The future of the West, with Michael Kimmage

In this episode of .think atlantic, IRI's Thibault Muzergues is joined by Michael C. Kimmage to explore “the West” as a concept in International Relations, and more particularly in US foreign policy.

Michael is a professor of history at the Catholic University of America. From 2014 to 2017, he served on the Secretary's Policy Planning Staff at the U.S. Department of State, where he held the Russia/Ukraine portfolio. Michael is also an author, “The Abandonment of the West: The History of an Idea in American Foreign Policy” is his third book, it was published in April 2020 and it is the center of the discussion.

How can we define the West, and where does the concept come from, at least from an American perspective? The idea of the West now seems to be challenged from the outside, from the inside, and even from some actors who recently joined in, how to analyze this? Does it mean that the East that was defeated in the 1990s is striking back? Does it mean that the West has overreached and needs to rethink its model? Is there still time to revive the concept of a larger West that would not only include the Anglosphere but also Europe and may be beyond? How do we do that? IRI’s Thibault Muzergues and his guest discuss all these questions - and much more.

Find Michael on Twitter at @mkimmage

Find Thibault on Twitter at @tmuzergues

Visit IRI’s website at www.iri.org

Further reading:

The Abandonment of the West: The History of an Idea in American Foreign Policy by Michael Kimmage (https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/michael-kimmage/the-abandonment-of-the-west/9781541646049/)