what a national security adviser is supposed to be but as far as i understand nobody except the president can decide what a national security adviser is supposed to be with all due respect it's only his prerogative and not bought off of the senate or distinguished scholars like yourself am i right absolutely that this is the problem of writing about this there is developed over the last 50 plus years since john f. kennedy appointed me george bundy to this position there's developed a consensus among analysts and people who work in the government about what the national security advisor should and should not do and a lot of that has involves a low profile being a reliable broker between the president and other aides and in the president's office and generally making the policy process work smoothly but he and bolton has essentially been the antithesis of this plan the problem is

of course the president chooses presidents don't necessarily read our books or even if they do they don't follow our recommendations but on the other hand when the ball tonight was a point of it sound jitters around the world many thought that this white house would be the most hawkish average and we know that mr bolton did push for getting more mass killer so to say on iran i mean used to eleanor's korea god knows what other country the fact that trump was able to filter and resists he's persisted advise isn't dot to the president's credit he passed the bolton task did it here yeah i suppose it was i mean he recognized that both and was not was getting him in trouble and wasn't always procuring him the support that he needed but i mean the president did choose him both in. appointment sent tremors around washington to at

least among those who are out of government and many of those and government because it has a long track record of being very strong polemical very savvy a man who understands how to make the government work but very much polarization i mean he's been anti arms control he was for it and various times arguing for invading iran for invading north korea etc and this was very much not what where the president wanted to go so why he pointed it was a bit of a mystery that trump once described ball to as a tough cookie and i heard one russian observer of this to suggest that the reason while trump appointed here was because he liked trump in baltar and you know this reputation for a no b.s. negotiation and resolute action and it looks like to me at least i've been in john bolton trying got a taste of his own medicine don't you think that bolton ironically may have made

president trump more moderate than more cautious in his decision making certainly made him look more moderate and cautious and i think it's become increasingly clear that the president doesn't want war and doesn't want conflict but he is for suing policies that are tend to be confrontational kinder salans others around most notably and but he doesn't want to follow through with use of military force that's fortunate in my view but it doesn't help the president's credibility because he seems to me as across as trying to be tough until the until he has to fish or cut bait and then he doesn't do something that he doesn't back. indeed recent or to iraq apparently attack apparently from iran or saudi oil facilities is a good example of a plausible result of the very tough hooey as the united states has been putting on

the iranian economy but again inserters state of said iranian bombing in saudi arabia was an act of war which is certainly words but arguably some of what the united states is doing toward iran is either an active or very close to her but i think professor death that's the real also have to keep in mind apart from the united states nobody is sure that iran is actually behind that attack i mean and no security agency be the russian frank or even saudi for that matter came out strongly in support of them american version of events now you mentioned secretary of state and i know that historically tangents between national security advisors and secretaries of state. have been quite common and there has been speculation that john bolton and mike don't get along all that well do you think this bolton pump aoe mismatch played any role at all or was it only about trump and

his disagreements with bolton or i think it's important for the national security adviser to give the wrong with secretary of state and there are many number of cases where they have been rivals and this was another one it's clear that bolt that compare on who was unhappy with bolton and he was presumably played a role in some sense in the dismissal bolton he can is obviously the president's call but bolton is brace of he doesn't work as a colleague so they don't so it's a difficult he's a difficult person to deal with if you're a high level officials we government. as well as a former official a lot of experts foreign policy experts afa size the role of personality in the national security adviser position that he or she should have full confidence off

of not only the president but as you said the entire cabinet that they should be more even handed down disputatious it was i think clear from the start that john bolton was anything but even handed or fair minded for that matter and yet he lasted for 519 days longer than 2 of his predecessors how do you explain that well i think initially on a couple of issues venezuela and iran he was supporting tough policies that the president wanted to pursue and i think also he can't keep a president who may have already fired 2 national security advisers he's not going to be quick to fire a 3rd and so i think for a while he thought well i know john is a rougher race of guy but i can handle it i'm the president i made the decisions and he said recently in a very curious interview that you know it does terribly matter who the next your advisor is because i make all the decisions so it's

