The Whole Wide World with Christopher Lydon
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  EPISODE TWO
"WAR AND CONFLICT IN THE POST-COLD WAR, POST-9/11 ERA"
 
 

Kanan Makiya
Kanan Makiya
Photo by Julian Brown, Brandeis University Photography

Is there a way to define or rationalize conflict and war in the global era? Is there a way to think about the world in a new century that might prevent it?

The Cold War imposed a kind of logic on the world -- a superpower symmetry that seemed to promote restraint and peace. Relative to now anyway. 911 unleashed new forces, new misunderstandings and instabilities that the world is still grappling with. And the war on terror designed to confront them is now in the shadow of an unfolding war in Iraq and a possible blueprint for war in North Korea.

But does anybody really know what the world is fighting about?
Is it about regime change in Iraq or installing democracy in the Middle East?. Is it about weapons or resources -- oil, water, diamonds or timber? About civilizations clashing or new empires ascending? Or freedom or religion, or identity, or terror, or land
or peace or security or nation building?

Guests: Kanan Makiya, Chris Hedges, Samuel Huntington, Seamus Heaney, Michael Klare, Akbar Ahmed, Chalmers Johnson


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