John Mearsheimer - Offensive Realism

International Law Only Binds the Weak | Ask the Professor

YouTube channel member @KamranRazvan asks: What does the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty actually offer a non-nuclear state if international law has no real enforcement?

Was It a Mistake for Britain to Fight World War II? | Ask the Professor

In this episode I answer a question from channel member  @hassanakram8328 , who asks whether it was worth it for Britain to fight World War I and World War II, and whethe

Does Israel Win If the Gulf Burns? | Ask the Professor

YouTube channel member  @BrianPerry-f7b asks: Does Israel benefit if the Gulf states are devastated? Iran has threatened to hit Gulf civilian infrastructure if its own si

Israel’s Lobby vs US Democracy | A Special Roundtable

BUY THE BOOKS: Israel's Lobby: America in the Grip of a Foreign Power by Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick: https://amzn.to/4gMNJey The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Poli

Are Aircraft Carriers Obsolete? | Ask The Professor

Become a member to submit questions for future videos. Click Join: https://www.youtube.com/@johnmearsheimer/join YouTube channel member ⁠@JerryMcLaughlin-r8w ⁠ asked whe

Trump's Three-War Trap | Episode 13

Become a member to submit questions for future videos.  Click Join: https://www.youtube.com/@johnmearsheimer/join ———————————————————— PODCASTS Spotify: https://open.sp

Did Russia Manipulate Mearsheimer? | Ask The Professor

In this Ask the Professor, YouTube channel member @boresow asks how I separate real insight from propaganda after my visit to Russia, and whether I’m being used to amplif

Why Can’t America Contain China? | Ask The Professor

YouTube channel member ⁠ @GuanWang-n2g ⁠ asks: why did Washington never devote the resources needed to carry out the pivot to Asia that the Obama administration announced

We Can't Help Saudi Arabia | Ask the Professor

YouTube channel member ⁠@sambaker7691 ⁠ asks: how do you explain the shortcomings in U.S. efforts to give Saudi Arabia the air defenses it needs against Houthi missile an

Why Hamas Really Attacked Israel on Oct. 7 | Episode 12

October 7, 2026, marked the third anniversary of Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel. Considerable attention was devoted to commemorating that event in Israel and throughout

We’ll Never Beat the Houthis

DESCRIPTION YouTube Channel member @edhodapp6465 asks: should we go to war against the Houthis, and is damaging Iran's proxies a worthwhile strategy? My answer is no

The Korean War: America vs China | Ask The Professor

YouTube Channel member ⁠@spacecometrue ⁠ asked me to share my analysis of the causes and course of the Korean War. North Korea invaded the South on June 25, 1950, and nea

Trump Can’t Bluff Iran into Surrender | Episode 11

DESCRIPTION It seems clear that the Trump administration and its allies are working overtime to create the false impression that the United States is well on its way to

Forget Vietnam, You Get Iran And Iraq | Ask The Professor

I'll explain how the Vietnam War shaped my thinking about international relations, and the lessons it holds for today.

Will China Attack Taiwan? | Ask The Professor

I'll explain why I believe a Chinese invasion of Taiwan in the next decade is unlikely, and the one scenario that could change that.

The Inescapable US-China Rivalry | Episode 10

President Trump and President Xi Jinping just concluded a three-day summit in Washington, DC, that was noteworthy for its lofty rhetoric and almost complete lack of progr

Is Ukraine Committing National Suicide? | Episode 9

Iuliia Mendel, who served as President Zelensky’s press secretary from 2019 to 2021, published an article in The Spectator on September 15, 2026, titled “Zelensky’s Strat

The Russia I Saw | Episode 8

I recently spent 8 days in Russia – September 5-12, 2026 – mainly in Moscow and St. Petersburg. I gave a series of talks and interviews and spoke with numerous people in

A Must Read Book on the Israel Lobby | Episode 7

Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick have just published a terrific new book called Israel’s Lobby: America in the Grip of a Foreign Power. It appears twenty years after Steve Wal

Why Ukraine Is Doomed | Episode 6

In recent months, Western news coverage of the Ukraine war tells us that Russia is suffering huge casualties on the battlefield while making hardly any progress capturing