Evolutionary Psychology and International Relations, with Jeremy Garlick

Sinica Podcast

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This week on the Sinica Podcast, I chat with Jeremy Garlick, Director of the Jan Masaryk Centre for International Studies, Prague University, and a scholar of China’s international relations. Jeremy is the author of the book Advantage China: Agent of Change in an Era of Global Disruption, but the book we're talking about this week is his new Cambridge Element titled Evolution in International Relations. It's a fascinating attempt to apply ideas from evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology, and archaeogenetics to further our understanding of how nations interact.

6:13 – Why Jeremy decided to apply an evolutionary framework to IR

15:34 – Why evolutionary science hasn’t really been integrated into IR

19:32 – How Jeremy views his project as refining the IR field

22:43 – The risk of the misappropriation of Jeremy’s work, and the evolutionary elements of cooperation and intergroup competition

28:54 – How to avoid the trap of viewing evolution as teleological

34:07 – The idea of self-domestication

39:55 – Morality and human rights

45:17 – How emotions affect decision-making and diplomacy

50:32 – Hierarchy and status-seeking in IR

56:56 – Applying an evolutionary framework to the IR phenomena of alliances, nuclear deterrence, and strategic balancing

1:01:31 – Altruism toward out-groups

1:05:57 – The inevitability of competition with China

1:08:19 – The intellectual challenges Jeremy faced while working on this project, and what he would develop further in the future

1:12:51 – Jeremy’s thoughts on what IR as a discipline should address, integrating evolutionary science

Paying It Forward: Richard Turcsányi

Recommendations:

Jeremy: The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous by Joseph Henrich; and The Expanse novels by James S. A. Corey

Kaiser: Playground by Richard Powers

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