Ever wonder how a TTBOOK episode comes together? Each show has its own backstory, the original idea, the gathering of voices, editing of tape and creation of art and music that ends in an hour of thoughtful and surprising sound.
As a weekly public radio show and podcast, we can't and don’t have to jump on the day-to-day news in the same way as daily newspaper reporters or NPR correspondents do. This week, as we were hearing the news of the killing of Iran's Qassam Soleimani, ordered by President Trump, we decided to take a reflective step back and ask, "Why Go to War?" First, we turned to our archives of close to thirty years of interviews. We pulled an interview with political scientist Benjamin Ginsberg, who argues in his book "The Worth of War" that war has greatly benefited civilization. And we added David Shields' photographs from "War is Beautiful: The New York Times Pictorial Guide to the Glamour of Armed Conflict." For another perspective, we found a 2015 interview with Leymah Gbowee, who won the Nobel Peace Prize Prize for leading women in Liberia in a non-violent protest that ended the civil war there. She says war is not inevitable.
A few months ago, Steve had met and interviewed former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power. Power's most recent book is "Education of An Idealist," and it seemed like the right moment to share the conversation they had.
That left a spot at the start of the show to set the scene and tell listeners why we are on this topic at this time in history. Just before we started putting the show together, Anne caught up with Brookings Institution fellow Scott Anderson to talk about the legalities of why we go to war.
We hope this show brings up some more questions for you and we'd love to hear what you think. Email me at listen@ttbook.org.
—Shannon