If You Were In Charge

Welcome to If You Were in Charge,

A podcast featuring global peace strategist, Sanam Naraghi Anderlini.

Each week Sanam takes on a major global challenge and hosts leading practitioners and innovators to share their work and their solutions - if they were in charge with the necessary political and financial resources. After each discussion, Sanam is joined by one of her twin daughters, Soleh, to hear her reaction and gain a different generational perspective.

In Episode 9, Sanam interviews Stephen Walt, Professor of International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School and noted author, on the dangers of the erosion of academic independence during the Trump administration and the potential implications of the incoming administration’s foreign policy appointments. The conversation delves into the dangers of self-censorship and the influence of political pressure on academic freedom. Walt shares insights from his experience publishing The Israel Lobby, critiques U.S. foreign policy missteps, and emphasizes the need for more diverse voices in government decision-making.

Stephen received the International Studies Association’s Distinguished Senior Scholar award in 2014. Walt is the author of The Origins of Alliances (1987), Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy (2005); The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (2007, with John J. Mearsheimer), The Hell of Good Intentions: America’s Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy (2018), and “The End of Hubris and a New Era of American Restraint,” (Foreign Affairs, May/June 2019).