John Mearsheimer
speaker
2,303 appearances
7 recordings
5 series
first heard Nov 2023
last heard 28 May
John Mearsheimer’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
So I believe that structure mattered.
However, I want to qualify that in the case of Adolf Hitler, because I do think he had what you would call a will to power.
I've never used that word to describe him before, but it's consistent with my point that I often make, that there are two leaders, or there have been two leaders in
modern history who are congenital aggressors, and one was Napoleon and the other was Hitler.
Now, if you want to call that a will to power, you can do that.
I'm more comfortable referring to Hitler as a congenital aggressor and referring to Napoleon as a congenital aggressor, although there were important differences between the two because Hitler was probably the most murderous leader
in recorded history, and Napoleon was not in that category at all.
But both of them were driven by what you would call a will to power, and that has to be married to the structural argument in Hitler's case and also in Napoleon's case.
Well, the question of what led to Hitler is a very different question than the question of what led to World War II once Hitler was in power.
I mean, after January 30th, 1933, he's in power.
And then the question of what is driving him comes racing to the fore.
Is there resentment over the Versailles Treaty and what happened to Germany?
Yes.
Did that matter?
Yes.
But my argument is that structure was the principal factor driving the train in Hitler's case.
But-
What I'm saying here is that there were other factors as well.
Resentment being one of them, will to power, or the fact that he was a congenital aggressor in my lexicon certainly mattered as well.
So I don't want to dismiss your point about resentment.
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