“Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy”
By Professor Joseph S. Nye, Jr (Harvard University)
Since we so often apply moral reasoning to foreign policy, how can we do it better?
Crucially, presidents must factor in both the political context and the availability
of resources when deciding how to implement an ethical policy--especially in a future
international system that presents not only great power competition from China and
Russia, but transnational threats as borders become porous to everything from drugs
to infectious diseases to terrorism to cyber criminals and climate change.
Professor Nye's Bio
Dr. Nye is a University Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus and former Dean of
Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He received his bachelor's degree summa cum
laude from Princeton University, won a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, and earned a
Ph.D. in political science from Harvard. He has served as Assistant Secretary of Defense
for International Security Affairs, Chair of the National Intelligence Council, and
a Deputy Under Secretary of State, and won distinguished service awards from all three
agencies. His books include "The Future of Power", "The Power Game: A Washington Novel", and (forthcoming) "Do Morals Matter?" He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the British Academy,
and the American Academy of Diplomacy. In a recent survey of international relations
scholars, he was ranked as the most influential scholar on American foreign policy,
and in 2011, Foreign Policy named him one of the top 100 Global Thinkers. In 2014,
Japan awarded him the Order of the Rising Sun.
The talk is based on Professor Nye's book, "Do Morals Matter?"
“How Do Populists Govern?"
By Jan-Werner Müller (Princeton University)
Donald Trump, Silvio Berlusconi, Marine Le Pen, Hugo Chávez, Viktor Orban, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan—populists seem to be on the rise across the globe. But what exactly is populism? Is
there really a global wave or movement? And how do populists govern? Is populism
a threat to democracy or does it represent the “true will” of the people?
The talk is based on Professor Mueller's book, "What is Populism?"
Professor Müller's Bio
Jan-Werner Müller is a professor at Princeton University. His books include "Constitutional Patriotism", "Contesting Democracy: Political Ideas in Twentieth Century Europe", and "What is Populism?", which has been translated into 25 languages. He writes for the London Review of
Books, the New York Times, and Foreign Affairs. Jan-Werner Müller studied at the Free
University, Berlin, University College, London, St. Antony’s College, Oxford, and
Princeton University. From 1996 until 2003 he was a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford;
from 2003 until 2005 he was Fellow in Modern European Thought at the European Studies
Centre, St. Antony’s College. Since 2005 he has been teaching in the Politics Department.
Photo credit: KD Busch.
“Migrants and Refugees – A Middle East Perspective”
By Professor Karen Jacobsen, Henry J. Leir Professor in Global Migration at The Fletcher
School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
Why do some people uproot themselves, while their neighbors stay put? How does the
experience of migration affect the migrants, their societies and relations between
sending and receiving states? Are there differences between refugees and migrants?
How effective are the international laws, policies and organizations that have evolved
to assist and protect refugees and migrants?
Professor Jacobsen's Bio
Karen Jacobsen is the Henry J. Leir Professor in Global Migration at The Fletcher
School of Law and Diplomacy and the Friedman School of Nutrition, and directs the
Refugees and Forced Migration Program at the Feinstein International Center. Professor
Jacobsen’s current research explores urban displacement and global migration systems. Jacobsen
works closely with practitioners and international refugee organizations and consults
frequently with UNHCR, IRC, ICRC, Unicef and the World Bank. In 2013-2014 she was
on leave from Tufts, leading the Joint IDP Profiling Service (JIPS) in Geneva. From
2000-2005, she directed the Alchemy Project, which explored the use of microfinance
as a way to support people in refugee camps and other displacement settings.
“The Two Americas: Can Americans See America the Way the Rest of the World Does?"
By Suzy Hansen, journalist and author
Why do some people uproot themselves, while their neighbors stay put? How does the
experience of migration affect the migrants, their societies and relations between
sending and receiving states? Are there differences between refugees and migrants?
How effective are the international laws, policies and organizations that have evolved
to assist and protect refugees and migrants?
The talk was based on Ms. Hanson's book, "Notes on a Foreign Country: An American
Abroad in a Post-American World"
Ms. Hansen's Bio
Suzy Hansen is an American journalist and editor who has lived in Istanbul, Turkey
for over ten years. She is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, where she writes mainly on Turkish politics, and has written about foreign affairs
for many other publications. Her first book about America's role in the Middle East, Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World, was published in 2017 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in the US, and in 2019 by Corsair
in the UK. It was awarded the Overseas Press Club’s Cornelius Ryan Award for Best Nonfiction Book on International Affairs, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction.
“Is Democracy in Danger – and should you care?"
Professor Jack A. Goldstone 2018 World Affairs Lecture
Many have expressed concerns about President Trump’s impact on our democratic processes.
At the same time, democracy scores around the world in 2017 reached their lowest level
in the last 13 years. Are these trends related? Should Americans be concerned about
the decline in democracy in other countries? Is democracy in the U.S. really under
threat? Professor Goldstone will discuss why we need to care about democracy abroad
to preserve it at home, and what lessons we can learn from other times in history
when democracy was under threat.
Dr. Goldstone Bio
Jack A. Goldstone is the Virginia E. and John T. Hazel, Jr. Professor of Public Policy
at George Mason University, and a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
Previously, Dr. Goldstone was on the faculty of Northwestern University and the University
of California, and has been a visiting scholar at Cambridge University, UCLA, UC-San
Diego and the California Institute of Technology, as well as director of research
institutes at the Russian Academy of National Economy (Moscow) and the Hong Kong University
of Science and Technology. He has been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study at
Stanford University, a distinguished lecturer at the American Academy in Berlin, and
won Fellowships from the J.S. Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation and
the American Council of Learned Societies. He is the author of Revolution and Rebellion
in the Early Modern World, awarded the 1993 Distinguished Scholarly Research Award
of the American Sociological Association; Why Europe? The Rise of the West in World
History; and nine other books as well as over one hundred and fifty research articles
on topics in politics, social movements, democratization, and long-term social change.
He has seven times won awards for “best article” in the fields of comparative-historical
sociology, political sociology, and social theory, and received the Myron Weiner award
for lifetime achievement from the International Studies Association. His current research
focuses on conditions for building democracy and stability in developing nations,
the impact of population change on the global economy and international security,
and the cultural origins of modern economic growth. He has appeared on NPR, CNN, Al-Jazeera,
Fox News, and written for Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, the Washington Post, Al-Hayat
and the International Herald Tribune. He has also worked extensively on forecasting
global conflict and terrorism, and with the US Agency for International Development
and the World Bank on providing democracy assistance to fragile states. Goldstone
is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and served on the advisory board
of the Council’s Center for Preventive Action.
Professor Jack A. Goldstone’s research focuses on conditions for building democracy
and stability in developing nations, the impact of population change on the global
economy and international security, and the cultural origins of modern economic growth.
He has worked extensively with the US Agency for International Development and the
World Bank on providing democracy assistance to fragile states. Goldstone is the
author of Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World [1993; 2016], awarded the 1993 Distinguished Scholarly Research Award of the American
Sociological Association; and, Why Europe? The Rise of the West in World History [2008]. He is blog posts can be found at https://newpopulationbomb.com
"Systemic Corruption and Its Dangers – At Home and Abroad"
Presented by Sarah Hayes - Senior Associate - Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace
Sarah Chayes is an international authority on corruption and its implications. Her
work explores how it exacerbates international crises such as terrorism, revolutions
and their violent aftermaths, and environmental degradation.
Along with Thieves of State, which won the 2016 L.A. Times Book Prize, Chayes is the author of the Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban
This talk was based on Ms. Chayes' book, "Thieves of State"
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Sarah Chayes Bio
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Sarah Chayes, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and
author of Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security, is an international authority on corruption and its implications. Her work explores
how it exacerbates international crises such as terrorism, revolutions and their violent
aftermaths, and environmental degradation.
In May 2016, Chayes participated alongside UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Secretary
of State John Kerry and world leaders from more than 40 countries at the first ever
international summit devoted to tackling corruption.
Before joining Carnegie, she served as special assistant to the top U.S. military
officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen. She participated
in Cabinet-level decision-making on Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Arab Spring, traveling
with Mullen frequently to these regions. He tapped Chayes for the job after her work
as special advisor to two commanders of the international troops in Afghanistan (ISAF).
She contributed her unique knowledge of the Afghan south to the ISAF command.
It was a sense of historic opportunity that prompted Chayes to renounce her journalism
career in early 2002, after covering the fall of the Taliban for National Public Radio,
and to remain in Afghanistan to help rebuild the country. She chose to settle in
the former Taliban heartland, Kandahar.
In 2005, Chayes founded Arghand, a start-up manufacturing cooperative, where men and women working together produce
fine skin-care products. The goal was to revive the region’s historic role in exporting
fruit and its derivatives, to promote sustainable development, and expand alternatives
to the opium economy. Running Arghand in downtown Kandahar proved to an extraordinary
vantage point for observing the unfolding war.
From 1996-2001, Chayes was NPR Paris correspondent. For her work during the Kosovo
crisis, she shared the 1999 Foreign Press Club and Sigma Delta Chi awards.
Along with Thieves of State, which won the 2016 L.A. Times Book Prize, Chayes is the author of The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban (Penguin, 2006).
"Why does U.S. Foreign Policy Keep Failing"
Presented by Stephan Walt - The Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs (John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University)
What We Learned:
- Why have relations with Russia deteriorated so badly?
- Why have repeated US efforts—by both Republicans and Democrats—to mediate peace in
the Middle East failed?
- Why did Republicans and Democrats embrace President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq
in 2003, despite clear warnings that the war was unnecessary and that the US had no
“exit strategy?"
- Why has President Obama followed many of the same national security policies as his
predecessor, even though he was elected in part to change them?
- How are we to understand the failures in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Ukraine
and elsewhere, along with the deterioration of relations with Russia and China and
the crises that have buffeted Europe?
Stephen M. Walt Bio
Stephen M. Walt is the Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs
at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he served as Academic Dean
from 2002 to 2006. He is a contributing editor at Foreign Policy magazine, co-chair of the editorial board of International Security, and co-editor of the Cornell Studies in Security Affairs book series. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in May 2005 and
received the International Studies Association’s Distinguished Senior Scholar award
in 2014. His books include The Origins of Alliances, which received the 1988 Edgar S. Furniss National Security Book Award, and Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy, which was a finalist for the Lionel Gelber International Affairs Book Award and the
Arthur Ross Book Prize. His most recent book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (co-authored with John J. Mearsheimer) was a New York Times best-seller and has been translated into more than twenty foreign languages. His
weekly FP column is at http://www.foreignpolicy.com/voices/walt
