The American Interest

Relevant Reading:A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream

Yuval LevinBuild Them Up, Don’t Let Them Down

Philip A. Wallach

Institutions, writes Yuval Levin in A Time to Build, are “something in our society is in need of . . . but isn’t asking for.” In an age of populist anger and performative outrage, Levin argues that institutions, properly understood as molds that shape their members rather than as mere platforms for self-expression, hold the key to renewal.Considering examples like Congress, the elite university, and journalism, Levin argues that crucial institutions in American life have lost their way, abandoning their formative purposes in favor of a performative ethos that exacerbates the culture war and erodes civic trust. He also explains why Americans have long been anti-institutional in theory but have been active institution-builders in practice.Yuval Levin is the founding editor of National Affairs and the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Tune in this week as he joins Richard Aldous to discuss the book, and don’t forget to subscribe to the show on your podcast provider and follow @aminterest on Twitter.

Relevant Reading:“The issue with Warren can be summed up with a single question”

Megan McArdleDream Hoarders

Richard V. Reeves

Executive Editor Damir Marusic sat down with Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle to talk about plausible paths forward for the U.S. economy, the different kinds of inequality, and how elites refusing to budge on various orthodoxies empowered populists on both the right and the left to come to power.

Relevant Reading:The New Class War: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite

Michael Lind

The Cold War may have ended, but the class war rages on—or so Michael Lind argues in The New Class War: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite. TAI assistant editor Aaron Sibarium recently sat down with Lind to discuss this argument, and what it means for democracy in our populist era.This conversation is also available as an edited transcript on our website.

Relevant Reading:The World According to Tyler Cowen (Transcript)Marginal Revolution

(Blog)Stubborn Attachments: A Vision for a Society of Free, Prosperous, and Responsible Individuals

Tyler CowenBig Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero

Tyler Cowen

Tyler Cowen, an economist at George Mason University and a member of The American Interest editorial board, recently sat down with executive editor Damir Marusic and assistant editor Aaron Sibarium to talk about, well, everything.Tune in as Tyler defends capitalism, liberalism, dating apps, and immigration—and explains how China is making movies sexless. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast, and be sure to follow @tylercowen, @dmarusic, and @aaronsibarium on Twitter.This conversation is also available as an edited transcript on our website.

Relevant Reading:Capitalism, Alone, by Branko Milanovic (Harvard University Press: 2019)

Just because capitalism defeated communism at the end of the Cold War does not mean that Western “liberal capitalism” will automatically triumph over China’s “political capitalism”. That’s the provocative argument of Branko Milanovic’s new book, Capitalism, Alone. Executive Editor Damir Marusic and Assistant Editor Aaron Sibarium recently sat down with Milanovic to talk about the future of the system that runs the world.If you would prefer to read a lightly edited transcript of the interview, you can do that here.

Relevant Reading:Alarums and Excursion: Improvising Politics on the European Stage

Luuk Van MiddelaarThe Theology of Liberalism: Political Philosophy and the Justice of God

Eric NelsonMy Father Left Me Ireland: An American Son’s Search for Home

Michael Brendan DoughertyLady in the Lake: A Novel

Laura LippmannTime and Power: Visions of History in German Politics, from the Thirty Years’ War to the Third Reich

Christopher ClarkRelevant Listening:Searching for Home in Ireland and America

Richard Aldous & Michael Brendan DoughertyHow Politicians Bend Time

Richard Aldous & Christopher Clark

What do a memoir about fatherhood, a dive into the theological roots of liberalism, a reflection on the travails of the EU, and a Baltimore murder mystery all have in common? Each is one of our favorite books of 2019.In this end-of-year episode, Richard Aldous invites four TAI staff members—executive editor Damir Marusic, assistant editor Aaron Sibarium, associate editor Sean Keeley, and associate publisher Danielle Desjardins—to discuss their favorite books of the year.Damir’s choice is Alarums and Excursion: Improvising Politics on the European Stage by Luuk Van Middelaar. Aaron’s pick is The Theology of Liberalism: Political Philosophy and the Justice of God by Eric Nelson. Sean’s favorite is My Father Left Me Ireland: An American Son’s Search From Home by Michael Brendan Dougherty. Danielle’s pick is Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippmann. And Richard looks back on a year full of author interviews to select his favorite: Christopher Clark’s Time and Power: Visions of History in German Politics, from the Thirty Years’ War to the Third Reich. Thanks for being loyal listeners, and do tune in again in 2020! In the meantime, be sure to follow @aminterest on Twitter and subscribe to the show on your podcast provider.

