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Fixing what’s broken: America’s Place in the World

In partnership with:
Ford Hall Forum
With support from: Lowell Institute
Date and time
Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Even as President Biden moved swiftly to re-engage allies by rejoining the Paris Climate Accord, addressing the G-7 and Munich Security Conference and announcing plans to host a “Summit for Democracy,” his declaration that “America is back” has been met with cautious optimism at best and even outright skepticism. Our expert panel with Fiona Hill, Brookings Sr. Foreign Affairs fellow, Stephen Wertheim of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Enrique Perret, director of the US Mexico Foundation, and Lyric Thompson of the International Center for Research on Women examine the many challenges, crises and opportunities that the Biden Administration faces in determining America’s role in a rapidly changing world order. ## Resources Learn about [The Coalition for a Feminist Foreign Policy in the United States.](https://www.icrw.org/publications/toward-a-feminist-foreign-policy-in-the-united-states/) To check it out for yourself, here is a link to the [White House’s Gender Policy Council.](https://www.whitehouse.gov/gpc/) You can read Stephen’s article [criticizing Biden's "America is Back" rhetoric](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/opinion/biden-foreign-policy.html) and commitment to military dominance. You can find Dr. Hill’s first edition of [“Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin."](https://www.brookings.edu/book/mr-putin-new-and-expanded/) Learn more about [Dr. Hill’s biggest takeaways from her time in the White House.](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/06/29/what-fiona-hill-learned-in-the-white-house) You can read [Enrique Perrett's article about talent and competitiveness.](https://mexicotoday.com/2020/07/16/op-ed-by-enrique-perret-erhard-talent-and-competitiveness/) Here’s a breakdown of [what’s inside Biden’s new $2 trillion infrastructure proposal.](https://www.npr.org/2021/03/31/982908847/biden-set-to-unveil-expansive-2-trillion-infrastructure-plan)

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Fiona Hill
**Fiona Hill** is the Robert Bosch senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. She recently served as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council from 2017 to 2019. From 2006 to 2009, she served as national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at The National Intelligence Council. She is co-author of “Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin” (Brookings Institution Press, 2015). Prior to joining Brookings, Hill was director of strategic planning at The Eurasia Foundation in Washington, D.C. From 1991 to 1999, she held a number of positions directing technical assistance and research projects at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, including associate director of the Strengthening Democratic Institutions Project, director of the Project on Ethnic Conflict in the Former Soviet Union, and coordinator of the Trilateral Study on Japanese-Russian-U.S. Relations.
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Stephen Wertheim
**Stephen Wertheim** is a historian of the United States in the world. He is the director of the Quincy Institute’s Grand Strategy program. He is also a Research Scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University. Stephen specializes in U.S. foreign relations and international order from the late nineteenth century to the present. In his book, Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy, he reveals how U.S. leaders first made the decision to pursue military dominance, an objective that for most of American history had looked unnecessary at best and imperialistic at worst. Stephen has published scholarly articles on a range of subjects, including grand strategy, international law, world organization, colonial empire, and humanitarian intervention. His research on the intellectual origins of the League of Nations won the Fischel-Calhoun Prize from the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. He was previously a Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Columbia University; a permanent Lecturer in History at Birkbeck, University of London; a Junior Research Fellow at King’s College, University of Cambridge; and a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Values and Public Policy at Princeton University.
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Lyric Thompson
**Lyric Thompson** is the Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). In this capacity, she leads the institution’s formulation of evidence-based policy recommendations and oversees ICRW’s advocacy efforts with the U.S. Government and internationally. She is an adjunct professor at the George Washington University, where she teaches a graduate level course on women’s rights advocacy. Lyric is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations Advisory Committee on Advancing Gender Equality in Foreign Affairs and a member of the Civil Society Strategic Planning and Leadership Group for the Global Forum for Gender Equality that will be convened by UN Women, France and Mexico in early 2021 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. In August of 2019, Lyric was nominated by Governor Roy Cooper to the North Carolina Council for Women; she is also on the board of the advocacy organization North Carolina Women United.
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Elise Labott
**Elise Labott** is an adjunct professor at American University’s School of International Service and a columnist at Foreign Policy. As a correspondent for CNN for two decades, she covered seven secretaries of state and reported from more than 80 countries. Elise has reported on every major global event since joining CNN, from the Camp David peace talks of 2000, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Arab Spring and the rise of ISIS. She has reported from the demilitarized zone on tension with North Korea, traveled through the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as has interviewed several heads of state. She was also part of CNN’s multi-award-winning Freedom Project, which produces original reports, articles, and documentaries on human trafficking. Prior to joining CNN, Elise covered the United Nations for ABC News and foreign policy issues for Agence France-Presse and other publications.
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Enrique Perret
**Enrique Perret ** is the director of U.S.-Mexico Foundation. Enrique has a history of deep commitment to the US/Mexico bilateral relationship. He is a former government professional with a strong track record of leading government engagement and business development strategies between Mexico and the US. before joining the USMF, Enrique most recently served as a director for North America at ProMexico, Mexico's trade promotion agency, where he worked for more than ten years in several positions.
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