FOUR IRRELEVANT QUESTIONS FOR ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

A foreign policy lecture at London’s renowned international affairs hub, Chatham House, isn’t the sexiest way to spend an evening. But with Zbigniew Brzezinski as the invited guest speaker, the discussion was complex, enlightening and stunningly direct.

Brzezinksi was America's national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981. Now he’s professor of foreign policy at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC, and a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He’s a no-nonsense man with a slick haircut and a sly sense of humour. On this recent occasion, he sported an impressive double-breasted pinstripe suit.

It was interesting, as an American in London, to sit in a room full of professional Brits listening to a Polish-American talk about what’s going on in American’s minds when it comes to world politics. For an hour Brzezinski delivered his take on America’s view of the world in 2008, in light of Barack Obama's win. He lamented the fact that there isn't a politically unified Europe right now. He pushed for a renewed transanlantic dialogue and a worldwide coalition of partners committed to interdependence and global management (the guy sitting next to me responded by shifting in his seat and exhaling loudly, repeatedly). Also, America and Europe should be more engaged with China, Russia and Iran, and Afghanistan needs to be de-militarised.

“We need an intelligent public in America,” Brzezinksi said. “They are woefully uneducated about the world. This makes us susceptible to demagogy and a culture of fear. Obama has the gifts to change this.” When someone in the audience asked how America and Europe could help foster what Brzezinski called a “global political awakening”, he responded by saying “You don’t export democracy with bayonets. And when a party wins that we do not like, we ostracise it. That is a problem.”

After the formal Q&A, but before he was whisked behind closed doors for a more exclusive Chatham House dinner, I approached Brzezinski with some considerably less relevant questions of my own.

Q: You keep a busy, high profile schedule. What will you do when you stop working?
A: I suppose I’ll die, I guess.

Q: When you seriously want to relax, what music do you like to listen to?
A: I just love Chopin.

Q: What was the last book you read that really left an impression on you?
A: Oh, well it was this fascinating book by [historian] Tim Snyder called "The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke". It’s a remarkable story.

Q: What’s your favourite country to visit and why?
A: [laughs] No comment. Well I guess I love them all.

~ GARY MOSKOWITZ