In his State of the Union address on January 24, President Barack Barack Obama argued, "Anyone who tells you that America is in decline or that our influence has waned doesn't know what they're talking about." According to a recent Foreign Policy report, the president was influenced by the writings of Brookings Senior Fellow Robert Kagan—especially his views on America's role in the world as detailed in his new book, The World America Made (Knopf, 2012). Kagan questions whether the United States is in decline, as so many seem to argue, and whether America’s dominance on the world stage was ever a reality. He argues that if the U.S. were to decline, the established world order would decline with it, collapsing as the European world order collapsed in the first half of the twentieth century.
On February 24, Foreign Policy at Brookings and NBC’s Meet the Press hosted a discussion focusing on the issues raised in Kagan’s book. David Gregory, host of NBC’s Meet the Press, moderated the session, part of a series of discussions on foreign policy issues. New York Times columnist David Brooks joined the discussion.
After the program, the panelists took audience questions.