International Affairs Expert Stephen Walt to Discuss U.S. Foreign Policy

Harvard’s Stephen Walt puts the future of foreign policy in focus

by Linh Nguyen ’20

Professor, author and international affairs expert, Stephen Walt, will explore “Where is U.S. Foreign Policy Headed?,” at Dickinson on Thursday, April 26, at 7 p.m. in the Anita Tuvin Schlechter (ATS) Auditorium.

In his book Taming American Power: Global Response to U.S. Primacy, Walt argues that the United States should “make its dominant position acceptable to others—by using military force sparingly, by fostering greater cooperation with key allies, and, most important of all, by rebuilding its crumbling international image.” He claims President Donald Trump is not prioritizing most of these principles. In this lecture, Walt will further discuss how the Trump administration will affect the progress of U.S. foreign policy.

Walt is Belfer professor of international affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and former academic dean. He previously taught at Princeton University and the University of Chicago. Walt has been a resident associate of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace and a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution. He is a contributing editor at Foreign Policy, co-chair of the editorial board of International Security and co-editor of the Cornell Studies in Security Affairs book series. His own books include The Origins of Alliances and The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. Walt is currently writing a book about why U.S. foreign policy keeps failing. In 2014, he received the International Studies Association’s Distinguished Senior Scholar Award.

Walt’s lecture is part of the Phi Beta Kappa Society’s Visiting Scholar Program. Founded in 1776, the Phi Beta Kappa Society is the nation’s most prestigious academic honor society. Its mission is to champion education in the liberal arts and sciences, to recognize academic excellence and to foster freedom of thought and expression. Since 1956, the Phi Beta Kappa Society’s Visiting Scholar Program has been offering undergraduates the opportunity to spend time with some of America’s most distinguished scholars. The purpose of the program is to contribute to the intellectual life of the institution by making possible an exchange of ideas between the visiting scholars and the resident faculty and students.

The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and Phi Beta Kappa and co-sponsored by the Office of Academic Advising and the departments of political science and international studies.

Learn more

• Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues
• Phi Beta Kappa
• Office of Academic Advising
• Department of Political Science
• Department of International Studies
• Latest News

Published March 9, 2018