Matthew Yglesias agrees with John Bolton

Matt Yglesias doesn’t like the nuclear deal with India: What’s happening in this deal is that we’re granting India concessions related to its nuclear program and India is giving us . . . essentially nothing in exchange…. Meanwhile, from a neoconnish perspective the fact that this undermines the nonproliferation regime is probably a good thing. ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

Matt Yglesias doesn't like the nuclear deal with India: What's happening in this deal is that we're granting India concessions related to its nuclear program and India is giving us . . . essentially nothing in exchange.... Meanwhile, from a neoconnish perspective the fact that this undermines the nonproliferation regime is probably a good thing. They hate the idea that diplomatic agreements might actually work and undermine their efforts to start an endless series of wars.Yeah... there are a few problems with this interpretation. The biggest, of course, is that the biggest neocon involved in the nonproliferation question opposed the India nuclear deal. As for Matt's interpretation of the deal.... I've defended it before, but I'll ask the same question again -- under what set of magical circumstances was India ever going to agree to give up their nuclear weapons? Not everything the Bush administration does is part of the neocon grand plan. Indeed, I think we can all agree that "neocon grand plan" is a really bad joke.

Matt Yglesias doesn’t like the nuclear deal with India:

What’s happening in this deal is that we’re granting India concessions related to its nuclear program and India is giving us . . . essentially nothing in exchange…. Meanwhile, from a neoconnish perspective the fact that this undermines the nonproliferation regime is probably a good thing. They hate the idea that diplomatic agreements might actually work and undermine their efforts to start an endless series of wars.

Yeah… there are a few problems with this interpretation. The biggest, of course, is that the biggest neocon involved in the nonproliferation question opposed the India nuclear deal. As for Matt’s interpretation of the deal…. I’ve defended it before, but I’ll ask the same question again — under what set of magical circumstances was India ever going to agree to give up their nuclear weapons? Not everything the Bush administration does is part of the neocon grand plan. Indeed, I think we can all agree that “neocon grand plan” is a really bad joke.

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

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