Shifting global alignments pose a quandary for U.S. foreign policy.
For much of the 20th century, the United States has toggled between two foreign-policy impulses: to actively insert itself in the affairs of the world or to hang back and focus on its own domestic issues. Advocates of the two approaches to international relations have had various designations, including liberals and realists, or interventionists and isolationists.
But these days, the world is shifting more dramatically than in decades, with the rise of China as a political and economic power and the increasing belligerence of Russia toward its neighbors. With those changes underway, is that old dichotomy still relevant? And what is America’s proper role in the world?
FP editor in chief Ravi Agrawal sat down recently with political scientist Stephen Wertheim to discuss these very questions. Wertheim, a senior fellow at the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has written about the issue extensively, including in the pages of Foreign Policy.
We’re featuring their conversation in the last episode of our podcast, Global Reboot. The show is produced by Foreign Policy in partnership with the Doha Forum.
About Global Reboot: Global Reboot explores how to rebuild a world upended by disruptive international events. FP’s editor in chief Ravi Agrawal engages with world leaders and policy experts to identify solutions to our greatest challenges. Global Reboot is a FP Partner Podcast with the Doha Forum. See All Episodes
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