Welcome to the georgetown dialogues. I am the Vice President for Global Engagement here in georgetown. We are the lead organizer for this weeks events. I want to welcome you to our historic hall. And those following online around the world. For the first couple of sessions in our weeklong conference. The first on the u. S. President ial election and the focus on how it is seen from abroad. In the second on social inequality is a complex global challenge. What are the georgetown global dialogues . Around this time last year, we began to explore prominent examples. And students in the wider community. On challenges facing humanity. Intellectuals already engaged in global conversations. Through articles and books and all kinds of appearances. Please welcome them to georgetown. It is a bit unusual to have this community in washington. That brings us to our theme. It sounds presumptuous. But we have arrived at a global impasse. Now is the time to think together. Think about the catastrophe in gaza and the ever present danger of a wider war in the middle east. Think about the brutal russian invasion of ukraine and terrible civil wars in sudan and the democratic republic of the congo. Think about a Global Economy that has listed millions out of poverty but also left millions of dire need. So many young people languish with little hope. Gender discrimination remains a deep structural problem. Think about a politics that is polarized and dysfunctional within handed the across our countries. Very new threats including here in the u. S. The prayer inflation proliferation of demagogues. Think about our financial institutions. The founding documents of the u. N. A world of peace and justice were all human beings enjoy the same foundational, economic, social, civic, and political rights. It is a vision of human solidarity. A vision that still seems so far out of reach in todays world. Overshadowing it all is a steadily worsening Climate Crisis and the transformative challenges posed by the digital nai revolutions. And ai revolutions. This is the world that surrounds our gathering here in the capital of what is still the most powerful country in the world. The u. S. Is more than at any time in its history needing to learn to live with and listen to other countries and cultures. There is no alternative given the shifts we are witnessing in the global challenges we all face. That is the point of the georgetown global dialogues, to promote a more inclusive conversation about the future of the world and beyond. Georgetown, we believe them is a fitting host of such a conversation. We are a catholic and jesuit institution, founded in the same year as the United States. We are part of a centuries old tradition with a global horizon, ages what university committed to a dialogue to the common good, so what pope francis calls a culture of encounter, the Creative Exploration of our differences, the acknowledgment of our deep divide. But also the search for common ground. As you can see from the program, we want to explore with you the ways forward across a range of interesting and intersecting topics, from the president ial election to the Climate Crisis, social inequality, and the future of feminism, the crisis of democracy to the cultural and spiritual resources of cosmopolitan thought. As we traverse this terrain, we will, of course, revisit and establish debates, but we want to avoid falling into civilian observations that lead into debates we see polarizing all around us. We will be on stage and with you all to explore together our complex presence and to envision better global futures. Two other Program Elements will help us along the way. Every day, before our second section, we will be treated to short performances by georgetowns laboratory for Global Performance and politics. He will be a dramatic way to remind us of the importance of potential of dialogue in a divided world. And on thursday evening here in gadsden hall, we are enjoying a musical performance a conversation with a remarkable person under the heading other voices, other rooms. Before i acknowledge the many Institutional Partners who made our gathering possible, i want to recognize some students who have made logistics for this weeks events and responded thoughtfully online to essays crafted on our themes. More than 100 people take part in student workshops tomorrow morning and wednesday morning, designed to elevate the voices of young people around Climate Change and other global challenges. We really hope that this week will begin a wider conversation with the experiences of young people into the future. A quick word on our partners, the dialogues are a University Wide effort in collaboration with the law school of foreign services, the Mcdonough School of business, and our campus all of our sessions between now and friday, one or more cosponsors acknowledged in the program, and georgetowns departments. I want to express my gratitude to all of them and especially the remarkable team at the Berkeley Center for making possible our time together this week. I also want to acknowledge and thank the new york review of books, our media partner for the dialogue. And remind you all that our afternoon sessions are being livestreamed on youtube and, of course, that we have a hashtag for social media commanded is gudialogues. I am now delighted to turn things over to linnie bernardo, who is moderating our first session on the u. S. Role in the world, looking beyond the 2024 election. Thank you all to come in. Please join me in welcoming lenny, veronica, and ben rhodes. [applause] lenny great. Thank you, tom, for that interview, and thank you, everybody paid i am going to introduce our esteemed panel in just five seconds, but tom said, at the top, that the United States remains the most powerful country in the world, and this may be one area of conversation that i and my panelists might want to dig into. If you take a very conventional sense of power, as the often very conventional conversationalists would have it, power is having about a do to b what b would otherwise not do. And if the United States is in a position to have the kind of power when we think of empirical cases, like, for example, ukraine or gaza, it would be an interesting point of reference for thinking about what the u. S. May be able to do post the 2024 election. So with that, i am going to introduce immediately to my left veronica, who i had the great pleasure to hang out with in buenos aires a few months ago. She is a professor of social sciences in buenos aires. She is an activist working on issues of feminism in the greater political economy, with her most recent books being a feminist reading of death, feminist international, and neoliberalism below, popular pragmatics and baroque economics. Not one woman Less Movement as a fearless activist. A british