What Is America’s Purpose?

As President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office, American foreign policy is at a crossroads. Biden has promised America’s allies in Europe and Asia that Washington will be “back” after the Trump era. But can he successfully fulfill his vow at a moment when Russia and China are becoming increasingly assertive? Has the world changed fundamentally over the past four years as to render it difficult if not impossible to return to the approach of past administrations? 
 
To discuss and debate such issues, the National Interest  assembled a prominent group of panelists–all of whom contributed to the magazine’s symposium “What Now?” in its upcoming issue–to present their views on Tuesday, December 15. The National Interest’s editor Jacob Heilbrunn moderated the discussion.
 
The panelists include:

• Graham Allison is Douglas Dillon Professor of Government at Harvard University where he has taught for five decades. Allison also served as Assistant Secretary of Defense in the first Clinton Administration.
• Melinda Haring is the deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Eurasia Center.
• John J. Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago.
• Dimitri K. Simes is president and CEO of the Center for the National Interest and publisher of the National Interest.