Harper Lecture with Charles Lipson: America's Four Biggest Challenges Abroad

Description: Today the United States faces its most difficult foreign policy challenges since the end of the Cold War. These challenges are aggravated by an overstretched federal budget and a public weary of costly commitments abroad. What are the most pressing international challenges facing America? How has the Obama administration dealt with them? What choices should the country make going forward?

Charles Lipson, the Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Political Science, has taught international politics and history at the University of Chicago since 1977. He has won both the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and its equivalent for graduate teaching. Lipson’s most recent book, Reliable Partners: How Democracies Have Made a Separate Peace, explains why democracies don’t fight wars with each other. He is now writing a book about how countries’ internal politics shape their foreign policies and world politics. He is a frequent guest on national radio and television and writes a monthly column for the Chicago Tribune.