86. Professor Christopher Coyne - Monsters, Empires, and Illusions of Peace: Navigating the Perils of American Interventionism

Today, I spoke with Dr Christopher Coyne, who is a Professor of Economics at George Mason University and the Associate Director of the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center.

He is the author of five books and numerous academic articles, book chapters, and policy studies. He joins me today to discuss his latest book, In Search of Monsters to Destroy: The Folly of American Empire and the Paths to Peace (2022), which is a pragmatic and unashamedly critical appraisal of American foreign policy.

Some of the things we talked about are:

• Chris’ background and entry into academia and
• How and why training in economics shaped Chris’ worldview
• Importance of understanding incentives and their power
• An argument against the concept of a 'Hobbesian world'
• Definition of the American Empire and its governance of 'dominion'
• Dangers of crony capitalism and its ties to the Military Industrial Complex
• Issues with broken or non-existent chains of accountability
• Concerns surrounding the 'revolving door' principle
• Origins of US militarism and the Permanent War Economy
• Military Keynesianism and the 'Iron Triangle'
• Limitations and unintended consequences of American interventionism
• Unpredictability of complex systems
• Impact of technological advances and the shift from 'defence' to 'offence'
• Exploring alternatives to war

Previous episodes that address similar topics and were referenced in this discussion include:

• Samuel Moyn - On ‘Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War‘
• Marc Garlasco - War through the eyes of a Pentagon Chief of High Value Targeting
• Amos Fox - Beyond the illusion of manoeuvre: Navigating the clash between intentions and reality in modern warfare