Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and economist David Daokui Li as they discuss Professor Li’s brilliant new book, China's World View: Demystifying China to Prevent Global Conflict. Listen in as Professor Li explains the deep nature of Chinese politics and economics – based on China’s long history, Confucian culture, and meritocratic political system.

Together, they delve into a wide-ranging discussion of politics, education, philosophy, culture, and international relations. Professor Li helps us to understand the similarities and differences in the Chinese and US approaches to politics and economics, and explains how US-Chinese relations can be peaceful, constructive, and beneficial for both countries and the world.
The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.

Footnotes:

• History of the People’s Republic of China
• Cultural Revolution
• Mao Zedong
• Civil Service of the People's Republic of China
• Meritocracy
• Social Structure in China
• Ancestor Veneration
• Lincoln Portrait, “Fellow Citizens, We Cannot Escape History..”
• Checks and Balances in China
• Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party
• Century of Humiliation
• Confucianism
• Opium Wars
• Meiji Restoration
• China-Russia Border
• Ancient Chinese History
• Ezra Vogel

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Eric Foner, as they discuss Foner's latest novel, The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution.

Together, they discuss this transformative era in American history, and how the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments remain strong tools for achieving the American ideal of equality, if only we will take them up.
The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.
Footnotes:

• The Second Founding
• 13th, 14th & 15th US Amendments
• History of the US
• American Civil War
• Three-fifths Clause
• “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”
• Timeline of the Revolution
• Plantation States
• Slavery & Serfdom
• Abraham Lincoln
• Abolitionism
• Fugitive Slave Acts
• Debt Limit
• Emancipation Proclamation
• Marx & Engels on the Civil War
• Birthright Citizenship
• Insurrection
• Federalism
• Jurisprudence
• US Electoral Process
• Texas House Passes Voting Bill
• The Dunning School
• W.E.B. Du Bois: Black Reconstruction

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and global security expert Jon Wolfsthal to unravel the stark reality behind the Doomsday Clock - now set at a perilous 89 seconds to midnight. What does this ominous timepiece truly measure, and why has humanity never been closer to catastrophe? Wolfsthal offers a behind-the-scenes look at the decision-making process that determines the clock’s position and insights into how and if we can move the clock further away from midnight.

Together, they dive deep into the rising threats of nuclear war, climate change, AI-driven warfare, and biological risks, exposing the fragile state of global security. The conversation traces the history of the clock—from moments of de-escalation, like the Cold War’s end, to the unraveling of arms control agreements and the resurgence of dangerous geopolitical tensions. But it’s not all doom and gloom—this episode also lays out real, actionable solutions to push back from the brink and build a safer future. Can world leaders act in time, or are we sleepwalking into disaster? Tune in for a crucial discussion on humanity’s future—before it’s too late.

Footnotes:

• Doomsday Clock
• Bulletin of Atomic Scientists
• Einstein and the Nuclear Arms Race
• Treaty on the Prohibition Nuclear Weapons
• Ivana Nikolić Hughes
• Nuclear Weapon
• Oppenheimer
• Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
• JFK Peace Speech
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• Biowarfare
• Alpha Fold Nobel Prize
• Dual-use Technology
• Biosafety Level
• Genetic Engineering
• Disruptive Technologies
• Truman and Oppenheimer
• Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and economist Francisco Rodriguez as they discuss Professor Rodriguez’s newest publication, The Human Consequences of Economic Sanctions. Prof. Rodriguez is an expert on the use of unilateral economic sanctions - when one country imposes economic costs on another, and shares insights on the US as the main user of such unilateral economic sanctions.

Professor Rodriguez offers us a comprehensive assessment of the effects of unilateral sanctions on the living standards in target countries. The effects of sanctions are dramatic: rising poverty, falling living standards, and premature deaths. These consequences go far beyond politics, and hit the civilian population very hard. Professor Sachs and Rodriguez offer a fascinating discussion that sheds light on economic warfare, and how it is deployed in the world today.
The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.
Footnotes:

• Economic Sanctions
• Crisis in Venezuela
• Venezuela Economy
• The Rise and Fall of a Petrostate
• Hugo Chavez
• History of the Venezuelan Oil Industry
• US Economy
• US Sanctions
• International Financial Statistics
• US Maximum Pressure
• Nicolás Maduro
• Unilateral Sanctions
• Secondary Sanctions
• Juan Guaidó
• Citgo
• Sanctions During the Venezuela Crisis
• How Latin America Has Been Shaped

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Professor Christopher Blattman, to explore the dynamics of war and peace as they discuss Blattman’s, Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace. In his newest book, Blattman argues that violence is not the norm; that there are five reasons why wars break out; and how peacemakers can draw on these reasons to prevent and stop wars.

Together, they explore the dynamics of war and peace: how communities resolve conflicts, and why such efforts sometimes fail, leading to war. As conflict rages in Ukraine, listen in on this timely and vital conversation to learn more about “Why We Fight" and how we can end wars.

The Book Club with Jeffrey Sachs is brought to you by the SDG Academy, the flagship education initiative of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Learn more and get involved at bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org.
Footnotes:

• Mao Zedong
• Ukraine War
• Clausewitz: War as Politics by other Means
• Military History of Russia
• The Rise of Personalist Rule
• Washington as Land Speculator
• French and Indian War
• Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch
• Semi-sovereignty
• Game Theory
• Reversed Industrialization
• Stalemate
• Thucydides Trap
• The Peloponnesian War
• NATO
• War of Attrition
• Frozen Conflict
• Autocrat
• Vietnam War
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy
• United Nations Security

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➡️ Website: bookclubwithjeffreysachs.org
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