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America’s role in the world

Join the Atlantic Council for conversations on the most critical issues at the intersection of domestic and international affairs that will influence this year’s US elections.

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Authoritarian states such as Russia and China are emerging as powerful great-power competitors at a time when increasingly strident and fractured domestic divisions within the United States are reducing the attractiveness and influence of the liberal-democratic model. China in particular is posing a major ideological challenge to the democratic world, undergirded by its rapidly growing economy, its export of world-leading digital technologies, and its globe-spanning Belt and Road Initiative. At the same time, the United States is questioning its global leadership role. How can the United States continue to lead the democratic world and promote democratic values effectively in the current geopolitical climate? How can the US maintain its status as a symbolic beacon of hope for those “yearning to breathe free”? How does US democracy at home intersect with US efforts to advocate for democracy abroad? What might be the global consequences of a permanent American retrenchment?

Featured panelists

Amb. Kurt Volker
Former US Ambassador to NATO

Amb. Derek Mitchell
President
National Democratic Institute;
Former US Ambassador to Burma

Moderator

Amy MacKinnon
Staff Writer
Foreign Policy

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