Robert Kagan is a senior fellow with the Project on International Order and Strategy in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. He is a contributing columnist at the Washington Post. His most recent book is The New York Times bestseller, "The World America Made" (Knopf, 2012) His previous books include "The Return of History and the End of Dreams" (Knopf 2008), "Dangerous Nation: America’s Place in the World from its Earliest Days to the Dawn of the 20th Century" (Knopf, 2006), "Of Paradise and Power" (Knopf, 2003), and "A Twilight Struggle: American Power and Nicaragua, 1977-1990" (Free Press, 1996).
For his writings, Politico Magazine named Kagan one of the “Politico 50” in 2016, the “thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics in 2016.” His most recent pieces include “The Twilight of the Liberal World Order” in “Brookings Big Ideas for America” and “Backing into World War III” in Foreign Policy.
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. He is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and holds a doctorate in American history from American University.
Affiliations:
Foreign Policy Initiative, board member
Leigh Speaker’s Bureau, speaker
The Washington Post, monthly columnist
Working Group on Egypt, co-chairman
Robert Kagan is a senior fellow with the Project on International Order and Strategy in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. He is a contributing columnist at the Washington Post. His most recent book is The New York Times bestseller, “The World America Made” (Knopf, 2012) His previous books include “The Return of History and the End of Dreams” (Knopf 2008), “Dangerous Nation: America’s Place in the World from its Earliest Days to the Dawn of the 20th Century” (Knopf, 2006), “Of Paradise and Power” (Knopf, 2003), and “A Twilight Struggle: American Power and Nicaragua, 1977-1990” (Free Press, 1996).
For his writings, Politico Magazine named Kagan one of the “Politico 50” in 2016, the “thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics in 2016.” His most recent pieces include “The Twilight of the Liberal World Order” in “Brookings Big Ideas for America” and “Backing into World War III” in Foreign Policy.
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. He is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and holds a doctorate in American history from American University.
Affiliations:
Foreign Policy Initiative, board member
Leigh Speaker’s Bureau, speaker
The Washington Post, monthly columnist
Working Group on Egypt, co-chairman
The year 2013 has been a good one for autocrats. In Egypt, a military dictatorship seized power from a democratically elected government and has been crushing opposition. In Syria, the Assad regime survived probably its greatest challenge and may continue in power indefinitely. In Burma, a potential political opening has been left dangling, while in Thailand, a fledgling democracy is under siege. In Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega is consolidating his hold on power, while the Venezuelan dictatorship has seemingly outlived its founder. Events in 2014 will tell us whether this was coincidence or a trend. If the latter, it may be a foretaste of the much-anticipated ‘post-American world.’
If you take the Syria issue which is before us right now, what people are waiting for is for the United States to step up and start pulling everyone together. And what's been missing has been the United States playing that role.
[W]e are going to start having to talk about…what kind of international role is going to have to be played in Libya once Gadhafi has fallen.