A strong, bipartisan commitment to global leadership has long informed America’s foreign policy. Today, however, the global architecture the United States helped conceive, build, and maintain is in jeopardy.
A seminal bipartisan report from AEI’s American Internationalism Project “Why American Leadership Still Matters” provides a comprehensive consensus on America’s role in the world. The report concludes that for the security, prosperity, human rights, and democratic values of Americans and people around the world, America must continue to lead in global affairs.
Join AEI as former Senators Joseph Lieberman and Jim Talent lead a panel discussion with six of the report’s contributors on American leadership in international affairs. A second panel will discuss how each presidential candidate envisions America’s future role in the world.
Join the conversation on social media with #USLeads.
If you are unable to attend, we welcome you to watch the event live on this page. Full video will be posted within 24 hours.
Agenda
9:15 AM
Registration
9:30 AM
Panel I: Why American leadership still matters
Panelists:
Rudy de Leon, Center for American Progress
James Denton, World Affairs Journal
Thomas G. Mahnken, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
Joshua Meltzer, Brookings Institution
Stephen Rickard, Open Society Foundations
Neena Shenai, Medtronic
Moderators:
Joseph Lieberman, (project cochair) Former US Senator (D-CT)
Jim Talent, AEI; Former US Senator (R-MO)
10:40 AM
Panel II: American internationalism and the next presidency
Panelists:
Elliott Abrams, Council on Foreign Relations
Robert Kagan, Brookings Institution
Michael O’Hanlon, Brookings Institution
Moderator:
Danielle Pletka, AEI
11:40 AM
Adjournment
Event Contact Information
For more information, please contact Gregory Graff at Gregory.Graff@aei.org, 202.862.7179.
Media Contact Information
For media inquiries, please contact MediaServices@aei.org, 202.862.5829
Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC. He served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser in the administration of President George W. Bush, where he supervised US policy in the Middle East for the White House. Mr. Abrams was president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, DC, from 1996 until joining the White House staff. He was a member of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom from 1999 to 2001 and chairman of the commission in the latter year, and in 2012 he was reappointed to membership for another term. He is also a member of the US Holocaust Memorial Council, which directs the activities of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and is on the board of the National Endowment for Democracy. He teaches US foreign policy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He is the author of four books: “Tested by Zion: The Bush Administration and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” (Cambridge University Press, 2013), “Faith or Fear: How Jews Can Survive in a Christian America” (Touchstone, 1997), “Security and Sacrifice: Isolation, Intervention, and American Foreign Policy” (Hudson Institute, 1995), and “Undue Process: A Story of How Political Differences Are Turned into Crimes” (Free Press, 1993).
Rudy de Leon is a senior fellow with the National Security and International Policy team at the Center for American Progress. He has worked at the organization since 2007 and focuses on US national security issues and US-China relations. Mr. de Leon’s 25-year government career concluded in 2001 after his tenure as deputy secretary of defense, during which time he served as the chief operating officer at the Pentagon, a member of the Deputies Committee of the National Security Council, and a member of the US Department of Veterans Affairs National Partnership Council on labor-management issues. In earlier Pentagon assignments, he served as undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness from 1997 to 2000 and as undersecretary of the Air Force from 1994 to 1997. He received the Defense Distinguished Civilian Service Award in 1994, 1995, and 2001 and the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal in 2001. He was recognized by the National League of POW/MIA Families in 1999 and by the National Military Family Association in 2000.
James Denton is the publisher and editor of World Affairs and its online daily edition at WorldAffairsJournal.org. He previously directed Freedom House and Heldref Publications. He has been a consultant for Lech Walesa and Prime Ministers Viktor Orban of Hungary and Zoran Djindjic of Serbia, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the National Democratic Institute, ABC News, RIA Novosti, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the Folger Shakespeare Library. He served in the US Navy as an antisubmarine warfare and communications officer and as special operations.
Robert Kagan is a senior fellow in the Project on International Order and Strategy in the foreign policy program at Brookings Institution. He also serves as a member of the secretary of state’s foreign affairs policy board and is cochairman of the bipartisan working group on Egypt. His most recent book is the New York Times best-seller “The World America Made” (Random House, 2012). He writes a monthly column on world affairs for The Washington Post and is a contributing editor at The New Republic. Mr. Kagan is listed by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the world’s “Top 100 Public Global Thinkers.” He served in the State Department from 1984 to 1988 as a member of the policy planning staff, as principal speechwriter for Secretary of State George P. Shultz, and as deputy for policy in the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs.
Joseph Lieberman is senior counsel at Kasowitz Benson Torres and Friedman LLP, where he applies the investigative skills he honed as United States senator and attorney general of the State of Connecticut to represent clients in independent and internal investigations and advise them on a wide range of public policy, strategic, and regulatory issues. As a seasoned leader who is skilled in the art of facilitating mutually beneficial and strategic agreements, Sen. Lieberman also assists corporate clients on tax, health care, security, and intellectual property matters. In addition, he counsels clients on international expansion initiatives and business plans. Before joining Kasowitz, Sen. Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 2000, served 24 years in the United States Senate, retiring in January 2013 following the end of his fourth term. During his tenure, he helped shape legislation in virtually every major area of public policy. He served in many leadership roles including as chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, the Senate’s major oversight and investigative committee.
