The Axis of Chaos, with Matt Pottinger | GoodFellows: John H. Cochrane, Niall Ferguson, H.R. McMaster, and Bill Whalen | Hoover Institution - podcast episode cover

The Axis of Chaos, with Matt Pottinger | GoodFellows: John H. Cochrane, Niall Ferguson, H.R. McMaster, and Bill Whalen | Hoover Institution

May 31, 202448 minEp. 129
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Episode description

A new “cold war” presents a familiar challenge for America: how to curb a rival great power’s ambitions. Matt Pottinger, a Hoover Institution visiting fellow and editor of the forthcoming book The Boiling Moat: Urgent Steps to Defend Taiwan, joins Hoover senior fellows Niall Ferguson, John Cochrane, and H.R. McMaster to discuss how best to discourage China from moving on its island neighbor. After that: the fellows debate the wisdom of the UK’s fast-tracked national election; plus what, if anything, has surprised them during this year’s round of episodes (spoiler alert: plenty of chickens—bad policies, poorly run universities—came home to roost).

Transcript

Hi, this is Bill Whelan, the host of Goodfellows. Thanks for listening to the audio version of the show, but we wanted to let you know that Goodfellows is primarily a video production, and you're missing a lot of extra features by only listening to our show. Give it a look by going to hoover.org forward slash Goodfellows to see what you're missing. Thanks. You are about to embark upon the great crusade toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you.

The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory. Good luck, and let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking. It's Wednesday, May 29, 2024, and welcome back to Goodfellows, a Hoover Institution broadcast examining social, economic, political, and economic issues.

I'm Bill Whalen. I'm a Hoover Distinguished Policy Fellow. I'll be your moderator today, joined by our full complement of Goodfellows, the historian Neil Ferguson, the economist John Cochran, and former Presidential National Security Advisor, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster. They all are Hoover Institution Senior Fellows. And joining us today, returning to Goodfellows, is Matt Pottinger.

Matt is a Hoover Institution Distinguished Visiting Fellow and a former senior staffer at the White House's National Security Council, where he survived somehow under the brutal, and the yoke of one H.R. McMaster. Prior to his White House service, Mr. Pottinger was a reporter based in China, working for Reuters and the Wall Street Journal. He also fought in Iraq and Afghanistan as a U.S. Marine during three combat deployments between 2007 and 2010.

Matt Pottinger joins us to discuss a Hoover Institution Press Book he's edited on the topic of China and deterrence. It's titled "The Boiling Moat: Urgent Steps to Defend Taiwan." Its release date is July 1st, but you can pre-order it now at hoover.org. Matt, welcome back to Goodfellows.

Matt Pottinger

Bill, thanks for having me. It's great to see you all.

Bill Nye

So I got to ask you, Matt, you know, the McMaster book is coming out on the White House here, and I got to ask you, are you going to do the Washington thing and get it and go to the back and look for your name and see what he said about you?

Matt Pottinger

I lived it. I don't even have to do the Washington read. I was there. But I'm really looking forward to his book coming out.

Bill Nye

H.R., did you go easy on him? H.R. Oh, hey, Matt, I'll tell you, Matt deserves credit, and I give him credit for affecting the most significant, being the driving force behind the most significant shift in U.S. foreign policy, since the end of the Cold War. And that's the shift from cooperation and engagement with the Chinese Communist Party to competition. And there's nobody better than Matt to write about how to deter a war from occurring over Taiwan.

And Matt, congratulations on The Boiling Moat. Tremendous book at exactly the right time. Matt, let's talk about deterrence. I'm an old man who grew up in Cold War I, not Cold War II, as Neil Ferguson has coined it. So I'm used to talk about nuclear triads. And I'm used to talking about the war in China. And I'm used to talking about the war in China. And I'm used to talking about the war in China.

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