a very easy job he says i don't remember who is sad that but i heard john bolton being described as a and this is a quote a key stop kick down type of guy don't you think that perhaps he's propound city for being disputatious up least 50 superiors is it be they exaggerate it i don't know that in 6 rated i think. i'm sure there were times in situations where bolton was more cooperative than his general reputation but i think the you know he's has a long track record and different levels of government and when he was nominated ambassador to united nations. president george w. bush he. he was sufficiently. controversial that the senate would not confirm him even though it had a majority republican majority at the time and the president had to give him an interim appointment so he's been a controversial figure one thing that used to unite bolton and triumph was their

dislike for the formal policy process and you wrote recently about as a very skilled bureaucrat bolton was dangerous because he knew the inner workings of the system and therefore he knew how to are in their mind the best do you think he succeeded in that you know i think so i think i mean i don't know all the details of the decision for the united states to withdraw from the intermediate nuclear forces agreement but it's the sort of thing bolton would do like he doesn't believe in arms control agreements generally and he apparently just came up and he had an opportunity to push is. the military who didn't want to leave the agreement don't get russia or voice a new situation and others don't he just he can on certain issues he could because he was close to the president when he was the president agreed and they could run

in this run a decision through his minimum consideration tonsil solution that after bolton's firing he and president trump already exchanged some unflattering comments about one another and i gather it from your writing that you don't hold president trump in the very high regard you called him a decidedly american president i wonder if you feel sympathy for both the now that he joined the camp of president trump's critics are yes i mean i think. one of the persons who is an expert in foreign policy making a comment after reading our book about national security advisors in manuscript said this is the advice for future national security advisors choose your president wisely. which is of course a joke because you don't get if you're asked of you don't get to choose your president however brant scowcroft when he said the model for how to be

a careful are strong but behind the scenes negotiator policy manager worked for h.w. bush who was an easy a good president to work for a serious president on policy who would who wanted. scowcroft to make connections to build a harmonious team when you have if but when you have a different kind of president who is very willful very intrusive and chronic it's much harder obviously others have had problems as aides to try to not just the national security adviser while professor death there we have to take a short break now but we'll be back in just a few moments stay tuned. in

2014 a bloody revolution to tell you the demonstrations going from being relatively peaceful political protests to be creasing the violent revolution is always spontaneous or is it stoic up to a pretty meaningless put pretty would put him in the eye and they believe as i do believe it or the former ukrainian president recalls the events of 2014. of those who took part in this to do over $5000000000.00 to assist ukraine in these and other can ensure a secure and prosperous and demick. here we are in 2019 with negative interest rates and multi $100000000000.00 trillion dollar venture capital unicorns are all going processed and the colossal fail out is being felt in every corner of the global economy and that's why countries are buying gold. this is

a story about what happens auster a stray bullet kills a young girl in the streets. what happens to her family and daughters in florida you know the mother daughter is buried in a cemetery meaning this is your head what happens to the community the public was screaming for a scapegoat the police needed a scapegoat so why not choose a 19 year old black kid with a criminal record who better to pen this than him and what happens in court. shot shot as far as i feel. we don't know she'll just. end of this unfortunately you. will still not know.

if the tense situation in venezuela is still all over the news the problem in venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented but that socialism has been faithfully implemented from the inside venezuela things are different we're going to announce sanctions against the troll is to venezuela associate. famous will have a sense of the moment. that absent that critical data to see on yet to be done. well known. whose story isn't new nixon called in henry kissinger to tell him that it would not be tolerated in latin america an alternative economic and social system could take hold and therefore the policy would be to make. the chilean economy scream so wants to make the economy of venezuela scream.

