logo
episode-header-image
Aug 2023
13m 24s

Is the US headed towards another civil w...

TED
About this episode

Based on her work for a CIA task force aimed at predicting civil wars, political scientist Barbara F. Walter examines the rise in extremism and threats to democracies around the globe -- and paints an unsettling picture of the increasing likelihood of a second civil war in the United States.



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Yesterday
How AI is unearthing hidden scientific knowledge | Sara Beery
<p>Scientists estimate that 80 percent of life on Earth is still unknown to humanity. But as global temperatures rise, habitats shrink and food and water sources dry up, we're losing these species faster than we can discover them. AI naturalist Sara Beery reveals how the knowledg ... Show More
14m 21s
Nov 24
How the fridge changed food | Nicola Twilley
<p>What if your kitchen fridge is just the tip of an iceberg that's reshaping the world? Food storyteller Nicola Twilley reveals how the massive “artificial Arctic” we built to keep our food fresh is simultaneously melting the real one. She shows why we're at a critical moment to ... Show More
13m 27s
Nov 23
Sunday Pick: How to love your hometown (w/ Hanif Abdurraqib & Sarah Kay) | How to Be a Better Human
<p>Loving where you live means caring for the people who make that place home, says cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib. He invites poet Sarah Kay and Chris Duffy, host of the podcast “How to Be a Better Human,” to his hometown of Columbus, Ohio, to show off what makes it so special ... Show More
15m 29s
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2022
What Is Civil War in the Digital Age? — with Barbara F. Walter
Civil war might be the most likely escalation pathway towards disaster for our country. On the flip side, learning how to avoid civil conflict — and more ambitiously, repair our civic fabric — might have the greatest leverage for addressing the challenges we face.Our guest Barbar ... Show More
49m 31s
Aug 2022
A New Civil War in America?
<p><span>Since the F.B.I. raid on former President Donald Trump’s home, Mar-A-Lago, the phrases “civil war” and “lock and load” have trended on right-wing social media. The F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security are taking the threats seriously, and issued an internal war ... Show More
32m 17s
Oct 2020
A Bleak 'What If:' Is The US Headed Towards A Second Civil War?
<p>With increasing political divide and heightened civil unrest in the United States, many fear that it will culminate in a second civil war. We explore the likelihood of that scenario and hear from someone who thinks America is already in the midst of collapse.</p> 
30m 8s
Aug 2021
An Un-American Way of War: Why the United States Fails at Irregular Warfare
The United States and other nations have spent billions of dollars and invested untold effort, not to mention lives, in a global campaign against Islamist terrorism—and yet the threat landscape is arguably worse now than it was on 9/11. Despite the importance for national securit ... Show More
54m 41s
Jan 2022
American Civil War?
One year on from Joe Biden’s inauguration David and Helen talk with Gary Gerstle about what’s gone wrong. What is the strategy behind this presidency? Has it tried to do too much or too little? And are the dark warnings of another American civil war really plausible? Plus we disc ... Show More
53m 39s
May 2022
Chris Blattman on War and Centralized Power
<p>What causes war? Many scholars have spent their careers attempting to study the psychology of leaders to understand what incentivizes them to undertake the human and financial costs of conflict, but economist and political scientist Chris Blattman takes a different approach to ... Show More
48m 5s
Feb 2024
US 2.0: Living With Our Differences
<p>Conflicts are inevitable — both at a global scale and in our personal lives. This week, in the latest in our US 2.0 series, psychologist <a href="https://sps.columbia.edu/faculty/peter-t-coleman-phd">Peter Coleman</a> explains how minor disagreements turn into major rifts, and ... Show More
52m 44s
May 2024
Donald Stoker, "Why America Loses Wars: Limited War and US Strategy from the Korean War to the Present" (Cambridge UP, 2019)
In this provocative challenge to United States policy and strategy, former Professor of Strategy & Policy at the US Naval War College, and author or editor of eleven books, Dr. Donald Stoker argues that America endures endless wars because its leaders no longer know how to think ... Show More
46m 15s