“Regime Change: How to Replace the Beltway Blob with the Foreign Policy Americans Want”

Hart Senate Office Building
120 Constitution Ave NE, Washington, DC 20002
Hart Senate Office Building
120 Constitution Ave NE, Washington, DC 20002
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The American Convervative’s annual conference in D.C., featured a list of speakers discussing “Regime Change: How to Replace the Beltway Blob with the Foreign Policy Americans Want.” They addressed how think tanks, lobbyists, industry and academia work together to sustain the interventionist status quo, and how to take advantage of new “America First” dynamics in Washington to try and change it. The conference took aim at the entrenched foreign policy establishment, which for too long has promoted war over diplomacy at the behest of a powerful military industrial complex, and American primacy abroad over the interests of its citizens at home. Speakers included Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft President Andrew Bacevich, and Deputy Director for Policy and Research Stephen Wertheim, who were featured on the panels below: 9-9:45 a.m. The State of U.S. Foreign Policy in Trump’s Washington  

    

  • Q & A with Andrew Bacevich, TAC Writer-at-Large and president of The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and James Antle III, Editor, TAC.

9:45-10:45 a.m. Realism Versus Washington power: Why the Blob Persists  

    

  • Damon Linker — Senior Correspondent, The Week

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  • Michael Desch — Professor of International Relations, University of Notre Dame

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  • Monica Duffy Toft — Director of the Center for Strategic Studies, Tufts University.

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  • Andrew Bacevich — TAC Writer-at-Large and Co-founder of The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

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  • Moderator: Will Ruger — Vice President for Policy and Research, Charles Koch Institute

1:00-2:00 p.m. Think Tank Town: The Swampy Ecosystem Supporting Status Quo  

    

  • Ben Freeman–Director, Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative, Center for International Policy

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  • Carrie Levine–Senior Reporter, Center for Public Integrity

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  • Stephen Wertheim–Co-founder, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

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  • Chris Preble–Vice President of Defense and Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute

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  • Moderator: Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, Executive Editor, The American Conservative

A full schedule and speakers list is available from The American Conservative.

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