something back to all the part that baghdad their cells are in professor of public policy at the university of maryland professor dessler president trumps new up point for national security advisers definitely much less colorful and much last known for what you have heard about robert there brian do you think he is a good pick. who is probably better suited to working for it with trump and bolton he seems to be a basically co-operative conciliatory character he has moderate credentials in foreign policy he wrote a book published during the 2016 presidential campaign whose was mainly on polling

maker has sent a very short essays attacking various forms of elements of obama foreign policy so we have some knowledge he also seems to have a reputation for working smoothly with others he worked in presidents who come up with presidential campaigns so i think he is not mean it's hard to know how well he will function in the job and he may or may probably will the odds are against him becoming a really strong and effective force for foreign policy simply because it's not clear that his relationship with trump will develop in that direction and also the secretary of state has very much has established himself as the primary presidential adviser and while pompei or apparently him supported recommended the appointment of brian nevertheless. is not likely to want him to play a major role now you mentioned mr o'brien's foreign policy credentials and. for

many russians in particular. that's interesting because he served as a foreign policy adviser to mitt romney during his presidential run again barack obama and that campaign is memorable to this country you because of romney characterizing russia as america's number one geopolitical foe which a many people now take as a sort of a geopolitical prophecy do you think mr bryant a real bitch trying to influence trumps policy on the russia in in this same kind of brain russia being america's number. one geopolitical foe. i have no idea i think that he will. tend to support firm policies these are really russia but whether he will initiate these policies is hard to say obviously the president has tried it at times to be more conciliatory with mr putin and the president will

probably continue to try to be that so how but how is hard to know what. what are brian can do on this clearly he's not. not a great. positive supporter of russia mr brime is the 4th national security adviser on to tromp after general flynn who i think didn't really get a chance to get the ball rolling general mcmaster who is remembered as a bit of a for a one to trying to put it mildly both i think intellectually and temperamentally and mr bolton who we already discussed do you see any math to you how troubling hires and fires people for what is arguably one of the most influential positions within any administration and yes the only method i find is very situational when flynn was appointed he was probably one of the few people that trump knew in the national security field and he had been a loyal supporter during the campaign and his problem and he was obviously

one of sympathetic relations with russia and this all seemed to be what trump wanted now flynn unfortunately messed up very early and so he became the most rapidly fired some security adviser in the history of the position mcmaster was widely praised in foreign policy in defense communities as someone who is careful ripper fresh you know and cetera but as sometimes has been the case among advisors he is a master established and elaborate policy process. tried it for a thorough review of issues and trump didn't want that he didn't want to participate in it he didn't he want didn't want his hands to be tied by a process so rick aster wears their it's sort of 2 jobs the national security advisers typically has to do one is to manage the process 2nd is to advise the

president now mcmaster tried to manage the process in a very elaborate way and many presidents don't want that. but he also presumably gave advice to the president it's not clear how much his advice was welcome or not. well professor duster trump is often ridiculed for saying that he trusts his god over advise process given that these policy process lab he's predecessors tsu many m i would say disastrous very expensive and repeated mistakes at least in the middle east isn't he justified in distrusting that policy process the process hasn't been able to operate too well under trump maybe you should just trust but it's also a process very much in the process depends very much on what the president's operating style is how he wants to work and in this case who is president who has

assured attention span he wants to follow his gut instincts rather than a broad announces and he wants to have it done with people who are congenial pump aoe is the only senior foreign policy official so far who seems to have mastered the art of working affectively with strong friends and he is therefore emerged sector's day as the primary adviser whether he's whether trump is right or wrong to distrust the policy process he is the creator of it whether he knows that or not but it's no secret that. trump pretty much the national security council and organizationally he's white house is often criticized for being too disorganized absent conscious for example to his predecessor barack obama who tried to put at least try to put the basque practices into the policy works and yet if we look at

his decisions let's say his decision on libya you know we just heard not only that country but have major consequences for europe with the ensuing migration crisis that doesn't strike me as too well thought through they say with syria his secret order. authorizing the cia to work with saudi arabia in trying to overthrow bashar al assad and in that country i mean to use president obama's phrase and to modify the a little bit don't you think that trump with all his mere cure mere curial temperament with all his disorganization that he has done much less stupid stuff than president obama himself who like the policy process so much i mean it's harder to give a quick comparison i think obama was much more thoughtful much more careful the libya intervention turned out badly at the time it was a time urgency about it because. gadhafi is forces were heading toward benghazi

