ChinaTalk

CCP Bureaucracies in War


Listen Later

Why do leaders with vast expert bureaucracies at their fingertips make devastating foreign policy decisions? Tyler Jost, professor at Brown, joins ChinaTalk to discuss his first book, Bureaucracies at War, a fascinating analysis of miscalculation in international conflicts.

As we travel from Mao’s role in border conflicts, to Deng’s blunder in Vietnam, to LBJ’s own Vietnam error, a tragic pattern emerges leaders gradually isolating themselves from their own information gathering systems with catastrophic consequences.

Today our conversation covers…

  • How Mao’s early success undermined his long-term decision-making,

  • The role of succession pressures in both Deng’s and LBJ’s actions in Vietnam,

  • The bureaucratic mechanisms that lead to echo chambers, and how China’s siloed institutions affect Xi’s governance,

  • The lingering question of succession in China,

  • What we can learn from the institutional failures behind Vietnam and Iraq.

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store

    ChinaTalkBy Jordan Schneider

    • 4.5
    • 4.5
    • 4.5
    • 4.5
    • 4.5

    4.5

    277 ratings


    More shows like ChinaTalk

    View all
    Odd Lots by Bloomberg

    Odd Lots

    2,007 Listeners

    Conversations with Tyler by Mercatus Center at George Mason University

    Conversations with Tyler

    2,466 Listeners

    Foreign Policy Live by Foreign Policy

    Foreign Policy Live

    605 Listeners

    Sinica Podcast by Kaiser Kuo

    Sinica Podcast

    611 Listeners

    ChinaPower by CSIS | Center for Strategic and International Studies

    ChinaPower

    208 Listeners

    The President’s Inbox by Council on Foreign Relations

    The President’s Inbox

    725 Listeners

    The Trade Guys by CSIS  |  Center for Strategic and International Studies

    The Trade Guys

    154 Listeners

    Net Assessment by War on the Rocks

    Net Assessment

    424 Listeners

    ManifoldOne by Steve Hsu

    ManifoldOne

    97 Listeners

    Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

    Dwarkesh Podcast

    519 Listeners

    Pekingology by Center for Strategic and International Studies

    Pekingology

    144 Listeners

    Ones and Tooze by Foreign  Policy

    Ones and Tooze

    379 Listeners

    The Foreign Affairs Interview by Foreign Affairs Magazine

    The Foreign Affairs Interview

    473 Listeners

    "Econ 102" with Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg by Turpentine

    "Econ 102" with Noah Smith and Erik Torenberg

    155 Listeners

    The Trivium China Podcast by Trivium China

    The Trivium China Podcast

    14 Listeners