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Robert Kagan
American historian

Robert Kagan is an American columnist and neoconservative scholar known for criticizing U.S. foreign policy and advocating liberal internationalism. A co-founder of the Project for the New American Century, he is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and has advised presidents through the Foreign Affairs Policy Board. Kagan wrote a column for The Washington Post. During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, he left the Republican Party over Donald Trump’s nomination and endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

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Personal life and education

Kagan was born in Athens, Greece. His father, historian Donald Kagan, was the Sterling Professor of Classics and History Emeritus at Yale University and a specialist in the history of the Peloponnesian War, was of Lithuanian Jewish descent.910 His brother Frederick is a military historian and author. Kagan has a B.A. in history (1980) from Yale, where in 1979 he was editor-in-chief of the Yale Political Monthly, a periodical he is credited with reviving.11 He later earned a Master of Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and a Ph.D. in American history from American University in Washington, D.C.

Kagan is married to American diplomat Victoria Nuland,12 who previously served as deputy national security advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney and assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs in the Obama administration.

Career

In 1983, Kagan was foreign policy advisor to New York Republican Representative Jack Kemp. From 1984 to 1986, under the administration of Ronald Reagan, he was a speechwriter for Secretary of State George P. Shultz and a member of the United States Department of State Policy Planning Staff. From 1986 to 1988, he served in the State Department Bureau of Inter-American Affairs.13

In 1997, Kagan co-founded the now-defunct neoconservative think tank Project for the New American Century with William Kristol.141516 Through the work of the PNAC, from 1998, Kagan was an early and strong advocate of military action in Syria, Iran, Afghanistan as well as to "remove Mr. Hussein and his regime from power."1718 After the 1998 bombing of Iraq was announced Kagan said "bombing Iraq isn't enough" and called on Clinton to send ground troops to Iraq.19

From 1998 until August 2010, Kagan was a Senior Associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was appointed senior fellow in the Center on United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution in September 2010.202122

During the 2008 presidential campaign he served as foreign policy advisor to John McCain, the Republican Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2008 election.23

Since 2011, Kagan has also served on the 25-member State Department's Foreign Affairs Policy Board under Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton24 and John Kerry.25

Andrew Bacevich referred to Kagan as "the chief neoconservative foreign-policy theorist" in reviewing Kagan's book The Return of History and the End of Dreams.26

A profile in The Guardian described Kagan as being "uncomfortable" with the 'neocon' title, and stated that "he insists he is 'liberal' and 'progressive' in a distinctly American tradition."27

In 2008, Kagan wrote an article titled "Neocon Nation: Neoconservatism, c. 1776" for World Affairs, describing the main components of American neoconservatism as a belief in the rectitude of applying US moralism to the world stage, support for the US to act alone, the promotion of American-style liberty and democracy in other countries, the belief in American hegemony,28 the confidence in US military power, and a distrust of international institutions.29 According to Kagan, his foreign-policy views are "deeply rooted in American history and widely shared by Americans".30

In 2006, Kagan wrote that Russia and China are the greatest "challenge liberalism faces today": "Nor do Russia and China welcome the liberal West's efforts to promote liberal politics around the globe, least of all in regions of strategic importance to them. ... Unfortunately, al-Qaeda may not be the only challenge liberalism faces today, or even the greatest."3132 In a February 2017 essay for Foreign Policy, Kagan argued that U.S. post-Cold War retrenchment in global affairs has emboldened Russia and China, "the two great revisionist powers," and will eventually lead to instability and conflict.33

In October 2018, Kagan said, "Unless are you willing to punish" Saudi Arabia for the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, "then they own you."34

Writings

Kagan was a columnist for The Washington Post.35 He has also written for The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, World Affairs, and Policy Review.

In 2003, Kagan's book Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order, published on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq, created something of a sensation through its assertions that Europeans tended to favor peaceful resolutions of international disputes while the United States takes a more "Hobbesian" view in which certain kinds of disagreement can only be settled by force, or, as he put it: "Americans are from Mars and Europe is from Venus." A New York Times book reviewer, Ivo H. Daalder wrote:

When it comes to setting national priorities, determining threats, defining challenges, and fashioning and implementing foreign and defense policies, the United States and Europe have parted ways, writes Mr. Kagan, concluding, in words already famous in another context, 'Americans are from Mars and Europeans are from Venus.'36

In Dangerous Nation: America's Place in the World from its Earliest Days to the Dawn of the Twentieth Century (2006) Kagan argued forcefully against what he considers the widespread misconception that the United States had been isolationist since its inception. Dangerous Nation was awarded the 2007 Lepgold Prize by Georgetown University.37

Kagan's essay "Not Fade Away: The Myth of American Decline" (The New Republic, February 2, 2012)38 was very positively received by President Obama. Josh Rogin reported in Foreign Policy that the president "spent more than 10 minutes talking about it...going over its arguments paragraph by paragraph."39 The essay was excerpted from Kagan's book, The World America Made (2012).

