01
July 2020
Past Event
Video Event | The Once and Future West: A Discussion with Peter Berkowitz and Michael Kimmage

Video Event | The Once and Future West: A Discussion with Peter Berkowitz and Michael Kimmage

Past Event
Hudson Institute, Washington, D.C. Headquarters
July 01, 2020
01
July 2020
Past Event

1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Suite 400
Washington, DC 20004

Speakers:
Peter Berkowitz

Director of Policy Planning, U.S. Department of State

Michael Kimmage

Professor of History, Catholic University

tod_lindberg
Tod Lindberg

Senior Fellow

**This event will premiere on this page at 12:00 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, July 1.**

Join Hudson Institute for a discussion with Michael Kimmage on his new book, The Abandonment of the West: The History of an Idea in American Foreign Policy." Hudson Senior Fellow Tod Lindberg, who recently reviewed the book in the "Wall Street Journal, will moderate the event. State Department Director of Policy Planning Peter Berkowitz will join the conversation.

Reference to “the West” as a geopolitical organizing principle and to “Western civilization” as a cultural and political heritage was once common in discussions of the United States as a leading global power and as an exemplar of government dedicated to securing the liberty and rights of Americans. The publication of William H. McNeill's "The Rise of the West" in 1963 was perhaps a high-water mark for a concept then almost unanimously promoted by American universities. It was also a time at which a powerful critique of the idea of the West and of injustice in the United States was beginning to gain a foothold. Two generations later, the critique is predominant in the universities and on the streets in a demand for “social justice.”

The principles of liberty and rights contain within themselves a basis for criticism of existing social and political practice for failure to live up to their universal promise. But are those principles strong enough to absorb and contain the criticism? In short, the West has a past—but does it have a future?

Related Events
25
July 2025
Past Event
Gazan Humanitarian Foundation Chairman Johnnie Moore on How Food Distribution Could Determine Hamas’s Fate
Featured Speakers:
Johnnie Moore
Nina Shea
Getty Images
25
July 2025
Past Event
Gazan Humanitarian Foundation Chairman Johnnie Moore on How Food Distribution Could Determine Hamas’s Fate

Reverend Moore will also discuss how the GHF can help distribute UN food aid that is currently sequestered in trucks inside the Gaza strip—a request that the secretary general and his deputy at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) have thus far ignored.

Getty Images
Featured Speakers:
Johnnie Moore
Nina Shea
28
July 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Bridging the Valley of Death: Using Experimentation to Solve Operational Problems
Featured Speakers:
Joy Shanaberger
Dan Ermer
Capt. Raymond G. Stromberger
Gary Western
David Schmolke
Yi Chao
Rick Berger
Gina Pizziconi
Alex Lovett
Dan Edwards
Moderators:
Dan Lamothe
Bryan Clark
Dan Patt
DVIDS
28
July 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Bridging the Valley of Death: Using Experimentation to Solve Operational Problems

Please join Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Bryan Clark, US defense officials, and industry leaders for an event highlighting the DoD’s recent accomplishments in translating concept to capability through experimentation in support of the nation’s most urgent military challenges.

DVIDS
Featured Speakers:
Joy Shanaberger
Dan Ermer
Capt. Raymond G. Stromberger
Gary Western
David Schmolke
Yi Chao
Rick Berger
Gina Pizziconi
Alex Lovett
Dan Edwards
Moderators:
Dan Lamothe
Bryan Clark
Dan Patt
28
July 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
David Petraeus on What Taiwan Can Learn from Ukraine’s Battlefield Experience
Featured Speakers:
Kenneth R. Weinstein
General David H. Petraeus (US Army, Ret.)
Moderator:
Jason Hsu
Getty images
28
July 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
David Petraeus on What Taiwan Can Learn from Ukraine’s Battlefield Experience

General David H. Petraeus (US Army, ret.) will join Hudson’s Jason Hsu for a conversation about what the war in Ukraine has revealed about the future of warfare—and what these lessons mean for Taiwanese security.

Getty images
Featured Speakers:
Kenneth R. Weinstein
General David H. Petraeus (US Army, Ret.)
Moderator:
Jason Hsu
29
July 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Other Approaches to the US-Canada Trade Impasse
Featured Speakers:
Hon. Ed Fast
Jamie Tronnes
Moderator:
Matthew Boyse
Getty Images
29
July 2025
In-Person Event | Hudson Institute
Other Approaches to the US-Canada Trade Impasse

Join Hudson Senior Fellow Matt Boyse for a discussion with former Canadian Minister for Trade and Economic Development Ed Fast, and CNAPS Executive Director Jamie Tronnes, as they explore a new path forward for US-Canada relations and what other allies can learn from the process.

Getty Images
Featured Speakers:
Hon. Ed Fast
Jamie Tronnes
Moderator:
Matthew Boyse