Walter Russell Mead, James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities, Bard College; Editor-at-Large, The American Interest

As 2015 draws to a close, ISIS has tightened its grip, Russia has boots on the ground in both Ukraine and Syria, Iran has "advisors" in four countries in the Middle East, Europe reels from economic, political, and security crises, and our pivot to Asia remains a work in progress. Yet America’s future remains bright. No other country is better positioned to take on the 21st century. In a wide-ranging lecture, Walter Russell Mead, one of the United States’ leading authorities on foreign affairs, will explore the state of President Obama's foreign policy and what it does and does not mean for America's future.

Walter Russell Mead is the James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College, Editor-at-Large of The American Interest, and the Distinguished Scholar in American Strategy and Statesmanship at the Hudson Institute. From 1997 to 2010, he was a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, serving as the Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy from 2003 until his departure. His book, Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World (Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), received the Lionel Gelber Award for best book in English on international relations in 2002, among several honors and prizes. In 2012, the Foreign Policy Research Institute awarded him its Benjamin Franklin Prize for his work in the field of American foreign policy. His most recent book, God and Gold: Britain, America and the Making of the Modern World (Alfred A. Knopf, 2007), is a major study of 400 years of conflict between Anglophone powers and rivals ranging from absolute monarchies like Spain and France through Communist and Fascist enemies in the twentieth century to al-Qaeda today. He writes regular essays at the website of the American Interest on a wide variety of subjects ranging from international affairs to religion, politics, culture, education and the media. Over the years he has contributed to a wide variety of leading American journals ranging from Mother Jones and GQ to the Wall Street Journal. He serves as a regular reviewer of books for Foreign Affairs and frequently appears on national and international radio and television programs. He is a founding board member of New America, and also serves on the board of Freedom House. He is an honors graduate of Groton and Yale, where he received prizes for history, debate, and the translation of New Testament Greek.