Book Discussion on America's Debate Over National Security

Heads in the Sand: How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats, by Matthew Yglesias

April 25, 2008, 12:00pm – 1:30pm

About This Event

In a controversial new book on America's debates over national security, Matthew Yglesias, associate editor of The Atlantic Monthly, presents a critical analysis of progressives’ failure to produce a coherent alternative to the conservative approach to foreign policy. Conventional examinations of progressives' political difficulties in dealing with the national security issue focus on a perceived lack of "toughness." Heads in the Sand proposes a different theory: that progressives have had difficulty taking full advantage of the Bush administration's failures because they've largely avoided arguing on the strategic level.

 Rand Beers, President of the National Security Network and Kurt Campbell, Chief Executive Officer of the Center for a New American Security and co-author of Hard Power: The New Politics of National Security, will offer a critical analysis of the book’s argument from their perspectives as the leaders of two institutions working to engage in America’s national security and defense policy debates.

Featured Discussants:

Matthew Yglesias, Associate Editor of The Atlantic Monthly

Rand Beers, President and Founder of the National Security Network

Kurt Campbell, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of the Center for a New American Security

Moderator:

Brian Katulis, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress

Location

Center for American Progress
1333 H St. NW, 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005