Book Talk – Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World
Foreign agents have played a pivotal role in shaping American foreign policy since its founding, earning a small fortune peddling influence for foreign regimes to American audiences. Despite a heightened focus in recent years, the U.S. has failed to reckon with the legacy and impact of the foreign lobbying industry—which now expands well past lobbying shops and public relations firms to nonprofits, law firms, think tanks, and beyond. To discuss the ongoing legacy of the foreign influence industry in America, Ben Freeman, director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at the Quincy Institute, interviewed Casey Michel, author of the new book Foreign Agents: How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World.
Panelists
Casey Michel
Casey Michel is an author, journalist, and director of the Combating Kleptocracy Program with the Human Rights Foundation. He is the author of American Kleptocracy, named by The Economist as one of the "best books to read to understand financial crime," and is the author of the forthcoming book Foreign Agents, on the impact and threats of the U.S.'s foreign lobbying industry. His writing on offshoring, foreign lobbying, authoritarianism, and illicit wealth has appeared in Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, and The Washington Post, among other outlets, and he has appeared on NPR, BBC, CNN, and MSNBC, among other stations.
Ben Freeman is Director of the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at the Quincy Institute. He investigates money in politics, defense spending, and foreign influence in America. He is the author of The Foreign Policy Auction, which was the first book to systematically analyze the foreign influence industry in the United States. Before joining the Quincy Institute, Ben founded the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative at the Center for International Policy, served as Deputy Director of the National Security program at Third Way, and was a National Security Fellow at the Project On Government Oversight.