Special Guest: Brent Scowcroft
General Brent Scowcroft
Time Magazine’s Joe Klein called him Yoda. Having served in high-level national security-related advisory positions in every single Republican administration since Richard Nixon, General Brent Scowcroft anthropomorphically embodies the concept of “national defense” like no other. Today he joins Bellum for a lengthy interview covering a variety of topics, including:
- American exceptionalism
- whether we are like the British Empire
- preparing for future wars
- the difference between national problems (e.g., education) and national security threats
- and the future of the international system.
NOTE: The full transcript can be downloaded here: Transcript of Bellum Interview with Brent Scowcroft.
A sampling is available below:
You are a hero to many people in the national security community.
I doubt that.
My question is who are your heroes?
Well, not surprisingly, my heroes are the sort of post-World War II: Eisenhower, Marshall, Goodpaster. They’re my role models because I think at a time of challenge — maybe more acute than we have now but similar — they were extremely thoughtful and far-sighted. They gave us a generation which is probably one of the best we’ve had, which started, I guess, to come apart in Vietnam.