Diplomatically Speaking
New Thinking for a New World - a Tallberg Foundation Podcast
09/07/23
•33m
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"There is nothing dramatic in the success of a diplomatist. His victories are made up of a series of microscopic advantages: of a judicious suggestion here, of an opportune civility there, of a wise concession at one moment and a far-sighted persistence at another; of sleepless tact, immovable calmness and patience that no folly, no provocation, no blunder can shake.” Lord Salisbury, British statesman of the 19th century
Ambassador Ashok Mirpuri has just completed 12 years, an unusually long period, as Singapore's ambassador to the United States, the capstone to a four decade stellar diplomatic career. He retired from his diplomatic service this summer and is now back in Singapore.
What do ambassadors actually do? Twenty-first century technology removes diplomats from the immediate transmission of messages and developments but imposes a far more difficult task: understanding and explaining the realities and dynamics of his host country to his own country’s leaders. In practice for Ambassador Mirpuri this has meant sorting through the behaviors of Presidents Obama, Trump and Biden and trying to make sense of what America’s complications mean for Singapore. No easy task during such a turbulent period!
New Thinking for a New World caught up with Ambassador Mirpuri (once an ambassador, always an ambassador) for reflections on what he learned about America during his service in Washington. Listen and then tell us whether you think diplomats still have a role to play in contemporary society.> quote here
Previous Episode
Should We Tolerate the Intolerant?
August 24, 2023
•29m
"If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.” Karl Popper in The Open Society and Its Enemies Financial Times.
Popper, an Austrian philosopher who had fled the Nazis, wrote those words as he came to grips with how the Nazis had infiltrated and overrun liberal European societies. Fast forward to today. Elisabeth Braw, writing in the Financial Times, cited Popper’s thinking about the risks of tolerating the intolerant as she explained the recent explosion of terror threats on Sweden following incidents of Koran burnings. Although the Swedish government condemned the burnings, it could not prevent them essentially because of freedom of speech protections in Swedish law.
So Sweden finds itself in a double bind: it badly wants to stop Koran burnings, but to do so it would have to undermine a key aspect of its liberal democracy. Of course, that dilemma is not unique to Sweden in this era of violent hyper-partisanship.
Braw is senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Listen as she explores the potential consequences of being too tolerant in this episode of New Thinking for a New World.
What do you think? If Sweden could find a way to outlaw desecration of the Koran (and other holy books), would the terror threat disappear? And would that justify limiting freedom of expression?
Link to article in the Financial Times that is referred to in the podcast (the article is behind a paywall): https://www.ft.com/content/0ac9e1a9-2aad-47d9-83fb-4839e9b31b33
Next Episode
Blot Out the Sun?
September 21, 2023
•34m
Supposedly, Herodotus wrote that when the Greeks were told that the Persian archers at the Battle of Thermopylae would blot out the sun with their arrows, they responded: “Good, then we shall have our battle in the shade.”
Fast forward to the early 21st century and the issue is no longer Persian arrows, but the relentless heat from a sun less and less buffered by earth’s atmosphere because of the accumulated greenhouse gasses. The result, according to scientists, is a rapidly warming planet with increasingly extreme weather, droughts and floods, supercyclones and hurricanes, raging forest fires, or other unusually intense natural disasters. All of that has become the new normal with every likelihood that what’s extreme today might be perceived as moderate next year. The need for shade has never been greater!
What can be done?
One possibility is what’s called "solar radiation management.” SRM essentially amounts to reducing the amount of solar radiation hitting, and hence warming, the planet. It's either an obvious approach—think, if not Persian arrows then the eruption of huge volcanoes—or crazy dangerous, depending on where you sit.
Luke Iseman and Andrew Song think it’s obvious, and are pioneers in trying to deflect solar radiation away from the Earth. But, unlike scientists, they have decided to stop talking about it and have begun doing it. Listen as they explain how they think they can cool the planet.
Is it okay for individuals to try to re-engineer the climate? Tell us what you think.
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