President Biden has talked about pursuing a foreign policy for middle class America and all Americans, but what does that actually mean? Foreign policy has become the dominion of the elites in Washington, leaving ordinary people out of the conversation when it comes to defense expenditures, overseas interventions, and America’s relationships with the rest of the world. Partisan politics have tainted the way people see foreign policy and often leave the country bitterly divided. Biden says he wants to change this, but how? We take a look at how foreign policy has affected the heartland, what would need to change in Washington, and what it would take to make it a ‘bread and butter issue’ that makes Americans’ lives better.

Join a conversation cosponsored by Center for the National Interest featuring University of Texas' Michael Lind, Conservative Partnership Institute's Rachel Bovard, and Modern Age's Daniel McCarthy. The Quincy Institute’s Kelley Beaucar Vlahos will moderate, and the National Interest’s George Beebe will offer introductory remarks.

 

 

With only weeks left until Iran’s June 18 presidential elections, campaigning will begin in earnest the last week of May. Elections in the Islamic Republic are neither free nor fair, but they are consequential.  Today, opinion polls indicate that the Iranian public’s enthusiasm for the elections is at an all-time low. Yet, the elections will likely have a profound impact on Iran’s future engagement – or lack thereof – with the United States and the West, on the durability of the nuclear deal, as well as on the internal struggle to move Iran into a more open and democratic direction.

Will Iran’s next president be a conservative or can the centrists and reformists unite once more to retain the presidency? What implications will a conservative victory have for U.S.-Iran relations, nascent regional diplomacy with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and Iran’s embattled civil society? Join us for us for a discussion with Tara Sepehri Far, Reza Sayah, and Bijan Khajehpour. Trita Parsi, Quincy Institute’s Executive Vice President, will moderate.