Share

cover art for Edward Luttwak: Biden and Putin are ready to do a deal

UnHerd with Freddie Sayers

Edward Luttwak: Biden and Putin are ready to do a deal

•

US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are ready to do a deal, according to the historian, military strategist and advisor to the US government Edward Luttwak. The comments were made in a discussion this week with UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers, during which Luttwak argued that “a shift in the overall situation” has resulted in both leaders being more willing to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war.


The author, who has worked inside and outside of the Pentagon and the US Department of State for decades, believes that channels between the CIA and the Kremlin are sufficiently open for peace talks to develop. Following the aborted Wagner Group uprising at the end of last month, CIA chief William Burns spoke directly to Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service, to reassure him there was no CIA involvement in the rebellion. For Luttwak, this implies “a certain overall attitude and willingness to communicate”, while Naryshkin’s very presence in the Kremlin is further evidence that the war could be coming to an end. 

More episodes

View all episodes

  • Busting the Bill Gates myth

     35:03
    UnHerd's Flo Read meets Tim Schwab to discuss Bill Gates and the myth of the good billionaire.

  • Ayaan Hirsi Ali: From New Atheist to Christian convert

     36:21
    UnHerd's Freddie Sayers sits down with former New Atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali to discuss why she now considers herself to be Christian.

  • How RFK Jr. could decide the 2024 election

     27:18
    UnHerd's Freddie Sayers meets pollster Joe Bedell to discuss the 2024 US election, Trump, and RFK Jr.

  • Nick Bostrom: How AI will lead to tyranny

     43:07
    UnHerd's Flo Read meets Nick Bostrom.

  • Why does the Left support Palestine?

     01:06:09
    UnHerd's Freddie Sayers sits down with professional troublemaker James Lindsay and Novara Media's Aaron Bastani to discuss the modern and historical relationship between the political Left and support of Palestine.

  • Israeli Ambassador on the War on Gaza

    28:41
    UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers meets Tzipi Hotovely, Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

  • Jonathan Sumption: War, Lockdowns and Lessons from the Past

     01:06:28
    Former Supreme Court judge, and celebrated historian of The Hundred Years War, Jonathan Sumption joins UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers to discuss continental entanglements past and present, and the disrupted civil and international order we face today.

  • Kathleen Stock: Inside Britain’s new trans clinics

     40:26
    Since its closure was announced last July, Gids — the Gender Identity Development Service at the world-renowned Tavistock and Portman Trust — has become synonymous with mismanagement and medical scandal.It was supposed to be a haven for young people experiencing gender-related distress. Instead, following a string of complaints by whistle-blowers, an “inadequate” rating by the Care Quality Commission, a high-profile judicial review and, finally, a damning independent review, it was deemed unsafe.In its place, two new regional hubs were set to open, with several more centres to follow. For Gids’s long-standing critics, concerned about the distress its tumult was having on children, this came as a huge relief.The story, however, does not end here.Kathleen Stock has spent the past month speaking to a range of clinicians, NHS professionals and parents of dysphoric children — to find out whether Gids’s new service will be an improvement.The portrait she paints is stark: her findings suggest that the NHS gender services are yet to become a clinically safe space for children and teens, with senior figures still pushing an activist ideology. Only last week, NHS bosses internally announced that they are significantly delaying the launch of one of the hubs. And as she reveals in her investigation, it is unlikely to be the final twist in Gids’s new chapter…

  • Yascha Mounk: Israel to America - escaping the identity trap

     01:04:19
    Whatever happened to universalism? Academic and author of The Identity Trap, Yascha Mounk, explores how a relatively obscure and marginal set of ideas about identity have come to dominate our social, cultural and political life – and makes the case for universal, humanist values.

Comments