The President’s Inbox
Council on Foreign Relations
Lessons From 250 Years of U.S. Foreign Policy, With Robert Kagan
SummaryIn this episode of The President’s Inbox, host Jim Lindsay is joined by Robert Kagan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of several major works on the history of American foreign policy. Together, they explore the enduring paradox that while the United States is geographically secure and often prefers to remain insular, it is frequently compelled to engage globally due to its economic interests, universalist values, and the natural exercise of its own power. Kagan challenges the popular myth that the United States is a nation that simply minds its own business until provoked. He argues that American history is characterized by constant, often violent, territorial expansion and intervention. The conversation traces this pattern from the early republic—highlighting how George Washington’s Farewell Address was a political document aimed at domestic disputes rather than a permanent doctrine of isolationism—through the imperial era of the early 20th century, and into the post-World War II order. Ultimately, Kagan emphasizes that the current disillusionment with global involvement is part of a recurring cycle, suggesting that Americans often forget the lessons of history during extended periods of relative peace.
Updated Jul 1, 2026
About This Episode
This episode unpacks the history of 250 years of U.S. foreign policy and examines patterns of the United States’ engagement with the world.
Host:
James M. Lindsay, Mary and David Boies Distinguished Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy, CFR
Guest:
Robert Kagan, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; Author, Dangerous Nation: America’s Place in the World From Its Earliest Days to the Dawn of the Twentieth Century and The Ghost at the Feast: America and Collapse of World Order, 1900-1941
We Discuss:
- Why Robert Kagan argues that Americans misunderstand their own history and have long been a “dangerous nation” rather than an insular one.
- How American foreign policy debates have always been entangled with domestic politics, and what the polarized fights of the founding era reveal about the true norm of American political life.
- Which forces have consistently pulled the United States outward, producing an oscillation between intervention and retrenchment.
- Why the era of American imperialism following the Spanish-American War, including the humanitarian motives behind U.S. intervention in Cuba, is among the most misunderstood chapters of U.S. history
- Why Americans tend to enter wars with enthusiasm only to sour on them afterward.
- Whether the United States is forgetting the lessons of the postwar order.
- What the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence should teach Americans about the fragility of liberal democracy.
Mentioned on the Episode:
Robert Kagan, Dangerous Nation: America’s Place in the World From Its Earliest Days to the Dawn of the Twentieth Century, Knopf
Robert Kagan, The Ghost at the Feast: America and the Collapse of World Order, 1900–1941, Knopf
Robert Kagan, The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World, Knopf
Walter Lippmann, U.S. Foreign Policy: Shield of the Republic, Little, Brown
Norman Angell, The Great Illusion, G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man, Free Press
James A. Field Jr., “American Imperialism: The Worst Chapter in Almost Any Book,” American Historical Review
“Declaration of Independence,” National Archives
George Washington, “Farewell Address,” 1796
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit The President’s Inbox at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/presidents-inbox/lessons-from-250-years-of-us-foreign-policy
Opinions expressed on The President’s Inbox are solely those of the host or guests, not of CFR, which takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.
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