John Bew and Kagan lectured on March 27, 2014, on Realpolitik and American exceptionalism at the Library of Congress.4041

Criticism of Donald Trump

In February 2016, Kagan publicly left the Republican party (referring to himself as a "former Republican"), endorsing Democrat Hillary Clinton for president. He argued that the Republican Party's "wild obstructionism" and an insistence that "government, institutions, political traditions, party leadership and even parties themselves" were things meant to be "overthrown, evaded, ignored, insulted, laughed at" set the stage for the rise of Donald Trump. Kagan called Trump a "Frankenstein monster" and compared him to Napoleon.42 In May 2016, Kagan wrote an opinion piece in The Washington Post regarding Trump's campaign entitled "This is how fascism comes to America".43 Kagan has said that "all Republican foreign policy professionals are anti-Trump."44 In September 2021, Kagan wrote a related opinion essay published in The Washington Post by the title "Our constitutional crisis is already here".45 He continued his criticism of Trump in November 2023 with another essay in The Washington Post entitled "A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending."46

In October of 2024, he resigned as editor-at-large from the Post due to its decision not to endorse a candidate in the 2024 United States presidential election between Trump and Kamala Harris.4748

Select bibliography

See also

Notes

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References

  1. Hudson, John (June 23, 2016). "Exclusive: Prominent GOP Neoconservative to Fundraise for Hillary Clinton". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on September 25, 2019. Retrieved January 29, 2021. https://foreignpolicy.com/2016/06/23/exclusive-prominent-gop-neoconservative-to-fundraise-for-hillary-clinton/ ↩

  2. Horowitz, Jason (June 16, 2014). "Events in Iraq Open Door for Interventionist Revival, Historian Says (Published 2014)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on February 4, 2021. Retrieved January 29, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/16/us/politics/historians-critique-of-obama-foreign-policy-is-brought-alive-by-events-in-iraq.html ↩

  3. Moyn, Samuel (February 14, 2023). "Robert Kagan and Interventionism's Big Reboot". New Republic. Retrieved October 29, 2024. https://newrepublic.com/article/170213/robert-kagan-interventionisms-big-reboot ↩

  4. Stelzer, Irwin (2004). The neocon reader. New York: Grove Press. p. 312. ISBN 978-0-8021-4193-4. Robert Kagan... Co-founder with William Kristol of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) 978-0-8021-4193-4 ↩

  5. [1][usurped] About PNAC https://web.archive.org/web/20131010230757/http://www.newamericancentury.org/aboutpnac.htm ↩

  6. PNAC. "Robert Kagan". Archived from the original on March 20, 2012. Retrieved March 18, 2012. Robert Kagan is co-founder with William Kristol of the Project for the New American Century. /wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century ↩

  7. "Foreign Affairs Policy Board - BIOGRAPHY: Robert Kagan". U.S. Department of State. Retrieved June 14, 2022. https://2009-2017.state.gov/s/p/fapb/185587.htm ↩

  8. Khalek, Rania (July 25, 2016). "Robert Kagan and Other Neocons Are Backing Hillary Clinton". The Intercept. Retrieved August 22, 2023. https://theintercept.com/2016/07/25/robert-kagan-and-other-neocons-back-hillary-clinton/ ↩

  9. Moyn, Samuel (February 14, 2023). "Robert Kagan and Interventionism's Big Reboot". New Republic. Retrieved October 29, 2024. https://newrepublic.com/article/170213/robert-kagan-interventionisms-big-reboot ↩

  10. "Lion in Winter". yalealumnimagazine.com. April 2002. Archived from the original on August 9, 2007. Retrieved August 19, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20070809010253/http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/02_04/kagan.html ↩

  11. "Robert Kagan '80 follows father but forges own path". Yale Daily News. October 27, 2005. Archived from the original on November 19, 2010. Retrieved November 20, 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20101119073509/http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2005/oct/27/robert-kagan-80-follows-father-but-forges-own-path/ ↩

  12. "Washington Talk: Briefing; Departing Official (Published 1988)". The New York Times. March 18, 1988. https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/18/us/washington-talk-briefing-departing-official.html ↩

  13. Steinhauer, Jason (February 21, 2014). "Three-Part Lecture Series at the Kluge Center Looks at Foreign Policy Through the Lens of Realpolitik". Library of Congress. Retrieved February 21, 2014. https://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2014/14-030.html?loclr=rssloc ↩

