Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from September, 2023

The tragedy of John Mearsheimer

 https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2023/09/tragedy-john-mearsheimer How the American realist became the world’s most hated thinker. By Gavin Jacobson Late at night on 23 February 2022, John Mearsheimer was at home in the suburbs of Chicago finishing an article for Foreign Affairs magazine on the escalating crisis in Ukraine . In the preceding weeks, Russian forces had amassed on Ukraine’s border even as military officials in Moscow denied any plans to attack. Mearsheimer, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, was tasked with explaining to readers the prospect of war in Europe . He had just completed the final draft of the essay when he received an urgent ­message from his friend and fellow academic Stephen Walt: “Check the news before you hit send on your piece. Something is happening in Ukraine.” More than 5,000 miles away, Russian troops and armour pour