Although I find Walt’s version of realism easier to digest because it tends to take a more positive view of international law, the two tend to come out on the same side on major foreign policy questions. In this interview, Mearsheimer talks about his focus on the behavior of major powers and their focus on the challenges of “peer competitor” powers asserting their geopolitical influence in the other great power’s perceived area of influence. (1)
But he does misstate one thing in the interview when he says that the Nixon Administration orchestrating a coup against Chilean President Salvador Allende’s government in 1973, which initiated along dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet. In light of the current Presidential campaign in which a candidate from the Communist Party is in a runoff with a far-right admirer of Pinochet’s dictatorship, it’s worth commenting on this a bit further.
Allende was the head of Chile’s Socialist Party which competed with the Chilean Communist Party. The Communist Party was not part of Allende’s administration, i.e., it had no ministers in the government. In Chile’s Congress, the Communists “tolerated” Allende’s government, meaning they voted for his proposals. Allende was not a 1973-style Maoist or a follower of Soviet Communist Party Chair Leonid Breshnev.
His real sin in the Nixon Administration’s eyes was that he nationalized Chile’s copper mines, giving the mine owners what Allende’s government considered fair compensation. One of the big ironies of that situation is the Pinochet’s dictatorship retained state ownership of the copper mines.
Mearsheimer mentions that almost in passing, and it’s possible that he was intending to say that’s how Dick Nixon and Henry Kissinger claimed to see it. They knew better, of course. But that was a blooper on Mearsheimer’s part there. Those don’t pop up very often!
In this interview with on Gaza with Helena Cobban, Mearsheimer talks about the strange Resolution 2803 that the UN passed this week and about Gaza more generally. (2) Cobban has been reporting on the Middle East for decades and analyzing events there for a long time, including at her Globalities website.
The text at the YouTube site says:
In this episode of Gaza & the World, Professor John Mearsheimer spoke with Helena about the fallout from UN Security Council Resolution 2803. He described the resolution as a disgrace that denied Palestinians any real path to self-determination. Moreover, he said the measure placed Gaza under the control of the United States and Israel, while excluding Palestinians from shaping their own future, and he noted that the resolution demanded the disarmament of Hamas even though international law affirmed the right to resist an illegal occupation.In a report for The Guardian, Julian Borger calls Resolution 2803 “one of the oddest in United Nations history.” (3)
Israeli political scientists Dahlia Scheindlin analyzes the resolution in Haaretz, noting that it “has satisfied few people other than Trump himself.” (4)
Which is a pretty strong statement on how bad it is. “Even Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supported the resolution, which uses the dreaded word "statehood" for Palestinians, with only half his soul: He expressed his enthusiasm on his official, prime ministerial English-language X account.”
After Israel’s genocidal war phase of 2023-2025 – the genocide itself continues – it would be reasonable to expect that the great powers and leading European countries haven’t take more initiative to restrain the Netanyahu’s government’s actions. So far, we have a theoretical real estate project and a theoretical peacekeeping program and no substantive agreements by the key parties on the major elements of Trump’s Everlasting Peace Plan.
But, as Scheindlin notes:
There are better reasons than Netanyahu's hostility to Palestinian self-determination to be skeptical of the resolution. For instance, it only inches towards answering myriad questions about how one of the key foundations of the cease-fire's next stages – the International Stabilization Force (ISF) – will work in practice.Who knew that Trump’s Eternal Peace Plan could be so complicated?
Others think the resolution clarifies its real intention quite clearly: Zaha Hassan, a senior fellow at the Middle East program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Haaretz that the resolution "essentially endorsed a new occupying entity for Gaza involving an American and Israeli partnership."
How’s the ceasefire going? Here’s a headline from Drop Site News today: Israel Kills Over 30 Palestinians in Gaza in One of Bloodiest Assaults of "Ceasefire".
Notes:
(1) Russia DOMINATES on the Battlefield + China's RISE Challenges the US: Prof. John Mearsehimer. Rachel Blevins YouTube channel 11/18/2025. <https://youtu.be/C_OHAqTu_oo?si=vrnTBhRQbua1vz5J> (Accessed: 2025-20-11).
(2) Gaza & the World Episode 5 featuring Prof. John Mearsheimer: The UN Resolution That Betrayed Gaza. Just World Educational <https://youtu.be/RCswuQLbC2Y?si=6uP_0z9pvfjJZfg6> (Accessed: 2025-19-11).
(3) Borger, Julian (2025): One of the oddest UN resolutions in history seeks to solidify shaky Gaza ceasefire into an enduring peace. Guardian 11/18/2025. <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/18/one-of-the-oddest-un-resolutions-in-history-seeks-to-solidify-shaky-gaza-ceasefire-into-an-enduring-peace> (Accessed: 2025-19-11).
(4) Is the UN Resolution on Gaza Hopeful, Meaningless – or Dangerous? Haaretz 11/19/2025. <https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-11-19/ty-article/.premium/is-the-un-resolution-on-gaza-hopeful-meaningless-or-dangerous/0000019a-9c7b-d5e6-abff-fcff58b80000?gift=4626092310494e339e545dc68567c03b> (Accessed: 2025-19-11).
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