Take folly, friction, pain and empathy … mix well, and you get wise governmental decisions. If only it was that simple. Zachary Shore looks at the personal qualities, group dynamics, and historical conditions that have made wise decisions more or less likely to arise. The world’s current troubles would be more manageable, he contends, if we understood more clearly what produces wisdom and how to apply it. So what can we learn from history? 

A Wiser World: The Global Quest for Good Judgement was presented by the American Academy in Berlin

Zachary ShoreProfessor in the department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School, National Security Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution

Daniel BenjaminPresident of the American Academy in Berlin