  14. Stelzer, Irwin (2004). The neocon reader. New York: Grove Press. p. 312. ISBN 978-0-8021-4193-4. Robert Kagan... Co-founder with William Kristol of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) 978-0-8021-4193-4 ↩

  15. PNAC. "Robert Kagan". Archived from the original on March 20, 2012. Retrieved March 18, 2012. Robert Kagan is co-founder with William Kristol of the Project for the New American Century. /wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century ↩

  16. "About PNAC". newamericancentury.org. 2009. Archived from the original on February 4, 2012. Retrieved March 18, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120204044710/http://www.newamericancentury.org/aboutpnac.htm ↩

  17. Kristol, William; Kagan, Robert (January 30, 1998), "Bombing Iraq Isn't Enough", The New York Times, archived from the original on September 7, 2017, retrieved March 17, 2017 https://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/30/opinion/bombing-iraq-isn-t-enough.html ↩

  18. Glenn Greenwald (March 11, 2007). "Why would any rational person listen to Robert Kagan?". Salon. Archived from the original on January 23, 2023. Retrieved December 30, 2017. /wiki/Glenn_Greenwald ↩

  19. Robert Kagan (January 30, 1998). "Bombing Iraq isn't enough". Carnegie Endowment. Retrieved March 13, 2023. https://carnegieendowment.org/posts/1998/01/bombing-iraq-isnt-enough?lang=en ↩

  20. "Robert Kagan joins Brookings". Archived from the original on October 11, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20121011095052/http://www.brookings.edu/media/NewsReleases/2010/0908_kagan.aspx ↩

  21. "Profile on the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace site". Archived from the original on May 14, 2005. https://web.archive.org/web/20050514080156/http://www.carnegieendowment.org/experts/index.cfm?fa=expert_view&expert_id=16 ↩

  22. Robert Kagan, "I Am Not a Straussian", Weekly Standard 11: 20 (February 6, 2006) ↩

  23. Reynolds, Paul (April 29, 2008). "Not the end of history after all". BBC News. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved April 29, 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7370992.stm ↩

  24. "Inaugural Meeting of Secretary Clinton's Foreign Affairs Policy Board". Retrieved February 19, 2012. https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/12/178274.htm ↩

  25. Current Board Members" Archived May 25, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, State Department webpage. Retrieved March 29, 2015. https://2009-2017.state.gov/s/p/fapb/c50662.htm ↩

  26. Bacevich, Andrew (February 5, 2009). "Present at the Re-Creation". Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original on February 2, 2015. Retrieved January 23, 2023. /wiki/Andrew_Bacevich ↩

  27. Beaumont, Peter (April 26, 2008). "A neocon by any other name". The Guardian. London: GMG. ISSN 0261-3077. OCLC 60623878. Archived from the original on February 13, 2021. Retrieved March 18, 2012. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/27/usa ↩

  28. Micklethwait, John; Wooldridge, Adrian (2004). The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America. Penguin. p. 217. ISBN 978-1-59420-020-5., pages 217–18 978-1-59420-020-5 ↩

  29. Fettweis, Christopher J. (2013). The Pathologies of Power: Fear, Honor, Glory, and Hubris in U.S. Foreign Policy. Cambridge University Press. p. 66. ISBN 9781107512962. 9781107512962 ↩

  30. Colvin, Mark (2004). "America still capable of military strikes: Robert Kagan". abc.net.au. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved March 18, 2012. http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2004/s1237310.htm ↩

  31. "US: Hawks Looking for New and Bigger Enemies? Archived February 5, 2021, at the Wayback Machine". IPS. May 5, 2006. http://www.ipsnews.net/2006/05/politics-us-hawks-looking-for-new-and-bigger-enemies/ ↩

  32. Kagan, Robert (April 30, 2006). "League of Dictators?". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 12, 2020. Retrieved September 10, 2017.[independent source needed] https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/28/AR2006042801987.html ↩

  33. Kagan, Robert (February 6, 2017). "Backing Into World War III". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on September 13, 2017. Retrieved September 10, 2017. https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/02/06/backing-into-world-war-iii-russia-china-trump-obama/ ↩

  34. "What Trump can do about Saudi Arabia". The Seattle Times. October 11, 2018. Archived from the original on January 19, 2019. Retrieved January 18, 2019. https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/what-trump-can-do-about-saudi-arabia/ ↩