and they were likely to that he could offer you promise to have a very bitter screw me shoot up all the demonstrators that were going to be there and so it was it was a time when the allies were supporting it so it certainly could do it with a coalition not alone and it was amply you it could be done obviously it was affective to throw out to overthrow gadhafi not effective in terms of any sort of stable regime that followed syria obviously obama did not succeed there but then is a terribly difficult problem obama's very his or his or ran agreement iran's deal was i think the polar opposite of trump's dealing with that he would work very hard and logically he put together a team of analysts he were patient and then when there was an opportunity to get the iranians to make see different commitments to constrain their nuclear

development. or when for doubt it was controversial because people who criticize him for saying he didn't solve the problem of river bridge did solve it for 10 years and then well i think temper troubles big problem. with iran started when he had bolton's urging him to bring that up. but professor that i think the. policy should be judged by its intentions by by by its output you mentioned the iran deal as good as it for us it didn't last long as we all know but the libyan deal you know i believe be an affair it laughed huge impact i mean we still don't know how it's going to affect the entire continent 2 continents and both africa and europe and i would blame mr obama for not considering your graphic strategic factor is around there the role of the migration flows and

how it could the fact that america's closest allies i mean we have been talking about the policy process but isn't the policy process is this whole purpose do you think about things like that when you deal with the emerging before you have an emergency situation on your hands. all that is true i don't. so i think libya history at the time in libya looks like their success for about a year afterwards now it looks like a mistake or you may exaggerate how important libya is in is a relatively low population country at its height above us national security council how they're around $400.00 personnel people on it and i know that it produced a lot of discussion in washington about the correlation between the size of the body and it's a factor in us is it clear how these body operates on the trump it's not at all clear an operation under trump i was in on record criticizing the size of the

national security staff under obama who had to do so at a conference at west point and i argued that at the problem is you get lots of people who are very competent policy people put don't have the ear of the president or maybe even the ear of the nicer security advisor if you have maybe maybe just maybe it wasn't 400 policy people what maybe there were 250 policy people there that's just too many in this they're in let there be almost bound to take over functions that are better performed in the state department the pentagon and cetera so i think it is it was a problem so far as one can tell trump and his 2 systems have mostly dismantled the process or people's it with people with like minded ideologues at least that's the way flynn started out and that's the way bolton started out you know bringing in people who have his his views and in france you

need a nicer security council staff to be looking at alternative views and to present these to the president and to the cabinet to so that they can get. a sense of what the issues are and what their choices really are i mean somebody like libya as you say needed needed to. we think people need to think ahead it's not at all clear what the what the good options were $3.00 he was a mess professor just i just want to add that i was on the ground in libya and in gaza in fact at that time and i think their reporting in western media hugely hugely exaggerated the threat posed for gaddafi he in fact never threatened that bloodbath but it was very expedient for the american foreign policy to exaggerate the threat unfortunately we have to leave it there we run out of time but i gratefully greatly appreciate your being here with us thank you very much and thank you very much for the opportunity our viewers can keep this conversation

going in our social media pages and i hope to hear again the same place the same time on a world apart. from the campaign years and the prospects are going to 10 years i think it's time to shake things up maybe change the branding maybe the format here is what i've been thinking about next season briggs related episodes filmed on an island 10 experts cited for a trophy what do you think ok a more affordable option 25 text for. one red rose another

suggestion political jeopardy parody no political cookout where we will literally wrote the elite. late night show it's a rare form of these days and it's cheap all you need is an old microphone in a printed band. if i actually agree with one of my i guess i can do this candle after politics gone wild like music. ok crosstalk is not about hype it's about meaning 10 years of talk and still going strong. peter if you want to change something why don't we get rid of the gotye you know that is too much. here we are 2019 with negative interest rates and multi $100000000000.00 trillion dollar venture capital unicorns are all

going to cost and the colossal fail out is being felt in every corner of the global economy and that's why countries are buying gold. has reduced you already more you. are happy oh. mr smith.

in the headlines of ukraine's president refutes accusations he was pressured by donald trump into investigating the u.s. election rival for a summary of a phone call between the 2 leaders has been released and the republicans and the democrats today sticking firmly to their party lines over it. would be seen in writing. is about as damning as you can imagine this phone call is now an impeachable offense if it becomes an impeachable offense. still wants to investigate the alleged corrupt activities of former u.s. vice president joe biden this that he claims goes well beyond ukraine coming up we go into.