Thomas G. Mahnken is a senior research professor and the director of the Advanced Strategy Program at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies. From 2006 to 2009, he served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for policy planning. He served on the congressionally mandated National Defense Panel, the Quadrennial Defense Review Independent Panel, the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, the Defense Department’s Office of Net Assessment, and the Gulf War Air Power Survey. He is a recipient of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service. Mr. Mahnken’s most recent books are “Strategy in Asia: The Past, Present, and Future of Regional Security” (Stanford University Press, 2014) and “Competitive Strategies for the 21st Century: Theory, History, and Practice” (Stanford University Press, 2012).
Joshua Meltzer is a senior fellow in global economy and development at the Brookings Institution and an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies. He is also a reviewer for the Journal of Politics and Law. His work focuses on international trade law and policy issues relating to the World Trade Organization and free trade agreements. Before joining Brookings, Dr. Meltzer was a trade negotiator and legal adviser with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He was also posted as a diplomat to the Australian Embassy in Washington, DC, where he was responsible for trade and climate change issues. He has been published in several peer reviewed law and policy journals and has testified on international trade issues before Congress and the United States International Trade Commission. He is also a regular commentator in international print media.
Michael O’Hanlon is a senior fellow and codirector for the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence and director of research for the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution, where he specializes in US defense strategy, the use of military force, and American foreign policy. He is a visiting lecturer at Princeton University, an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University, and a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. His most recent book is “The Future of Land Warfare” (Brookings Institution Press, 2015). Mr. O’Hanlon was an analyst at the Congressional Budget Office from 1989 to 1994. He also worked previously at the Institute for Defense Analyses. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Congo and Kinshasa (the former Zaire) from 1982 to 1984, where he taught college and high school physics in French.
Danielle Pletka is senior vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. She writes on national security matters with a focus on Iran and weapons proliferation, the Middle East, Syria, Israel, and the Arab Spring. She also studies and writes about South Asia: Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan. She was formerly a long-time Senate Committee on Foreign Relations senior professional staff member for the Near East and South Asia, where she was the point person on Middle East, Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan issues. Ms. Pletka is the coeditor of “Dissent and Reform in the Arab World: Empowering Democrats” (AEI Press, 2008) and the coauthor of “Containing and Deterring a Nuclear Iran” (AEI Press, 2011) and “Iranian Influence in the Levant, Egypt, Iraq, and Afghanistan” (AEI Press, 2012). Her most recent study, “America vs. Iran: The Competition for the Future of the Middle East,” was published in January 2014. She served as AEI’s principal adviser to the American Internationalism Project.
Stephen Rickard is the director of the Open Society Foundations’ Washington, DC, office and directs Open Society’s advocacy on federal domestic policy and US foreign policy. He is also executive director of the Open Society Policy Center. Before joining Open Society, he created and ran the Freedom Investment Project and served as director of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights and as Washington director for Amnesty International USA. He served as the senior adviser in the US State Department’s Bureau of South Asian Affairs during the Clinton administration. He also worked for Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) and the Foreign Relations Committee in the US Senate. In 2011, he was a Franklin Fellow in the US Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. In the 1980s, Mr. Rickard worked as a litigator with White & Case in New York, Stockholm, and Washington, DC.
Neena Shenai is senior counsel for international trade at Medtronic, an international medical supply company. Previously, she served as trade counsel at the US House Committee on Ways and Means, where she advised the committee chairman, trade subcommittee chairman, and other members and congressional staff on international trade issues. Her portfolio at the committee included work on budget and appropriations matters; ITC 337 cases; Buy America; sanctions; the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill; international monetary policy; textile and footwear issues; and issues concerning India, Thailand, and other Asian countries. She was also integrally involved in negotiating and drafting the recently enacted US-Panama FTA-implementing legislation and Statement of Administrative Action and bipartisan, bicameral 2011 legislation reforming Trade Adjustment Assistance. Ms. Shenai previously served as a senior adviser in the Bureau of Industry and Security at the US Department of Commerce. She was an attorney in the international trade group of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP and completed a professional traineeship in the rules division of the World Trade Organization and a judicial clerkship with the Hon. Evan J. Wallach at the US Court of International Trade.
James Talent is a senior fellow and the director of the Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies’ National Security 2020 Project at the American Enterprise Institute. As the leader of a team of AEI defense experts, he is working on the formulation and promulgation of a new paradigm for defense policy, planning, and budgeting. He has been active in public policy for the past 30 years, including representing Missouri in both the US Senate and House of Representatives. While serving in the Senate, he was a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and chairman of the Subcommittee on Seapower for four years. Always interested in America’s strategic objectives and the demands on the US military, Sen. Talent formed a special congressional panel to address the decline in military readiness in his freshman year in the House.