The SCRUM: ’Washington’s Bias Toward War’ A conversation with Col. Lawrence Wilkerson

As war clouds gather over Ukrainian, we were very honored to be joined by Lawrence Wilkerson.  Col. Wilkerson had a long and distinguished career in the United States Army, where he was a member of the faculty of the U.S. Naval War College. He later served as special assistant to General Colin Powell when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the administration of George HW Bush. Wilkerson later served as director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, VA. He returned to public service in the early 2000s, this time at the State Department, as associate director of the Policy Planning Staff under Richard Haas and then, from 2002-2005, as secretary of state Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff. He is currently a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Government and Public Policy at William and Mary.  Our conversation covered a lot of ground ranging from the proximate causes of the ongoing Ukrainian crisis to the venality of the American’s foeign policy elite. Wilkerson’s critique of US foreign policy since the end of the Cold War is nothing short of devastating.  If only Washington would wake up and listen. --Patrick Lawrence and James W. Carden