Lessons From 250 Years of U.S. Foreign Policy, With Robert Kagan

This episode unpacks the history of 250 years of U.S. foreign policy and examines patterns of the United States’ engagement with the world.

Host:

James M. Lindsay (cfr.org/experts/james-m-lindsay), Mary and David Boies Distinguished Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy, CFR

Guest:

Robert Kagan (brookings.edu/people/robert-kagan), Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; Author, Dangerous Nation: America’s Place in the World From Its Earliest Days to the Dawn of the Twentieth Century and The Ghost at the Feast: America and Collapse of World Order, 1900-1941

We Discuss:

• Why Robert Kagan argues that Americans misunderstand their own history and have long been a “dangerous nation” rather than an insular one.

• How American foreign policy debates have always been entangled with domestic politics, and what the polarized fights of the founding era reveal about the true norm of American political life.

• Which forces have consistently pulled the United States outward, producing an oscillation between intervention and retrenchment.

• Why the era of American imperialism following the Spanish-American War, including the humanitarian motives behind U.S. intervention in Cuba, is among the most misunderstood chapters of U.S. history

• Why Americans tend to enter wars with enthusiasm only to sour on them afterward.

• Whether the United States is forgetting the lessons of the postwar order.

• What the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence should teach Americans about the fragility of liberal democracy.

Mentioned on the Episode:

Robert Kagan, Dangerous Nation: America’s Place in the World From Its Earliest Days to the Dawn of the Twentieth Century (amazon.com/Dangerous-Nation-Americas-Earliest-…), Knopf

Robert Kagan, The Ghost at the Feast: America and the Collapse of World Order, 1900–1941 (penguinrandomhouse.com/books/89274/the-ghost-a…), Knopf

Robert Kagan, The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World (penguinrandomhouse.com/books/576193/the-jungle…), Knopf

Walter Lippmann, U.S. Foreign Policy: Shield of the Republic (amazon.com/U-S-foreign-policy-shield-republic/…), Little, Brown

Norman Angell, The Great Illusion (gutenberg.org/files/38535/38535-h/38535-h.htm), G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (amazon.com/End-History-Last-Man/dp/0743284550), Free Press

James A. Field Jr., “American Imperialism: The Worst Chapter in Almost Any Book (jstor.org/stable/pdf/1861842.pdf),” American Historical Review

“Declaration of Independence (archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration),” National Archives

George Washington, “Farewell Address (senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf…),” 1796

For an episode transcript and show notes, visit The President’s Inbox at: cfr.org/podcasts/presidents-inbox/lessons-from…

Opinions expressed on The President’s Inbox are solely those of the host or guests, not of CFR, which takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.