Robert Kagan

Robert Kagan

Stephen & Barbara Friedman Senior Fellow

The Brookings Institution, USA, United States

Robert Kagan is a senior fellow with the Project on International Order and Strategy in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. He is a contributing columnist at The Washington Post and was recently listed as one of the 50 most influential thinkers in America by Politico magazine.

An author of many critically acclaimed books on American foreign policy, Robert’s newest release, The Ghost at the Feast, is the second installment in what will soon become the Dangerous Nation trilogy. 2006’s Dangerous Nation is an exploration of the founding of America and the origins of its global influence. The Ghost at the Feast, called “an insightful study of the birth of the American empire” by Kirkus, continues the conversation with a look into America’s position — or lack thereof — in the wars and foreign conflicts of the early 20th century and the country’s resultant status as a global superpower.

Robert Kagan’s previous books include, The Jungle Grows Back (Knopf, 2018), the New York Times bestseller, The World America Made (Knopf, 2012), The Return of History and the End of Dreams (Knopf 2008), Of Paradise and Power (Knopf, 2003), and A Twilight Struggle: American Power and Nicaragua, 1977-1990 (Free Press, 1996). Kagan serves as a member of the secretary of state’s foreign affairs policy board. He served in the State Department from 1984 to 1988 as a member of the policy planning staff, as principal speechwriter for Secretary of State George P. Shultz, and as deputy for policy in the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs. He is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and holds a doctorate in American history from American University.

Dr. Kagan is listed as one of the world’s “Top 100 Public Intellectuals” by Foreign Policy and Prospect magazines. He is one of Foreign Policy’s 2012 Top 100 Global Thinkers. He writes a monthly column in The Washington Post and is a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard.