#250 Rachel Kleinfeld: A Savage Order; Decivilization, Dirty Deals, And Recivilization
Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She’s a leading expert on how democracies – including the United States – can improve, with a particular focus on countries facing poor leadership, polarized populations, violence, and corruption. She advises governments, philanthropists, and activists on how democracies make major social change. In 2010, Time magazine named Dr. Kleinfeld one of the top 40 political leaders under 40 in America. She serves on the boards of various for-profit companies and social sector organizations that align with her passion for issues on the intersections of security, human dignity, and empowerment. From 2011–2014 she served on the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board, which advised the Secretary of State quarterly. She’s the author of three books, the most recent one being A Savage Order: How the World’s Deadliest Countries Can Forge a Path to Security.
In this episode, we focus on Dr. Kleinfeld’s book, A Savage Order. We talk about different types of political violence, and how they interrelate, including what Dr. Kleinfeld calls “privilege violence”, and we refer to how violence against blacks was legitimized in the US after the civil war. We also discuss the decivilizing process, dirty deals, and the recivilizing process and why the middle class is so important in the latter. Toward the end, we also talk about the policies adopted in Georgia to systemically fighting against corruption, and also why we have to go beyond culture to understand violence, and also to deal with current political issues like mass migration, multiculturalism, and Islam.
Time Links:
The premise of A Savage Order
Different types of (political) violence
Privilege violence
The decivilizing process, and examples like the Italian mafias and the drug wars in Colombia
When dirty deals might work
The recivilizing process, and relegitimizing governments
Why is the middle class so important in this process?
Fighting against corruption, and the case of Georgia
Why culture isn’t that important to understand violence
Dealing with current political issues, like mass migration, multiculturalism, and Islam
Follow Dr. Kleinfeld’s work!
Follow Dr. Kleinfeld’s work:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace page: http://bit.ly/2Ue3DUP
Personal website: http://bit.ly/2L0ui4h
Books: http://bit.ly/2L0ujoR
A Savage Order: https://amzn.to/2PjcZQn
Twitter handle: @RachelKleinfeld