We tend to look at today’s world as a consequence of World War II. Yet, in the first years after that war, there were several directions which the world could have turned. There was a chance that China would not have become communist. There was also a chance that Europe would have become much more communist.

A few years ago, Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, the current editor of Foreign Affairs magazine, wrote The China Mission, a book in which he explores the attempt by George Marshall, the architect of the Allies’ victory against the Nazis, to bring China closer to America.

Find the book: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393240955

We discuss why this mission failed, how the world could look differently if it had succeeded, and what lessons we can draw from that episode for today’s world. We also talk about how Russia's invasion of Ukraine is changing the world now.

Daniel Kurtz-Phelan is the Editor of Foreign Affairs. His book The China Mission was published in 2018 and named a best book of the year by The Economist and an editor's pick by the New York Times Book Review.

Host: Volodymyr Yermolenko, Ukrainian philosopher, chief editor of UkraineWorld, and president of PEN Ukraine

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