Eliot A. Cohen

I'm Eric Edelman, counselor at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, non-resident fellow at the Miller Center.

I'm usually joined in all things strategery and jackassery by my partner, Elliot Cohen, professor emeritus of strategy at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and also a contributing writer to The Atlantic.

Elliot, is in Israel.

We hope to record with him from Israel.

We did a show recently with a New York Times magazine writer, Janet Reitman, who has a new book out called called The Inheritance, An American Tragedy in Five Acts, which is a history of the United States post 9-11.

And even more conservative Americans like another recent guest on the show, Eliot Cohen, a former figure in the Bush White House, who has a new book out, The Strategist, seems to be rather pessimistic about America's place in the world.

We are talking about America's place in the world today, but in a more historical context with one of America's leading historians.

He's not American.

I'm Eric Edelman, counselor at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and non-resident fellow at the Miller Center.

I'm joined by my partner in all things strategery, Elliot Cohen, professor emeritus of strategy at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a contributing writer to The Atlantic.

Elliot, how are you?

Basically, I'm very good.

How did the United States get into yet another war in which it doesn't seem to have an exit strategy? What explains the nature of a war in Iran and what might be an end to it? Similarly, how is it that Russia underestimated Ukraine's resolve to fight back? And what does that foretell about the conflict in Eastern Europe? Well, my guest today argues that to understand these questions, we really have to understand the nature of military strategy, why it is so hard to use military force effectively, and how it is that political leaders can ask themselves better, clearer, harder questions before they do so.

That guest is Eliot Cohen.

Eliot was the dean of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, where I teach, and is now the Ali A. Berk Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

He has a really interesting new book out called The Strategist, How to Think About War and Politics.

In the part of this conversation reserved for paying subscribers, we talked about why it is that the United States has often failed to have the right kind of strategy in its wars, and whether the record of American foreign policy in the last 50 or 60 years is as bleak as I make it out to be.

To listen to our disagreement about this subject, to support the work we do here and get full access to all of our podcasts, please go to writingtojaschamunk.com and become a paying subscriber.

That's writingtojaschamunk.com. Eliot Cohen, welcome to the podcast.

Yascha, it's great to see you again.

A lot of surprises, uh, in there.

Uh, uh, I'm with, uh, Elliot Cohen, uh, a, a, a commentator who, who teaches, uh, at, uh, Johns Hopkins SAIS and, uh, is a very experienced observer of Washington who notes as, as much as the-- you'd may dislike aspects of the, the, the strategy, there's some points that are, that are probably right.

Um, for example, um, the, this over-shift toward the Western Hemisphere, uh, has brought gunboat diplomacy, quite literally, uh, with the case of firing them out of the water.

And parts of that seem to me to be illegal.

On, and back, and people, as I mentioned, the Democratic South earlier, the, the people have complained about that.

They have complained about it, and, and, and rightly so.

So, you know, the, the, um... that's something that, uh, thoughtful people should say, "Yeah, the, the... we should pay more attention to our, our, our hemisphere section." Uh, Elliot Cohen not- noted talking about, um, Africa, that we've s- focused so much on big humanitarian projects and things that run through the very corrupt, uh, state apparatus in Africa, and not enough on, on market change, on, on driving economic development and making that the center of, of American policy.

That's, that's a welcome change.

Yep.

"A masterful guide to the art and discipline of strategy that draws on Eliot Cohen's exceptional, hard-earned wisdom." So you, uh, you've, you've...

He doesn't, uh, he doesn't, uh, owe you anything anymore, does he? [laughs]

Well, no, he, he, he never did.

Um, and, and there, there is this desire just, "Can't we just not, you know, not ha- bother thinking about these things?" That's not the way the world works, and it will come knocking on your door.

And so, you know, most of all, I, I hope that we have a generation of politicians who, however much they wanna change direction from the Trump years, understand that they're gonna face some of the same problems and face some of the same very, very difficult choices.

Well, there you have it, as, uh, as Eliot Cohen suggested, "You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you." That's one of the, the pearls of wisdom from his new book, The Strategist: How to Think About War and Politics.

As he says, it's a short book, so no excuses for any, uh, 2028 presidential candidates who happen to be watching.

Welcome to a new episode of Ask Haviv Anything.

Uh, it is my pleasure to introduce today, uh, first time on the podcast, Elliot Kaufman.

Elliot Kaufman is a Wall Street Journal editorial board member and co-author of a new book, In the War Room: The Inside Story of Israel's Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Axis.

He wrote In the War Room with Yona Jeremy Bob, The Jerusalem Post senior military correspondent.

It's an excellent, uh, uh, blow-by-blow, uh, of the war, but we're also going to take a step back from it and look at some of the larger issues that are raised there.

Uh, so I'm very glad that Elliot is here with me.

Uh, I am also proud to share with you that this episode is sponsored by Tikvah's Millstone Scholars program.

Um, uh, that's of the Tikvah Fund, a unique program designed for those middle school years when young people begin deciding what they believe and who they want to become.