A Valueless Foreign Policy
Roger Cohen, Journalist, Columnist and Author of the NY Times and International NYTimes
Moderated by Maureen White, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Institute
May 2, 2017
On the heels of the president’s first 100 days in office, journalist, columnist, and author Roger Cohen, visited the school’s Washington, DC campus to discuss American foreign policy in the Trump Administration. Mr. Cohen asserted that American foreign policy separated from democratic ideals cannot persist in representing American values. He expressed concern over President Trump’s rhetoric against alliances, the significant budget cuts for the State Department, and the absence of strategy in Syria. Mr. Cohen remarked that President Trump will likely not change his zero-sum view of international trade or his disdain for alliances because the president has held these opinions for decades. He posited that if Trump had been in office at the time, the Marshall plan and the US-Japan alliance would be inconceivable. His prepared remarks were followed by a discussion with Maureen White, Senior Fellow at the Johns Hopkins SAIS Foreign Policy Institute. Discussion points ranged from the meaning of the travel ban to the French national election.