Robert Kagan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Kagan (born September 26, 1958 in Athens, Greece) is an American historian, author and foreign policy commentator at the Brookings Institution. He was a co-founder of the Project for the New American Century.[1][2] More recently, his book The World America Made has been publicly endorsed by US President Barack Obama, and its theme was referenced in his 2012 State of the Union Address.[3][4]

Early life and education[edit]

Robert Kagan is the son of Donald Kagan and brother of Frederick Kagan. Kagan graduated from Yale University in 1980, having studied history and having founded the Yale Political Monthly.[5] He later earned an MPP from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a PhD in US history from American University in Washington, D.C. He is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.[4]

In 1983, Robert Kagan was foreign policy advisor to New YorkRepublicanRepresentativeJack Kemp. Between 1984 and 1986, he worked at the State Department Policy Planning Staff and was a speechwriter for Secretary of State George P. Shultz. From 1986 to 1988, he served in the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs at the State Department. [4] In 1997, he co-founded and served as a director for the now-defunct Project for the New American Century.[1][2][6]

Kagan has been described as a neoconservative foreign-policy theorist,[7][8][9] although Kagan has adamantly rejected being labeled as a "neoconservative".[10] Kagan describes his foreign-policy views as deeply rooted in American history and widely shared by Americans.[11]

Kagan spent 13 years as a Senior Associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, before joining the Brookings Institution as a senior fellow in the Center on United States and Europe in September 2010.[12][13][14][15][16] He was a foreign policy advisor to John McCain, the Republican Party's nominee for President of the United States in the 2008 election.[17][18]

He also serves on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Foreign Affairs Policy Board.[19] He serves on the board of directors for The Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI)[20] and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[21]

Kagan is a columnist for the Washington Post.[4] He is a contributing editor at both The New Republic and the Weekly Standard, and has also written for the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, the Wall Street Journal, Commentary, World Affairs, and Policy Review. Kagan wrote an essay in the February 2, 2012 issue of The New Republic on "the myth of American decline",[22] which drew the praise of President Obama, who "spent more than 10 minutes talking about it...going over its arguments paragraph by paragraph."[23] That essay was an excerpt from his most recent book, the New York Times bestseller, The World America Made. His book, Of Paradise and Power, was a national and international bestseller and has been translated into 25 languages. His book, Dangerous Nation, won the 2007 Lepgold Prize from Georgetown University.[24] He has been listed by Foreign Policy and Prospect as one of the world's "Top 100 Public Intellectuals."[25]

John Bew and Kagan are scheduled to lecture on March 27, 2014, on Realpolitik and American Exceptionalism at the Library of Congress.[4]

1. ^ abStelzer, Irwin (2004). The neocon reader. New York: Grove Press. p. 312. ISBN 0-8021-4193-5. "Robert Kagan... Co-founder with William Kristol of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC)." 
2. ^ abPNAC. "Robert Kagan". Retrieved 18 March 2012. "Robert Kagan is co-founder with William Kristol of the Project for the New American Century." 
3. ^Landler, Mark (2012-01-27). "Obama’s Theme of U.S. Resilience Finds Support in New Book - NYTimes.com". The New York Times (New York: NYTC). ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 18 March 2012. 
4. ^ abcdeSteinhauer, Jason (21 February 2014). "Three-Part Lecture Series at the Kluge Center Looks at Foreign Policy Through the Lens of Realpolitik". Library of Congress. Retrieved 21 February 2014. 
5. ^"Robert Kagan '80 follows father but forges own path". Yale Daily News. 2005-10-27. Retrieved 2010-11-20. 
6. ^"About PNAC". newamericancentury.org. 2009. Retrieved 18 March 2012. 
7. ^Bacevich, Andrew (2008). "Present at the Re-Creation | Foreign Affairs". foreignaffairs.com. Retrieved 18 March 2012. 
8. ^Beaumont, Peter (2008-04-26). "The Observer Profile: Robert Kagan". The Guardian (London: GMG). ISSN 0261-3077. OCLC 60623878. Retrieved 18 March 2012. 
9. ^Dionne, E.J. (2011-02-02). "A conservative split aids Obama on Egypt". The Washington Post (Washington DC: WPC). ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 18 March 2012. 
10. ^DeSantis, Mark (2012). "'The World America Made': Robert Kagan for the defense". old.post-gazette.com. Retrieved 18 March 2012. 
11. ^Colvin, Mark (2004). "America still capable of military strikes: Robert Kagan". abc.net.au. Retrieved 18 March 2012. 
12. ^Robert Kagan joins Brookings
13. ^Profile on the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace site
14. ^"I Am Not a Straussian" by Robert Kagan
15. ^"Robert Kagan Follows Father but Forges Own Path", Andrew Mangino, Yale Daily News
16. ^Robert Kagan profile on "Right Web"
17. ^Foreign policy: 2 camps seek McCain's ear - International Herald Tribune
18. ^Reynolds, Paul (2008-04-29). "Not the end of history after all". BBC News. Retrieved 2008-04-29. 
19. ^"Inaugural Meeting of Secretary Clinton's Foreign Affairs Policy Board". Retrieved 2012-02-19. 
20. ^"Directors and Staff". The Foreign Policy Initiative. Retrieved 2010-11-20. 
21. ^"Membership Roster - Council on Foreign Relations". www.cfr.org. Retrieved 2010-11-20. 
22. ^Robert Kagan (11 January 2012). "Not Fade Away: The myth of American decline.". The New Republic. Retrieved 2012-02-19. 
23. ^Josh Rogin (26 January 2012). "Obama embraces Romney advisor's theory on 'The Myth of American Decline'". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2012-02-19. 
24. ^"Georgetown Awards 2007 Lepgold Book Prize". Georgetown University. 2008-09-17. 
25. ^"Top 100 Public Intellectuals". Foreign Policy. May 2008. 

External links[edit]

• "The End of the End of History: Why the twenty-first century will look like the nineteenth." Kagan in The New Republic, 23 April 2008.
• Video debates featuring Kagan on Bloggingheads.tv
• Audio: Robert Kagan in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion showThe Forum
• [1]The Politic interviews Robert Kagan on Russian foreign policy at the beginning of Barack Obama's first presidential term—April 2009
• Booknotes interview with Kagan on Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order, February 16, 2003.
• C-SPAN Q&A interview with Kagan, March 4, 2007
• C-SPAN Q&A interview with Kagan, March 4, 2012
• Hey, What's the Big Idea? by Michael Crowley Time.com, Feb. 02, 2012
• Lest We Forget: Neo-conservatives and Republican Foreign Policy, 1976-2000