BU Professor Emeritus Andrew Bacevich, a veteran of the Vietnam and Gulf wars, has spent his academic career writing about American imperialism. He gave a well-regarded university lecture in 2007 about the “illusions of managing history,” arguing for the contemporary relevance of 20th c. theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. In this episode, Kobe Yank-Jacobs (CAS’18) speaks with Dr. Bacevich about his career and intellectual evolution. He articulates a rather profound dissent to the employment of American military power, and discusses how Niebuhr’s The Irony of American History impacted his worldview.
Take a listen here.