Event Series:
223 Moses Hall
Recent reports of cyber-attacks against US business and government web sites capture one troubling aspect of the foreign policy challenge the US must address in its relations with China. IIS is pleased to welcome Dr. Kenneth Lieberthal, a senior fellow in Foreign Policy and Global Economy and Development at the Brookings Institution, to address this critical issue.
Dr. Lieberthal was a professor at the University of Michigan from 1983 to 2009 before joining Brookings. He also served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Asia on the National Security Council under President Clinton from August 1998 to October 2000. Lieberthal holds an MA and Ph.D from Columbia University and a BA from Dartmouth College.
His latest book, Bending History: Barack Obama's Foreign Policy (co-authored with Martin Indyk and Michael O’Hanlon), was released in March 2012. The book asks how well President Obama has carried out his duties as U.S. commander-in-chief, top diplomat, and grand strategist. Some conservatives have argued that he is a naive apologist trying to quash "American exceptionalism" while many liberals see him as an antidote to George Bush's “unilateralist militarism”. Bending History argues that Obama is more of a foreign policy pragmatist whose approach is typified by thoroughness, teamwork, and flexibility. Lieberthal will bring many of these perspectives to bear in his assessment of President Obama’s China policy and the challenges to US Foreign Policy over the next four years.