Currently a fellow at the Hoover Institution, Paul Wolfowitz previously served in many roles: director of policy planning at the State Department, U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, undersecretary of defense for policy, dean of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, deputy secretary of defense, and president of the World Bank. He is perhaps best known as a policy-maker during the war in Afghanistan and the first and second wars in Iraq, and that is what we delve into in great detail in this episode. Wolfowitz gives his views on what the United States got right and got wrong in both Iraq and Afghanistan, recounting the data available to decision-makers at the time and the decision-making processes. He also gives new details on why the Bush administration believed Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and determined, after 9/11, that an invasion of Afghanistan was necessary, and how the idea for the surge in Iraq was conceived and executed.

Recorded on April 4, 2024.