America’s Polarization Is a Foreign Policy Problem, Too

Posted on Thursday November 4 2021

By Stephen M. Walt in Foreign Policy, March 11, 2019

Partisan Politics, one sometimes still hears, are supposed to “stop at the water’s edge.”  Domestic political quarrels might be intense and occasionally personal, but Americans are supposed to temper their disagreements and link arms when dealing with the outside world.

This notion was always a bit of an exaggeration — if not outright myth — even in the heyday of the fabled “Cold War consensus…

To read the entire article, click here.

Upcoming Speakers

  • April 17, 2023
    Susan Landau
    Topic: The Reality of Cyberwar – in Ukraine and Elsewhere
  • May 8, 2023
    Christopher Costa
    Topic: Reflections on Counterterrorism and the Future Terrorism Threat
  • June 10, 2023
    Amna Nawaz
    Topic: To Be Announced
  • July 10, 2023
    Thomas Ricks
    Topic: First Principles: What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country

View all speakers past and present »

Articles

Ukraine gave up nuclear weapons at our behest. Here’s what we owe them.

Posted on Saturday March 4

By Jon B. Wolfsthal, The Washington Post, February 10, 2023 The world is on the cusp of a dangerous new nuclear era, and the war in Ukraine might be a glimpse of what is to come. Reflecting this, the hands of the iconic Doomsday Clock, an indicator reflecting the opinion of the Bulletin of the Atomic […]

Read full announcement »

Derek Mitchell: Three articles on democracy and international security

Posted on Friday February 3

Ambassador Derek Mitchell thought the following three articles would provide a helpful background for his February 2023 presentation on Democracy and International Security. “The Ground Game: Supporting Democracy Must Be Part of America’s Global Strategy,” by Derek Mitchell, The Hill, September 15, 2022 Today’s International Day of Democracy offers an opportunity to review the state of global […]

Read full announcement »

The revenge of history in Ukraine: year of war has shaken up world order

Posted on Friday December 30

By Patrick Wintour, The Guardian, December 26, 2022 The Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko recalls a quote attributed to Otto von Bismarck: “Wars are not won by generals, but by schoolteachers and parish priests.” It’s a country’s taught collective memory, its shared sense of its own history, that are the decisive instruments for mobilisation, and are […]

Read full announcement »

Made with Bravery: the Story of Ukrainian Startup Resilience

Posted on Friday December 30

Produced and Directed by Dan Herman, Go To Jupiter Productions Inc., November 2, 2022 From coffee shops to bomb shelters, work-life balance to work-war balance, “Made with Bravery: the Story of Ukrainian Startup Resilience” profiles how Ukraine’s startup ecosystem has reacted and adapted to life amidst over 200 days of full-scale Russian invasion, and how […]

Read full announcement »

Dan Golden: Op-ed, NYT book review, and book excerpt

Posted on Monday December 5

Below you will find an op-ed written by Dan Golden as well as a New York Times book review of and except from his recent book on cybercrime. Dan thought these readings would provide a helpful background for his December 2022 presentation. “Why the F.B.I. Is So Far Behind on Cybercrime,” by Dan Golden, The New […]

Read full announcement »

Would Putin Roll the Nuclear Dice?

Posted on Tuesday November 1

By Steven Pifer, Time, October 18, 2022 Since Russia launched its most recent invasion of Ukraine in February, Moscow has threatened—sometimes subtly, other times explicitly—nuclear escalation should the war not go its way. Ukraine and the West have to take such threats seriously. But the Kremlin also needs to take their probable responses seriously and […]

Read full announcement »

We can’t afford US Congress wavering in its support for Ukraine

Posted on Tuesday November 1

By Steven Pifer, The Guardian, October 27, 2022 On 24 October, 30 members of the House Democratic Progressive Caucus released a letter to Joe Biden calling for a “proactive diplomatic push” on Kyiv to work toward a ceasefire and “direct [US] engagement” with Moscow to end the Russia-Ukraine war. One week earlier, Republican House leader Kevin […]

Read full announcement »

Taliban facing backlash after U.S. drone strike against al-Qaeda leader

Posted on Monday October 3

By Pamela Constable, The Washington Post, August 2, 2022 KABUL — The U.S. drone strike that killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri here early Sunday also struck a humiliating blow against the Taliban regime, which had secretly hosted the aging extremist in the heart of the Afghan capital for months but failed to keep him safe. […]

Read full announcement »

Beneath Kabul’s surprising veneer of normalcy, a precarious balancing act

Posted on Monday October 3

By Pamela Constable, The Washington Post, August 11, 2022 KABUL — An uneasy calm has settled over the Afghan capital this summer, a wary detente between the country’s stern religious rulers and a deflated, worried populace that is struggling to survive but also relieved that the punishing 20-year war involving foreign troops is over. Both […]

Read full announcement »

Restore Reagan’s Military ‘Margin of Safety’

Posted on Wednesday September 7

By Roger Zakheim, The Wall Street Journal, August 28, 2022  The U.S. faces the most daunting security landscape in 45 years. That’s no coincidence. Earlier this year Russia launched the bloodiest armed conflict in Europe since World War II, and this summer China publicly displayed plans to strangle or swallow the free people of Taiwan. Leaders […]

Read full announcement »

Collapse of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces: An Assessment of the Factors That Led to Its Demise

Posted on Monday June 27

By the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), May 2022 Since 2002, the United States has allocated nearly $90 billion in security sector assistance to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), with the goal of developing an independent, self-sustaining force capable of combating both internal and external threats. Yet, in August 2021, […]

Read full announcement »

The big emerging question: How to finance the net-zero transition in emerging markets

Posted on Monday June 13

By Paul Bodnar, Jean Boivin, and Isabelle Mateos y Lago, Black Rock Investment Institute, October 2021 Climate change is a global crisis that requires a global response. Without a successful green transition everywhere, climate risk is unmanageable anywhere. Reaching the globally agreed climate goals requires speed – notably a 50% reduction in emissions by 2030, […]

Read full announcement »

USAID Development Assistance Counter Terrorism: A Guide to Programming

Posted on Friday May 6

Below you will find the USAID document that Stacia George thought would provide a helpful background in advance of her May 2022 presentation on counter terrorism. USAID Development Assistance Counter Terrorism: A Guide to Programming. October 2009. This guide discusses the implications for practitioners pursuing development objectives in the context of counter-extremism (CE). Because programming […]

Read full announcement »

Understanding Central Asia’s Cautious Approach to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Posted on Friday April 1

By Bruce Pannier, Foreign Policy Research Institute, March 25, 2022 The governments in Central Asia are treading cautiously in their remarks about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Central Asia, too, was part of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union, and, when some in Central Asia see the news from Ukraine, they might wonder if they are […]

Read full announcement »

Ambassador Laura Kennedy: Article, Podcast, and Video

Posted on Friday April 1

Below you will find an article, podcast, and video that Ambassador Laura Kennedy thought would provide a helpful background on the “Stans” in advance of her April 2022 presentation. Dealing with Kazakhstan’s Nuclear Inheritance, Foreign Service Journal, March 30,2022. Ambassador Kennedy’s book review of Atomic Steppe: How Kazakhstan gave up the bomb by Togzhan Kassenova. To […]

Read full announcement »

Read all announcements »