Isolationism: the future of US foreign policy?

Contributor(s): Professor Charles Kupchan, Dr Leslie Vinjamuri | During the presidency of Donald Trump, the US pursued a more self-interested and transactional foreign policy, often seeing relations with other countries as a zero-sum game.
Charles Kupchan discusses his new book, Isolationism: A History of America’s Efforts to Shield Itself from the World. He looks at how the resurgence of isolationism is reshaping America foreign policy and what it means for the post-COVID world.
You can order the book, Isolationism: A History of America’s Efforts to Shield Itself from the World, (UK delivery only) from our official LSE Events independent book shop, Pages of Hackney.
Meet our speakers and chair
Charles A. Kupchan is Professor of International Affairs in the School of Foreign Service and Government Department at Georgetown University, and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as Special Assistant to the President in the Obama White House and on the National Security Council in both the Obama and the first Clinton administrations. His latest book is Isolationism: A History of America’s Efforts to Shield Itself from the World (2020).
Leslie Vinjamuri (@londonvinjamuri) is a Reader (Associate Professor) in International Relations and Chair of the International Relations Speaker Series at SOAS and an alumna of LSE. Leslie is Head of the US & the Americas Programme and Dean of the Queen Elizabeth II Academy for Leadership in International Affairs at Chatham House. From 2010-2018 she was (founding) co-Director then Director (from 2016) of the Centre on Conflict, Rights and Justice at SOAS.
Peter Trubowitz (@ptrubowitz) is Professor of International Relations, and Director of the US Centre at LSE and Associate Fellow at Chatham House. His main teaching and research interests are in the fields of international security and US foreign policy. He also writes and comments frequently on US politics.
More about this event
This event is part of the LSE Festival: Shaping the Post-COVID World running from Monday 1 to Saturday 6 March 2021, with a series of events exploring the direction the world could and should be taking after the crisis and how social science research can shape it.
The LSE's United States Centre (@LSE_US) is a hub for global expertise, analysis and commentary on America. Our mission is to promote policy-relevant and internationally-oriented scholarship to meet the growing demand for fresh analysis and critical debate on the United States.
Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival