PS 345 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Edward Luttwak
13 Nov 2018
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Document Summary
Edward luttwak refers to the middle east as less relevant than ever claiming that we all pay way too much attention to the area than it deserves. He says that middle east experts just keep repeating their own mistakes, rather than learning from them. Five minutes to midnight" catastrophism, made by claiming that something catastrophic is about to occur unless (some remedy). The remedy could be resuming some stalled negotiation or sending an american envoy somewhere to get some task done, etc. Nothing of importance actually happens at these moments of truth. The 2nd mistake is known as the mussolini syndrome, which refers to attributing real military power where there is none. The british and french accepted mussolini"s claims to power and status because they believed he controlled serious armed forces. He had the numbers, but his forces easily crumbled in combat soldiers were unwilling to fight and were only there b/c they had no better option.
