Eric Edelman: Foreign Policy and the Biden Administration

Conversations with Bill Kristol

News, Society & Culture, Government, Politics

4.7 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 1 December 2020

⏱️ 74 minutes

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Summary

Every new presidential administration faces its own set of foreign policy challenges, whatever the political climate at home and abroad. According to Eric Edelman, the incoming Biden administration faces an increasingly complex and dangerous world, as well as a fractious political environment at home. How should the Biden administration navigate America’s foreign policy? What should it focus on? In this Conversation, Edelman shares his perspective on the foreign policy challenges we face. Edelman calls for a renewed effort to defend America’s core interests while reforming and rebuilding alliance structures and institutions that have helped America prosper. While acknowledging key challenges to the enterprise, Edelman argues that America must reengage in leadership around the globe.

Transcript

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0:00.0	And the Hi, welcome to Conversations. I'm Bill Crystal. Very pleased to be joined for the fourth time by Eric Edelman, a long time veteran of the State Department,
0:24.0	Foreign Service Officer who was sent it to the ambassador
0:27.6	to several countries actually, and then took a very senior,
0:32.0	was offered and took a very senior job in the Defense Department,
0:35.3	Undersecretary for Policy.
0:36.5	So very rare, actually, to have the most, be a bit at the most senior levels of both
0:41.0	our major foreign policy agencies.
0:43.9	Now, that is that of many think tanks,
0:46.5	including CSBA, very prestigious defense think tank,
0:50.9	who's, I can't remember what those initials stand for actually.
0:53.2	What is the, what is this, what is
0:54.4	Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
0:57.2	Sounds very, very think-takey, right?
1:00.1	Anyway, it's great to have you with me again, Eric. We discussed in 2017 your career, to some degree,
1:06.4	especially your adventures as Ambassador to Turkey and subsequent what you did in the Bush administration,
1:14.4	the Secretary of Defense for Bob Gates.
1:16.9	In 2018, 2019, we discussed the state
1:19.6	of American foreign policy under President Trump
1:21.8	and some of the threats and dangers but I thought
1:24.2	this will be a great time to have now at the end of what is it November 30th
1:27.1	2020 a forward-looking discussion on we have a new administration you've been
1:31.7	through these transitions before you've worked for
	...

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