For decades, Eliot A. Cohen has been one of our best students of international affairs. He has been dean of SAIS — the School of Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins — etc. For years, he was on National Review’s masthead. He and Bill Buckley admired each other a lot.
Professor Cohen has now written a book about Shakespeare — about that master’s insights into power: The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare on How Leaders Rise, Rule, and Fall. He is my guest on Q&A, here. By “he,” I mean Cohen, not Shakespeare, but Shakespeare is with us in spirit, certainly.
Cohen’s title comes from Richard II — who says,
For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings —
How some have been deposed, some slain in war, Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed,
Some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed,
All murdered. For within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps Death his court, and there the antic sits,
Scoffing his state and grinning at his pomp,
Allowing him a breath, a little scene,
To monarchize, be feared, and kill with looks,
Infusing him with self and vain conceit,
As if this flesh which walls about our life
Were brass impregnable; and humored thus,
Comes at the last and with a little pin
Bores through his castle wall, and farewell, king!
Cohen first encountered Shakespeare in junior high school. He had an excellent English teacher. They read Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet, as most young students do (or used to). But they also read The Merchant of Venice. Young Cohen attended an Orthodox Hebrew day school.
In The Hollow Crown, he does not go play by play. Rather, he goes theme by theme: how leaders acquire power, use it, and lose it.
There are no direct comparisons of Shakespeare characters to modern leaders. We are talking about individuals. Still, there are traits, types, and patterns.
In early 2022, many people were skeptical that Putin would launch an all-out invasion of Ukraine. It seemed so bald, so risky: to try to conquer and vassalize a sovereign European nation. Cohen could envision his doing it, however.
Richard III gets away with murder. Over and over. At first, he is cagey, cautious — taking care to cover his tracks. But eventually, he is brazen, figuring he can get away with anything. Who will stop him?
Putin had gotten away with so much — in Georgia, in Syria, in eastern Ukraine . . . Who could have blamed him for feeling invincible and unopposable?
At some point in our conversation, I ask Professor Cohen whether he has a favorite Shakespeare play. He does not, really. He says, however, that Julius Caesar appeals to him the way the movie Casablanca does: There is not an excess word in it. It is perfectly economical.
Before saying goodbye, we talk about the Ukraine war and the Gaza war. An Israeli friend wrote to Cohen, saying, “We are a nation of lions, led by donkeys.” Cohen responded, “That’s better than the other way around.”
Both Ukraine and Israel, says Cohen, have strong civil society — which is greatly to their advantage. They are faced with enemies who have “eliminationist intent.” Each enemy is wanton in its murdering, raping, kidnapping, etc. How will it turn out, for Ukrainians and Israelis?
Cohen cites a book by the late historian Zara Steiner about the 1930s: The Triumph of the Dark. Future historians may write of the current period as another “triumph of the dark.” But “it doesn’t have to be that way,” as Cohen says.
“It’s on us,” he continues. By way of explanation, he returns to Shakespeare: “He’s not interested in mass movements, he’s not interested in economics, he’s not really interested in sociology. He’s interested in individuals: what individuals do, and who individuals are, and what sorts of character they have.” And “I think it’s a reminder to us that our individual characters matter.”
Eliot A. Cohen is an invaluable American. He has his detractors — so does anyone worth his salt. Again, to hear our Q&A, go here.