Host Harry Kreisler welcomes Rory Stewart, Member of the British Parliament,for a discussion of his remarkable odyssey. Reflecting on his background and drawing on his work as a diplomat, soldier, explorer, provincial governor, policy advisor, university research fellow, director of an NGO, and parliamentarian, he describes what he has learned from these multiple experiences. Analyzing the failure of intervention by the West in Iraq and Afghanistan, he focuses on the contradictions between the abstract theories that guide Western policy and the social structures, the geography and history that define the realities of the people and places of Afghanistan and Iraq His conversation concludes with advice for students on preparing the future in an uncertain world.