Kenneth N. Waltz's motives

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Jun 24, 2012 at 14:05

Dear Dr Pipes,

You are absolutely right to use the word 'stupidest' in describing Kenneth N. Waltz's opinion on the Iranian nuclear stance. Even if we have the fact that Iran is an Islamic dictatorship/theocracy, it makes no sense that every small nation in the world has a nuclear device. Nuclear disarmament is a good goal and mutual deterrence or balance is too risky a hope to rely on. So Waltz's thesis is indeed stupid.

Why do seemingly sensible people publish stupid opinions? A lot of oil money is flowing into western universities and it may not be coming for free. At the very least the academics who express such opinions may be driven by some vested interests.

But I think people have at least some recourse for academics like Waltz. If you are a student in Waltz's university, do not take his classes. Just stay away. It is against our democratic values to fire people like Waltz but it is exactly our democratic values that allow us to isolate him for his beliefs (on a person to person basis).

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