we lost it a long time ago.” The deeper question, he argued, is not simply how leaders can be so incompetent, but how we build institutions and a political culture that make radically incompetent leadership impossible.
If you'd like to read more on this theme, Tim explored it further in his recent essays, Utopias of Violence and Capitulation Day.
The conversation then turned to Ukraine: where the war stands today, why Russia is failing to achieve its objectives, the remarkable technological innovations Ukraine has developed under pressure, and what the Trump administration continues to misunderstand about the conflict. Tim also highlighted two organizations doing vital work in support of Ukraine: United24 and Razom.
They concluded with a discussion of freedom — a subject Tim examines at length in his book On Freedom. One of the central ideas is that freedom cannot simply be freedom from something. We must also strive for freedom to, creating the conditions and world that will lead to true freedom.
It was a thoughtful and wide-ranging conversation, and one that speaks directly to many of the challenges facing democracies today.
Until next time,
Victor