  35. Steinhauer, Jason (February 21, 2014). "Three-Part Lecture Series at the Kluge Center Looks at Foreign Policy Through the Lens of Realpolitik". Library of Congress. Retrieved February 21, 2014. https://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2014/14-030.html?loclr=rssloc ↩

  36. Daalder, Ivo H. (March 5, 2003). "BOOKS OF THE TIMES; Americans Are From Mars, Europeans From Venus (Published 2003)". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 9, 2017. Retrieved February 12, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/05/books/books-of-the-times-americans-are-from-mars-europeans-from-venus.html ↩

  37. "Georgetown Awards 2007 Lepgold Book Prize". Georgetown University. September 17, 2008. Archived from the original on September 19, 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090919081807/http://explore.georgetown.edu/news/?ID=36299&PageTemplateID=289 ↩

  38. Robert Kagan (January 11, 2012). "Not Fade Away: The myth of American decline". The New Republic. Archived from the original on January 20, 2013. Retrieved February 19, 2012. http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/magazine/99521/america-world-power-declinism ↩

  39. Josh Rogin (January 26, 2012). "Obama embraces Romney advisor's theory on 'The Myth of American Decline'". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on October 21, 2014. Retrieved February 19, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20141021001106/http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/01/26/obama_embraces_romney_advisor_s_theory_on_the_myth_of_american_decline ↩

  40. Steinhauer, Jason (February 21, 2014). "Three-Part Lecture Series at the Kluge Center Looks at Foreign Policy Through the Lens of Realpolitik". Library of Congress. Retrieved February 21, 2014. https://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2014/14-030.html?loclr=rssloc ↩

  41. "The Return of Realpolitik - A Window into the Soul of Anglo-American Foreign Policy, Event Recap". Kluge Center. Library of Congress. Archived from the original on May 14, 2014. Retrieved May 14, 2014. https://www.loc.gov/loc/kluge/news/realpolitik-2014.html ↩

  42. Kagan, Robert (February 25, 2016). "Trump is the GOP's Frankenstein monster. Now he's strong enough to destroy the party". Washington Post. Retrieved March 4, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-is-the-gops-frankenstein-monster-now-hes-strong-enough-to-destroy-the-party/2016/02/25/3e443f28-dbc1-11e5-925f-1d10062cc82d_story.html ↩

  43. Kagan, Robert (May 18, 2016). "This Is How Fascism Comes to America". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 1, 2016. Retrieved August 8, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/this-is-how-fascism-comes-to-america/2016/05/17/c4e32c58-1c47-11e6-8c7b-6931e66333e7_story.html ↩

  44. Khalek, Rania (July 25, 2016). "Robert Kagan and Other Neocons Are Backing Hillary Clinton". Archived from the original on January 23, 2023. Retrieved January 27, 2017. https://theintercept.com/2016/07/25/robert-kagan-and-other-neocons-back-hillary-clinton/ ↩

  45. Kagan, Robert (September 23, 2021). "Our Constitutional Crisis Is Already Here". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 23, 2021. ↩

  46. Kagan, Robert (November 30, 2023). "A Trump dictatorship is increasingly inevitable. We should stop pretending". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 30, 2023. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/30/trump-dictator-2024-election-robert-kagan/ ↩

  47. Flood, Brian (October 25, 2024). "Washington Post editor at large quits after paper declines to endorse presidential candidate". Fox News. Retrieved October 25, 2024. https://www.foxnews.com/media/washington-post-editor-large-quits-after-paper-declines-endorse-presidential-candidate ↩

  48. "Neocon Grandee Kagan Resigns Over Post Non-Endorsement". October 25, 2024. Retrieved October 25, 2024. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/neocon-grandee-kagan-resigns-over-post-non-endorsement/ ↩

  49. "The Return of History and the End of Dreams Review". https://americandiplomacy.web.unc.edu/2008/07/the-return-of-history-and-the-end-of-dreams/ ↩

  50. "Return of History and the End of Dreams Review". https://mises.org/mises-review/return-history-and-end-dreams-robert-kagan ↩

  51. "Robert Kagan's Mythology of U.S. Exceptionalism". https://www.palestinechronicle.com/robert-kagans-mythology-of-u-s-exceptionalism/ ↩

  52. "Think Trump is bad? This book reminds you that Neo-cons are worse". https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/think-trump-is-bad-this-book-reminds-you-that-neo-cons-are-worse/ar-BB1lTPCy?ocid=BingNewsSerp ↩

  53. "Robert Kagan Goes on a Tear". https://mises.org/mises-wire/robert-kagan-goes-tear ↩

  54. "Crisis of Liberalism Divided". https://www.commentary.org/articles/brian-stewart/antiliberalism-america-robert-kagan/ ↩