IR Talk

IR Talk is a podcast on the history, theory, and practice of international relations. Each week, Elan Kluger, a high school student passionate about international relations interviews a historian, lawyer, ambassador, political scientist, or someone else somehow involved in international relations. Listen along for inside look into the way international relations actually works.

S2 E13: Bonus Episode - The uses of history with Professor Daniel Sargent

Professor Sargent is an Associate Professor of History at the University of California at Berkeley, where he holds a dual appointment with the history department and the Goldman School of Public Policy. Professor Sargent is the author of the brilliant A Superpower Transformed: The Remaking of American Foreign Relations in the 1970s. The following are books and articles pertinent to our conversation today: Forum on the Importance of the Scholarship of Ernest May A Superpower Transformed: The Remaking of American Foreign Relations in the 1970s Pax Americana: Sketches for an Undiplomatic History Myths of Empire: Domestic Politics and International Ambition The Origins of Alliances Rebecca Herman

03-03
54:21

S2 E15: Bonus Episode - Henry Kissinger with Professor Jeremi Suri

Professor Jeremi Suri holds the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of numerous books including Henry Kissinger and the American Century, The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America's Highest Office and many other excellent works. The following are books and articles pertinent to our conversation today: Henry Kissinger and the American Century The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America's Highest Office Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Détente Liberty's Surest Guardian: American Nation-Building from the Founders to Obama

04-21
45:47

S2 E14: Bonus Episode - Israel's Moment with Professor Jeffrey Herf

Note: This episode was recorded on March 3, 2022 so any reference to political events are from that time.  Professor Jeffrey is distinguished professor of history at the University of Maryland. He is the author of numerous books on Germany as well as Israel, including Undeclared Wars with Israel: East Germany and the West German Far Left 1967-1989, and his latest Israel’s Moment: International Support for and Opposition to Establishing the Jewish State, 1945-1949 which was published on April 14th, the release date of this episode. The following are books and articles pertinent to our conversation today: Israel's Moment: International Support for and Opposition to Establishing the Jewish State, 1945–1949 Putin’s Continuities: From ‘Israelis as Nazis’ to ‘Denazifying’ Ukraine (Times of Israel) Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World Reactionary Modernism: Technology, Culture, and Politics in Weimar and the Third Reich Undeclared Wars with Israel: East Germany and the West German Far Left, 1967–1989

04-14
53:18

S2 E12: Bonus Episode - The End of Ambition with Professor Mark Atwood Lawrence

Professor Lawrence is the Director of the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum in Austin, Texas, as well an Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author and editor of numerous books including The Vietnam War: A Concise International History, and The End of Ambition: The United States and the Third World in the Vietnam Era which is the subject of our conversation this week. The following are books and articles pertinent to our conversation today: The End of Ambition The Vietnam War: A Concise International History Assuming the Burden: Europe and the American Commitment to War in Vietnam Mission Intolerable: Harrison Salisbury's Trip to Hanoi and the Limits of Dissent against the Vietnam War Too Late or Too Soon? Debating the Withdrawal from Vietnam in the Age of Iraq

02-17
45:24

S2 E11: Season 2 Finale

This is the finale for Season 2 of IR Talk. Tune in for every answer to the question of "Did Athenians Students in the time of the Peloponnesian War know more than current students?"  Make sure to look out for a few bonus episodes that will be released during the next few weeks!

01-13
31:17

S2 E10: German-Israeli Relations 1949-1969 with Professor Lorena De Vita

Professor Lorena De Vita is an Assistant Professor in the History of International Relations at the University of Utrecht. She is the author of Israelpolitik: German-Israeli Relations, 1949-1969. The following are books and articles pertinent to our conversation today:  Israelpolitik: German–Israeli Relations, 1949-69 New Bottles for New Wine: A Pericentric Framework for the Study of the Cold War Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi Persecution and the Quest for Justice  After the Berlin Wall: Memory and the Making of the New Germany, 1989 to the Present Jena Center for 20th Century History The Richard Koebner Minerva Center for German History

01-06
37:19

S2 E9: Economic Diplomacy and International Adoption with Dr. Diane Kunz

Dr. Diane Kunz is the Executive Director of the Center for Adoption Policy. She has also taught diplomatic history at Yale, Columbia, and Duke. Prior to her diplomatic history work, Dr. Kunz was a corporate lawyer, working at White & Case and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. She is the author of numerous books including Butter and Guns: The Economic Diplomacy of the Cold War and a forthcoming work on the diplomatic, economic, and social history of US international adoption. The following are books and articles pertinent to our conversation today: Butter and Guns: America's Cold War Economic Diplomacy The Economic Diplomacy of the Suez Crisis The Battle for Britain's Gold Standard in 1931 Center for Adoption Policy Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Political Biography The Republic of Vietnam, 1955–1975: Vietnamese Perspectives on Nation Building

12-16
47:57

S2 E8: James & Sarah Polk and the Mexican-American War with Professor Amy Greenberg

Professor Amy Greenberg is the George Winfree Professor of History and Women's Studies at Pennsylvania State University. She is the author of numerous books including A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico and Lady First: The World of First Lady Sarah Polk. The following are books and articles pertinent to our conversation: Lady First: The World of First Lady Sarah Polk A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico James K. Polk, Vol. 1: Jacksonian, 1795-1843 James K. Polk, Volume II: Continentalist, 1843-1846 Our Sister Republics: The United States in an Age of American Revolutions The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789 Met His Every Goal? James K. Polk and the Legends of Manifest Destiny

