This is a 2.5 hour conversation that I had with Professor Joseph Siracusa in Melbourne, Australia, on the 17th of March, 2022, just before the Ukrainian invasion. We discussed the Ukraine-Russia tensions, international diplomacy, history, theology, philosophy, and many other topics. Note that the audio for this episode was compromised, and so what is presented is the audio from the iPhone recording. It’s not ideal, but the message will overshadow the audio quality by far. About professor Joseph Siracusa: Prof. Joseph Siracusa is a professor of Political History and International Diplomacy at Curtin University. Born and raised in Chicago and a long time resident of Australia, Joseph studied at the University of Denver and the University of Vienna and received his PhD at the University of Colorado (Boulder). He has worked at Merrill Lynch in Boston and New York; the University of Queensland; and for three years served as a senior visiting fellow in the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance at Griffith University. He has authored and co-authored 310 refereed publications including 75 books, monographs and chapters, 115 journal articles/entries and scholarly reviews, and 120 refereed proceedings. His publications include the following: America and the Cold War, 1941-1991: A Realist interpretation, 2 volumes (Praeger, 2010) Nuclear Weapons: A Very Short Introduction (Second edition, Oxford University Press, 2015) The Death Penalty and U.S. Diplomacy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013) A Global History of the Nuclear Arms Race, 2 volumes (Praeger, 2013) Language of Terror: How Neuroscience Influences Political Speech in the United States (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015) Diplomatic History: A Very Short Introduction, to be published by Oxford University Press, in early 2021 thewalledgarden.com