Debating the "Hot New Foreign Policy Book of the Season"

I'm not a big fan of Matthew Yglesias' foreign policy views (if you hadn't noticed), although I'm about half-way through his new book, Heads in the Sand: How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats.

I've got posts brewing on Yglesias' latest writings (he's extremely far to the left on foreign policy, despite his repeated efforts in the book to locate his positions as basically a "neglected centrist" alternative to compliant, opportunistic Democratic Party "liberal hawks"), but until then, here's your chance to get the inside dope on the book straight from the horse's mouth.

The video's an Atlantic magazine production, featuring a surprisingly friendly exchange between Yglesias and Ross Douthat, two commentators of widely divergent in political ideologies:

Douthat looks to be a tolerant guy, sitting pleasantly as he is with Yglesias, considering his own tightly argued right-wing conservatism.

I guess it's possible, though, to explain bookish pleasantries between these two, as I do maintain some professionaly collegiality with the few genuine Stalinists I happen to work with in my school division.

I'll have my own take on Heads in the Sand in upcoming posts, but don't forget Jamie Kirchick's killer review of the book, as well as the non-photoshopped picture of (a fundamentally incredible) Yglesias in a kafiya.