12-09
34:23

S2 E7: Brent Scowcroft and the National Security Council with Professor Bartholomew Sparrow

Professor Bartholomew Sparrow is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of numerous books including The Strategist: Brent Scowcroft and the Call of National Security which is the subject of our conversation this week. The following are books and articles pertinent to our conversation today: The Strategist: Brent Scowcroft and the Call of National Security The National Security Council Jacob Burckhardt Uncertain Guardians: The News Media as a Political Institution

12-02
42:33

S2 E4: Dual Citizenship with Professor Peter Spiro

Professor Peter J. Spiro is the Charles R. Weiner Professor of Law at the Beasley School of Law at Temple University. He is the author of numerous books on citizenship and international law including At Home in Two Countries, the subject of our conversation today. The following are books and articles pertinent to our conversation today: At Home in Two Countries The New Sovereigntists: American Exceptionalism and Its False Prophets Citizenship by Dimitry Kochenov Morton Halperin Charles Maier Robert Keohane

11-04
40:35

S2 E3: The Life and Times of Arthur Schlesinger Jr. with Richard Aldous

Professor Richard Aldous is the Eugene Meyer Professor of British History at Bard College. Prior to that, he taught for 15 years at University College Dublin, where he was the chair of the history department. He's the author of numerous books including works on Reagan and Thatcher's relationship, a dual biography of Disraeli and Gladstone and the subject of our conversation Schlesinger: The Imperial Historian. The following are books and articles pertinent to our conversation today: Schlesinger: The Imperial Historian Journals: 1952-2000 The Age of Jackson Orestes Brownson: A Pilgrim's Progress  The Age of Roosevelt A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House Perils of the Court Historian Patrick Geoghegan The Secret Life of the Savoy: and the D'Oyly Carte family Operation Moonglow: A Political History of Project Apollo The Fiume Crisis: Life in the Wake of the Habsburg Empire A Question of Leadership

10-28
40:49

S2 E2: The Virgin, the Dynamo, and Henry Adams with Professor David Brown

Professor David Brown is the Horace E. Raffensperger professor of history at Elizabethtown College. The following books and people are pertinent to this episode: Richard Hofstadter: An Intellectual Biography The Idea of the Two Party System The American Political Tradition and the Men Who Made It Everyman His Own Historian The Last American Aristocrat: The Brilliant Life and Improbable Education of Henry Adams The History of United States During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison The Education of Henry Adams Mont Saint Michel and Chartres The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma The Law of Civilization and Decay James Finley

10-21
37:46

S2 E1: Scientific History and Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. with Professor Luke Nichter

Professor Luke Nichter is a Professor of History and James H. Cavanaugh Endowed Chair in Presidential Studies at Chapman University. The following books and articles are pertinent to this episode: The Last Brahmin: Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. and the Making of the Cold War White House Years by Henry Kissinger IR Talk Episode with Professor Thomas Schwartz Richard Nixon and Europe: The Reshaping of the Postwar Atlantic World  

10-14
57:07

Season 2 Trailer

Thank you for listening!  To leave a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts here is the link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ir-talk/id1566057626 My email address is: elankluger@gmail.com The video for the "Daisy" Ad can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riDypP1KfOU

10-07
02:30

Ep. 8 Season Finale

This is the final of season 1. Make sure to leave a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts and see you in mid August 2021 for the beginning of season 2. 

07-29
02:03

Ep. 7 History, George Kennan, and Grand Strategy with Professor John Lewis Gaddis

Professor John Lewis Gaddis is the Robert A. Lovett chair of Naval and Military History at Yale University. He has received the Bancroft Prize, Pulitzer Prize, and National Humanities Medal. The following are his books and articles mentioned and alluded to in the podcast: The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past George F. Kennan: An American Life On Grand Strategy Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy during the Cold War The United States and the Origins of the Cold War 1941-1947 Expanding the Data Base: Historians, Political Scientists, and the Enrichment of Security Studies The Long Peace: Elements of Stability in the Postwar International System International Relations Theory and the End of the Cold War

07-22
52:24

Ep. 6 The History and Politics of Trade with Dr. William Bernstein

Dr. William Bernstein is a trained neurologist and writes and advises on finance. He is the author of numerous books including A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World which is the subject of our conversation.

07-08
32:49

Ep. 5 The Life of Henry Kissinger with Professor Thomas A. Schwartz

Professor Thomas A. Schwartz is a distinguished professor of history at Vanderbilt University. He also holds appointments as professor of political science and professor of European studies at that institution. He is the author most recently of Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Political Biography, which is the subject of our conversation. For further information on Henry Kissinger see this Encyclopedia Britannica entry: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Kissinger

06-24
43:47

Ep. 4 The Life and Faith of John Foster Dulles with Professor John Wilsey

Professor John Wilsey teaches church history at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of three books, One Nation Under God: An Evangelical Critique of Christian America, American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion: Reassessing the History of an Idea and God's Cold Warrior: The Life and Faith of John Foster Dulles which is the subject of our conversation.

06-10
39:44

Ep. 3 The Grand Strategy of Charles Hill with Professor Molly Worthen

Professor Molly Worthen of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researches and teaches American religious history. She is the author of two books, Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism and The Man on Whom Nothing was Lost: The Grand Strategy of Charles Hill.  In the podcast we discuss the life of the subject of Professor Worthen's biography, Charles Hill.  Important Links: The Death of a Grand Strategist The Man on Whom Nothing Was Lost: The Grand Strategy of Charles Hill Grand Strategies: Literature, Statecraft, and World Order Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism

05-27
44:17

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