TAI’s Damir Marusic and Karina Orlova recently sat down with Vladimir Milov—a Russian opposition activist, adviser to top Putin opponent Alexei Navalny, and former Deputy Energy Minister of Russia—as he was passing through Washington. Tune in this week for a special episode as they discuss the strategy of the Russian opposition, the growing discontent in Russia’s regions, and the fate of U.S. foreign policy in the age of Trump. And follow along below with our lightly edited transcript of the conversation.Damir Marusic for TAI:  We’re very pleased to have Vladimir Milov here with us today. Mr. Milov, welcome.Vladimir Milov: Great pleasure. Thanks for having me.DM: Here in the States we’ve been paying close attention to the protests that have been roiling Moscow, but also all across Russia. You spent some time in prison as a result. Could you tell us a little bit about what’s going on to orient our listeners?VM: I think what happened this summer was a big first test for Vladimir Putin since his triumphant re-election in March 2018. The authorities did their best to demonstrate huge numbers of support during the presidential election that we had a couple of years ago. But it’s pretty obvious for everybody involved in Russian politics that since then he has experienced a tremendous collapse in public support. And this has happened for a variety of reasons. The bottom line is that we have an unprecedented economic crisis by length, probably the biggest since the collapse of the Soviet Union.This year we mark the 11th anniversary without meaningful economic growth. We’re essentially back to square one, where we were before the financial crash of the autumn of 2008. And we are right now having the sixth consecutive year with a decline in real disposable incomes. They shrank roughly by 15 to 20 percent since 2014 and obviously Russians are not happy about it. Moreover, they don’t see a good economic prospect for recovery, which is bothering them even more. They want Putin to reshuffle things, and I don’t know, appoint a new energetic government, come up with a plan to do something about the economy, because this is really beginning to bite.And we in the opposition actually saw something like this coming. We saw a big growth of discontent and we wanted to channel it into political support for change, for an alternative, because many people are realizing that 20 years is a long time and enough is enough. When people sit in power for too long they lose the motivation to improve things.So what happened was one of the biggest elections besides the federal Parliament and President: the elections for the Moscow City legislature, which is the third biggest parliament in the country. You can do a lot of stuff if you control the Moscow City Parliament.The opposition presented a pool of really good candidates. Nearly all of them were banned on absolutely ridiculous grounds. We protested, and at the end of the day issued an ultimatum to the authorities that if they don’t register us by a certain date, we’d come in big numbers, take it to the streets. We really came in big numbers. The authorities were not happy. They jailed all of us, but then more people came. Because of this great increase in the extent of repression many apolitical people started to express concern. We saw many videos posted online and on Instagram by leaders of public opinion, artists, bloggers, and rappers to an extent unseen before.So the authorities have calmed down a little bit, and released many of us including myself. I spent about 30 days in jail this August. Then we had the actual voting which was pretty successful in terms of mobilizing the protest vote. Bottom line, what happened shows that this picture that you see in the headlines in a lot of the Western media, that Putin is super popular, is just not true. There’s growing discontent among the public. A lot of Russians are unhappy that they don’t h

Relevant Reading:Hitler: A Global Biography

Brendan Simms

Countless books have been written about Adolf Hitler’s rise and rule, but with Hitler: A Global Biography Brendan Simms offers a genuinely novel interpretation. Drawing on new research from the Bavarian archives and a careful study of all Hitler’s writings and speeches, Simms argues that Hitler’s abiding preoccupation was the threat of Anglo-American capitalism.Simms argues that Hitler’s perverse theories about race and immigration, and his deep anti-Semitism, were in large part a function of this obsession. Driven by a mixture of anxiety, resentment, and admiration of Anglo-America, Hitler perceived Germany’s geopolitical position to be one of profound weakness—a belief that encouraged him to attack preemptively and helped plunge the world into war.Brendan Simms is a professor in the history of international relations and a fellow at Peterhouse College, Cambridge. Tune in this week as he joins host Richard Aldous to discuss this fascinating account of the tyrant we thought we knew. And don’t forget to follow @aminterest on Twitter and subscribe to the show on your podcast provider.

Relevant Reading:God’s Spies: The Stasi’s Cold War Espionage Campaign Inside the Church

Elisabeth Braw

This week, as Germany marks 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the legacy of the Cold War remains the subject of vital public debate. In her new book God’s Spies, Elisabeth Braw shines a light on one of the lesser-known chapters of Cold War history: namely, the Stasi’s expansive espionage campaign inside the Lutheran Church.Drawing on family history, archival research, and candid interviews with former Stasi officers, Braw reconstructs how the “Church Bureau” of East Germany’s Ministry for State Security infiltrated the Church at virtually every level—and yet failed to see the end of the regime coming. It’s a compelling tale of agents and handlers, pastors and spies, mercenaries and true believers—and it features surprising cameos from some of Germany’s post-Cold War leaders.Tune in this week as Elisabeth Braw, director of the Modern Deterrence Project at the Royal United Services Institute, joins Richard Aldous to discuss the book. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, where you can leave a review, and follow @aminterest and @elisabethbraw on Twitter.

Relevant Reading:Age of Iron: On Conservative Nationalism

Colin Dueck

Is Donald Trump’s approach to foreign policy a historic aberration, or does it represent a return to an older tradition? In his new book Age of Iron: On Conservative Nationalism, Colin Dueck—an expert on the history of Republican foreign policy—makes the latter case. Conservative nationalism, Dueck argues, has deep roots in American history—and whatever one makes of Trump’s version, he says, it could well outlast his time in office.Colin Dueck is a Professor in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, and a non-resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Tune in this week as he joins TAI Executive Editor Damir Marusic—filling in for Richard Aldous—to discuss the book’s effort to put the Trump moment in historic perspective, how Trump’s foreign policy clashes with Wilsonianism, and where the Democrats’ foreign policy might be heading in a post-Trump future.Be sure to tune in, and don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, where you can leave a review, and follow @aminterest and @dmarusic on Twitter.