This eye-opening discussion challenges the conventional wisdom about foreign policy interventions. Explore how attempts to pressure nations, including sanctions and leadership targeting, often have unintended and detrimental consequences.
The speaker argues that such tactics inadvertently embolden hardliners within these countries, preventing natural societal and economic liberalization. Instead, a hands-off approach might allow these nations to achieve prosperity and gradual reform organically.
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Transcript
I mean, the reality is this, Mike, if you lift these countries alone and you didn't sanction them, they'd probably be very successful and prosperous and they would probably gradually liberalize a lot of aspects of their society and economy over time. It's just natural that would happen. But when you put the pressure on and you put them like you boil them uh over over time and then you try to assassinate their leadership and you punish them collectively, all you're going to do is embolden the hardliners in all these countries. And whatever you think ideologically you want to destroy, well you'll make it stronger. So what the US and the Israelis have done is really increase the resilience and the resolve of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Now, I've been to Iran. Okay, and it's nothing like it's being characterized uh in, you know, in the West. And you know, they they talk about the Ayatollah like he's some terrorist leader. He's he's more akin to obviously they're under attack, but he's more like a spiritual leader, more kind of in the line of a pope than anything. But these are also very smart, well-skilled people who ...
