Brookings experts named to Politico’s 50 for 2016 list

Brookings Senior Fellows Robert Kagan and William McCants have been included on Politico Magazine’s Politico 50 for 2016, a list of the year’s top “thinkers, doers and visionaries transforming American politics.”

This is the third consecutive year that the magazine recognized the Project on International Order and Strategy’s Robert Kagan, who was praised for his bold analysis of what a Donald Trump presidency could mean for American democracy in an op-ed for the Washington Post, “This is how fascism comes to America.” The “bombshell” piece, Politico writes, “crystalized a line of thinking, introducing a debate in American politics many thought we’d never have.”

In addition to frequently contributing to the Washington Post, Kagan is the author of the bestselling book “The World America Made”and a number of reports and essays exploring America’s role in the global order.

Watch Kagan discuss the importance of reasserting American leadership of the liberal global order.

Lauded for “[providing] a steady stream of hard-won facts about just what the Islamic State is [and] what it’s after,” Center for Middle East Policy Senior Fellow William McCants has earned acclaim for using sources ranging from social media to ancient religious texts to help make sense of the terrorist group’s unique form of jihadism.

McCants explores the history and evolving threat of ISIS in his new book “The ISIS Apocalypse” and in numerous other works, including his Brookings Essay “The Believer,” an in-depth look at the self-proclaimed leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

As Politico put it, “In a campaign where ‘ISIL’ has often been thrown around loosely as a stand-in for foreign menace … McCants’ fair-minded fact-finding has offered an essential antidote.”

McCants and Kagan are joined in the Politico 50 by such influential figures as Sens. Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, and Elizabeth Warren, and Rep. Paul Ryan; Lin-Manual Miranda, the creator and star of the smash Broadway musical “Hamilton“; and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.