Reappraising the Right’s Foreign Policy with Michael Lucchese

In February of 2004 the late Charles Krauthammer delivered the keynote address at AEI’s Annual Dinner.  It was a year into the Iraqi war and several years into the War on Terror.  Krauthammer’s address—entitled Democratic Realism—lauded much of the Bush administration’s approach to the war, but offered some stern warnings on how the war and rebuilding efforts might go awry.  His warnings proved to be profoundly prescient as the following years led to the disillusionment of what broadly (and wrongly) became known as NeoCon foreign policy.

 What had the Right missed in Krauthammer’s warnings?  What foreign policy approaches has the United States historically taken, and are any of them still relevant?  How might conservatism shed light on the most appropriate foreign policy we could pursue?  Joining Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is returning guest Michael Lucchese to think through the lessons learned in American foreign policy.