Why We Fight: Interview with Christopher Blattman

The five causes of prolonged warfare

The pathways to avoiding prolonged warfare

Realizing the economics of the War decision can lead to peaceful compromise

Why We Fight: Interview with Christopher Blattman

April 26, 2022

"Narratives can unravel this interdependence and they can actually accentuate our misperceptions. They are very powerful, so they work both ways, and our leaders construct them. And it goes back to the uncheckness problem, is that the unchecked leader with a private interest in war will construct a narrative to pursue their private interests, and you have to hope it’s one of interdependence and not one of inflicting suffering." - Christopher Blattman

Kevin: Welcome to the McAlvany Weekly Commentary. I’m Kevin Orrick, along with David McAlvany. 

Well, I’ve been waiting for this interview for about a month, Dave. You introduced me to a book. Fortunately, I got a chance to read it before it came out, Why We Fight. And one of the things that I really enjoyed about Christopher Blattman’s book is that he’s not coming at it from a normal war book perspective. It’s not why we fight and let’s find out the good things about war. It really is mainly why we don’t fight.

David: Yeah, because most rivals loathe one another in peace. They look at the cost of war and they figure out how to keep a peace, and it doesn’t mean they don’t fight on occasion, but all out war is something that happens actually more rarely than you’d think. And that’s a part of the conversation is to explore how is it that we fixate on war when actually peace is more of a common theme. Again, peace does not mean that everyone gets along perfectly, but there are some things that keep rivals from compromising.

Kevin: Something I really enjoy about knowing you, Dave, is you travel a lot and you really try to meet the people that— When you’re traveling, you try to talk to them, get into their heads. Rarely ever, though, do you meet someone that later you find out is an author and we can have on the show. You love books. You love people.

David: Yeah. As regular listeners know, I believe books are an amazing opportunity to learn and discover gaps in our thinking and in our knowledge base. So to find out there are aspects of complexity you’ve never considered is both frightening, but it’s also thrilling. 

Meeting Christopher Blattman and entering into a casual conversation suggested that he brought something unique to our conversation. He reminded me— He seemed like the main character in Mark Helprin’s book Memoir from Antproof Case. There’s this economist who has muddy boots. He’s got a farmer’s tan, he’s constantly gathering information and he is paid to do so from taxi drivers, sitting in cafes and talking to people, hanging out with gang members and talking to unconventional entrepreneurs. Economists generally live in sort of a removed and sanitized world of numbers and analysis, but not that character, and not Christopher Blattman. 

I’d be remiss in not mentioning Jeannie Annan from their serendipitous meeting at an internet cafe in Nairobi through her PhD program in psychology and Chris’s PhD program in economics. Now their shared adventure and life together with kids in Chicago. 

Why we fight. I actually got to see something very interesting as it relates to their whole family. It was fabulous to meet them both and to see their kids negotiate peace over Sour Patch Kids and Dr. Pepper. So we were dealing with scarce resources and parents know that that’s either bargaining chips or the source of the next skirmish, and occasionally could be linked to an outbreak of war. So Chris, welcome to the program.

Christopher Blattman: Thanks for having me. And now I have a new book on my reading list.

David: Well, I’ve read your book. I think our listeners should, too. They can easily order it at Amazon. It’s hot off the press as of April 19th.