The election of Donald J. Trump to the presidency of the United States has called into question some of the assumptions that have guided U.S. foreign policy since the nation's victory in World War II. On the one hand, realists have pointed to Trump as the necessary outcome of a U.S. foreign policy that was overambitious and unattuned to the inability of great powers to remake the world in their image. On the other hand, liberal internationalists have argued that Trump's foreign policy signals a crisis in the so-called "liberal international order" that, they argue, has defined world politics since 1945. This roundtable will interrogate these claims and explore what, if anything, is salvageable from the various approaches to international relations that have dominated geopolitical thinking for decades.

Roundtable panelists will include:

Matthew Specter, UC Berkeley

Daniel Bessner, Jackson School of International Affairs, University of Washington

Katharina Rietzler, University of Sussex

Alexandra Kemmerer, Max Planck Institute for Public Law

Malachi Hacohen, Duke University

Joseph Grieco, Duke University

Simon Miles, Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University

Bob Pearson, Former US Ambassador to Turkey

Patrick Duddy, Former US Ambassador to Venezuela

Erwan Lagadec, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University

Giovanni Zanalda, Director, Duke University Center for International & Global Studies

This roundtable will be followed by a workshop on Saturday, February 9th on "Realism, Liberal Internationalism, History: Conceiving a New Research Agenda."