On 21 December 2025, I appeared on Tom Switzer’s excellent new podcast — “Switzerland” — to discuss geopolitics with my good friend and intellectual rival, Kishore Mahbubani. We talked a lot about the rise of China and the US response, but focused on other geopolitical issues as well.
Mearsheimer explains why Russia should win a war of attrition in theory.
RUSI explains why Russia can lose it in practice.
The difference is simple:
Size only matters if losses can actually be replaced with sustainable combat power. When losses per kilometer rise faster than the ability to regenerate forces, volume turns into strategic self-harm.
Dismissing RUSI is often just a way to avoid discussing how wars are actually won.
Mearsheimer never present facts for his analysis.
This one was by far the MOST INTERESTING video I have seen with John meirsheimer in it because the host was actually asking good questions and I loved how the two most knowledgeable people that I look up to have such opposite yet interesting views and how both make sense at the same time I hope you do videos like this more where the host actually asks questions that a normal person and a person with opposite views will ask