Ep 254: Frank Gavin on History and Statecraft

School of War

Dec 05, 2025•54 min

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Episode description

Frank Gavin, Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and Director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins University SAIS and author of Thinking Historically: A Guide to Statecraft and Strategy, joins the show to discuss the promise and perils of using history to guide today’s statecraft.

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Times

02:20 Political Science vs. History

05:37 The Importance of Historical Thinking

08:13 Historical Interpretation

11:22 Counterfactuals

14:26 The Misuse of History in Policy Making

17:19 Thinking in Time

22:27 Errors When Thinking Historically

31:57 Putin’s View of History

40:01 Philosophical Understanding

47:05 Does History Have a Direction?

53:34 A Checklist for Historical Thinking

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