Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 05/2012

America's Role in the World: Foreign Policy Choices for the Next President

Thomas R. Pickering (Project Co-Chair), Chester A. Crocker (Project Co-Chair), Casimir A. Yost (Project Director)

January 2008

Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University

Abstract

This report identifies critical foreign policy choices that will face the next president of the United States. The working group included individuals who had worked in Republican and Democratic administrations. Unlike other reports, ISD's does not offer specific prescriptions for dealing with these issues, rather it offers a comprehensive agenda of issues for the next administration. In short order, the next president of the United States must comprehend and address the driving forces transforming the world, the geopolitical challenges facing America, the constraints on American capacity to conduct an effective foreign policy, and the fundamental choices that will confront America in 2009. Thomas R. Pickering and Chester A. Crocker served as Project Co-Chairs; Casimir A. Yost is the Project Director and Director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.