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Renowned scholar and political commentator Francis Fukuyama, Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy and director of the international development program at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, will present his lecture “America at the Crossroads” 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 25, in Colton Chapel.
The event is free and open to the public.
“He certainly is one of the most incisive commentators and analysts of the contemporary international scene,” says event organizer Robert Cohn, Berman Professor of Jewish Studies.
Fukuyama’s lecture shares its title with his latest book America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy published this year. In it, he asserts that the war in Iraq failed and the Bush administration misinterpreted the neoconservative political thought on which it relied. Fukuyama believes the U.S. is now facing unintended consequences of the war and an opportunity to redefine American foreign policy. He will offer a history of the ideas, people, and actions that brought the country to this pivotal moment in history and present new ideas on how the nation can relate to the rest of the world.
Paul Barclay, associate professor of history, explains why Fukuyama is one of contemporary society’s most important and influential thinkers. Fukuyama has often created controversy with what Barclay calls “his espousal of a very sophisticated brand of neo-conservatism, a school of thought associated with deregulation of markets, aggressive foreign policy stances, and a core belief in America’s exceptional status as a virtuous and moral exemplar for the rest of the world.”
“Fukuyama has impacted public discourse, policy discussions at the highest levels, and many an individual scholarly career,” explains Barclay. “His latest book America at the Crossroads explains in great detail, and with Fukuyama’s characteristic erudition, why he has parted ways with his fellow neoconservatives over the Bush administration’s response to 9/11, particularly the war in Iraq. Most neoconservatives ceased to be interesting once their party gained power. It turned out their ability to criticize was severely curtailed by the nearly blind patriotism and political partisanship so many of them have exhibited since the Reagan landslides. Fukuyama, in contrast, has remained instructive, creative, and relevant.
“Members of the Lafayette community, whatever their political persuasion or philosophical inclination, should not pass up this opportunity to hear the sober-minded reflections of a leading public intellectual who has remained true to his scholarly calling. I would urge students, faculty, and the curious in general to come out and hear Fukuyama’s case for rethinking American foreign policy and indeed our place in the world.”
Ilan Peleg, Charles A. Dana Professor of Social Science, assigned America at the Crossroads to several of his international relations classes, and will bring his students to the lecture.
“[Fukuyama] is one of the most prominent commentators and analysts of current affairs, in general, and the American foreign policy, in particular,” he says. “I think it’s exciting and will generate a lot of interest. It’s something we should do more of in the way of internationalizing the campus.”
Applauding Fukuyama’s amendment of his previous neoconservative viewpoints is Arnold Offner, Hugel Professor of History.
“Francis Fukuyama is a bold and innovative thinker,” says Offner. “His thesis at the end of the Cold War era that the tenets of Western liberal democracy would become universalized was widely hailed and proffered hope for better government globally. But Fukuyama has had the insight to recognize that his ideas were overstated as well as misapplied in Iraq by the current Bush administration. Thus he has bravely called for a far more realistic and multilateral foreign policy than the ‘benevolent hegemony’ that his former neoconservative allies have advocated.”
Fukuyama is the author of Nation-Building: Beyond Afghanistan and Iraq (2006), State-Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century (2004), Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution (2002), The Great Disruption: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order (1999), Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity (1995), and The End of History and the Last Man (1992).
He also is cofounder and chairman of the editorial board of the journal American Interest, which analyzes America’s conduct on the global stage and the forces that shape it. He is a member of the advisory boards for The National Interest, The Journal of Democracy, The New America Foundation, and the National Endowment for Democracy.
Fukuyama has worked at several prominent think tanks and public policy organizations, including the political science department of the RAND Corporation. At the U.S. Department of State, he served as a regular member specializing in Middle East affairs and later as deputy director for European political-military affairs. He also is a former member of the U.S. delegation to the Egyptian-Israeli talks on Palestinian autonomy.
Fukuyama received a B.A. in classics from Cornell University and his Ph.D. in political science from Harvard. His areas of expertise include Asia, East Asia, Japan, and Korea; economics, economic development, international economic issues, and international political economy; science, technology, and global politics; and strategic and security issues.
Fukuyama’s lecture is sponsored by the religious studies department under the auspices of the Lyman Coleman Fund, Policy Studies, government and law department, history department, International Affairs program, American Studies program, cultural program, Office of the Provost, and Friends of Skillman Library.