The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World

What is America’s role on the increasingly contentious global stage? Foreign policy experts discuss the essential role America has played for decades in keeping the world’s worst instability in check, and what is likely to happen if we withdraw from this position and focus our attention inward.

Robert Kagan is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, writes a monthly column on world affairs for the Washington Post, and is a contributing editor at New Republic and the author of critically acclaimed books. He has served as a foreign policy advisor to Republican presidential candidates and to Democratic administrations through his work on the Foreign Affairs Policy Board under Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. Kagan’s latest book, The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World, to be published next month, advocates for America as an enforcer of peace and order throughout the world.

Walter Russell Mead (moderator) is a columnist for the Wall Street Journal and the James Clark Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College. He previously taught foreign policy at his alma mater, Yale University, and at The New School, and is the author of award-winning books. The connection Mead has drawn between Jacksonian traditions and present-day American politics has garnered significant attention since the candidacy and election of Donald Trump as President. The New York Times Book Review has described Mead as “one of the country’s liveliest thinkers about America.”