Digest 23: RFK Jr as Trump’s running mate?; Elon reading Destined for War; Viktor Orbán = sensible
Most interesting highlights from the past two weeks…
Trump with RFK Jr as running mate?
Extremely interesting thought from Seymour Hersh…
‘It was expressed to me by someone with excellent party credentials: that Trump could be the Republican nominee and will select Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his running mate.’
Elon reading Destined for War
Great that Elon has read/is now recommending Destined for War.
I consider this the foundational book to best understand geopolitics right now. (That lots of Ray Dalio’s arguments are based on.)
And Dominic Cummings again being years ahead of the curve:
In 2019, Graham Allison and the Belfer Center at Harvard ran a contest based on the book, ‘Do You Have a Grand Strategy to Meet the China Challenge?’
My business partner and I entered, and adapted Dominic’s suggestion in our submission:
Our other Big Idea was the formation of an ‘Asian Nato’, that the U.S. could foster and then extricate itself from:
Instead, let’s next look at the ingeniousness of U.S. administration policy on this issue since then…
Haass and Blinken
Richard Haass interviewing U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken three weeks ago…
The following is funny, as Haass and Blinken are clearly friends, and I don’t think Secretary Blinken quite expected Haass to ask this question so boldly. (1 min)
I continue to like Freddy Gray’s description of this as an upgrading of U.S. Taiwan policy from ‘strategic ambiguity’ to ‘strategic amnesia’.
It highlights the uncertainty of the U.S.’s position – that leading figures are continually having to row back the President’s comments.
Job advert: research assistant
A quick break from regular programming to say: I recently posted a job advert for a research assistant to help with this digest, going deeper into primary source material.
It had over 650 applicants in a week, from one job board.
I take pride in my ability to write world-class job adverts.
For anyone who’d like to check it out, you can read it here.
Latest thoughts on Ukraine
I consider David Sacks understands Ukraine and leader psychology so much better than other Western commentators/so called ‘experts’. This for ~4 minutes:
If peace negotiations that Jeffrey Sachs/Naftali Bennett have said happened did take place in March 2022, perhaps Zelenskyy has the right to be pissed. His outburst at the summit lends further credence to me to this alternate history.
The Sachs/Bennett claim now feels to me like the geopolitical equivalent of the lab leak hypothesis.
My latest suggestion: get Boris on the All-In podcast, and have him discuss what actually happened in March 2022. The Sachs/Bennett theory might be wild fiction, but if so, it should be proven to be.
Further, David Sacks’s thoughts here (2 mins): are new members joining Nato an asset or a liability?
Viktor Orbán
The leader of Hungary is the only leader in Europe speaking sense to me on this issue.
If you have preconceptions about Orbán as a ‘strongman/authoritarian’, I encourage you to watch this (1 minute) and this (~2 minutes):
At least on this issue, seeking peace, does he not seem quite reasonable?
The UK could play an instrumental role in bringing the conflict in Ukraine to a peaceful resolution
I’ll close with reiterating my latest video, imploring Rishi Sunak to change tack on Ukraine.
Video: https://twitter.com/EdwardMDruce/status/1681699670723117056
It might be naïve/idealistic, but I consider the UK could play an instrumental role here.
I think it’s my best video yet, but it’s yet to be shared in any meaningful way.
Please watch, and if you agree with the sentiment at all, please share.
*
Thank you for reading/watching.