Abstract

Today, the world is safer, freer, wealthier, better educated, and healthier than any point in human history. Meanwhile, the greatest threat to Americans, to our our quality of life, and to the nation's long-term economic competitiveness is coming from issues that rarely figure into national security debates: access to health care, crumbling infrastructure, gun violence, the opioid epidemic, and political paralysis. On September 11th, Michael Cohen will discuss his new book Clear and Present Safety, which highlights America's misplaced attention on improbable foreign threats and calls for a re-orientiaton of U.S. grand strategy to focus on the actual and preventable domestic challenges that are not only harming Americans at home but eroding U.S power from the inside.

Bio

Michael Cohen is a columnist for the Boston Globe. He is also the author of “American Maelstrom: The 1968 Election and the Politics of Division”and the co-author of the forthcoming “Clear and Present Safety: The World Has Never Been Better and Why That Matters to Americans.” Michael has written about national politics and international affairs for dozens of news outlets, including as a columnist for the Guardian, Foreign Policy and World Politics Review. He previously worked as a speechwriter at the US State Department, has been a fellow at New America Foundation and the Century Foundation, and a lecturer at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.