pakistani author noted for examining global issues. Recent novels include the last white man, and exit west, which receive prizes for fiction, his book the reluctant fundamentalist, was made into a film. The engagement with the political turmoil, Cultural Resource meant, and shifting into collective i did these informed his essays on contemporary affairs and in outlets like the guardian, the New York Times, and elsewhere. A turkish novelist, political thinker, and an analyst of the erosion of democracy and the challenge of populism on a global scale. The author of 10 choices for a better now as well as the celebrated how to lose a country. The seven deaths from democracy to dictatorship. Her novels are published in multiple linkages, a frequent contributor as well for the guardian, the New York Times, la monde, and elsewhere. The Human Rights Association of turkey, not an oxymoron. She received an award for her work. Finally, ben rhodes, writer, political commentator, National Security analyst, author of the New York Times bestseller after the fall, a member of the obama white house. He is a contributor for nbc nightly news and cohosted a podcast, Senior Advisor to the 45th president and chair of National Security action, ben is also published widely in the atlantic, foreign affairs, and the New York Times. Ben, welcome. To begin, there is a distinction that people know of that comes from david hume, between i. S. And the ought, what actually is, the facts on the ground, and what can become a more normative, hopeful look at the world and its future, and i would like to begin with the o ught and moves to the is. What would be our ideal u. S. In its relationship to the world beyond it come 2025 . What would that look like in an ideal, typical way . Not the sins of what it will look like, whether an administration under donald j. Trump or the current president , joseph biden, but could and should and might it look like in an ideal way . I would like to begin and ask her to think a bit aspirational he, aspirational he, and what will the United States and its relationship to the world look like . It is too dark to think about, aspirationally, but hello, everyone, welcome, and thank you for sharing this afternoon with us. I came to washington two days ago, and since then, i am watching cnn and other news networks, and i thought, you have all of these medicine advertisements. [laughter] and i thought, america, if it were a musical, it would be called drugstore. [laughter] also, there are the Insurance Company advertisements. When you look at the market, what settles tells a lot about a country, so i thought, my god, there are so many fears, and even i have fears, thank you very much, i have several illnesses as well, thanks to these advertisements. So, the rest of the world in these americans for their lightheartedness and the internal sunshine of the spotless mind kind of being. But in america, you know, since two days im thinking that, has too many fears, and now, thanks to trump, they know what it feels like to be represented by the worse of you and the thing that we suffered in global selves is now familiar to americans. Before trump, it was impossible to tell the west, before brexit, it was impossible to tell the westerners from our side of the world that, how devastating it is to be represented by the worst of you, and to be known through these guys. So, shame and fear, these are the two things i have been thinking about. But also, coming to your question, i was thinking about this, you know, not very wellknown story from 5, 6 decades ago, about the United States. My mother is a painter and my father is a lawyer, and they met through politics, and my mother was in prison, and my father, being a young lawyer, he actually rescued her from the prison. Before she actually stepped out, he proposed, she said yes, and therefore i am. One day, she told me this story about americans. I come from an antiimperialist, antiamerican family, if you can imagine, from the cv of my family. She told me this story, which one day i am going to write a novel about. She told about this American Teacher that came to turkey in a very small town, by the way, who came through the peace corps. And this young man taught them how to ask questions, how to question things. Years later, she told, all of the club members who were taught by this Young American guy, became progressive leaders of the political movement. So when i am asked about u. S. role, i want to think about, what is american, but american peoples role can be. Tom celebrated a bunch of interesting fellows. I would not be too wrong to say we are mostly people who are invited to international meetings, you know, interesting people, controversial people, and then to be put in a big room to talk about security stuff in the real problems and so on. But this is the main stage now, so in our view of the world, if i can say that, should be the mainstream, the whole conference. So i can say that maybe we should think about your roles, american peoples role, and that role can be truthful to the promises of this country, promises that have failed, big time, promises who are still remembered by some. And that promise was to have a dream, and american people, as opposed to u. S. , did not fail us that much actually. Now im thinking, there was also a time, there was black lives matter, then there was Columbia University, yale university, so american peoples role, if im not too optimistic, might be as important as the u. S. s role in the world. And im looking forward to that as well. Lenny lets stay on that. Ece looks at a positive role in the future looking at examples like the movement for black lives or occupy or what is happening as we speak in universities like columbia and yam. Yale. To what extent do you see the power of american citizens and american activism allowing for, again, in a best case, future between america and the world as something that is affirming, something you feel can take us into a more better, is not radiant, future, and to what extent do you think the role of the state still is going to play a predominant role in how we think about a better america and the world . So i think, my immigration to america began when i was 3, and i came in 1974, lived in california. When i went back in 1980, i was nine years old. And i thought as this american kid, i had to learn to be pakistani again. And ive always had this kind of half in, half out relationship with america. I remember my dads best friend in the 1970s was this guy called blake. Blake had volunteered in the 1960s, when the vietnam war was in its height. He never got sent to vietnam, but he volunteered at that time, and when he finished his service, he came back to campus, and he was upset with antiwar protesters. I remember when blake picked me up, i was giving a lecture at stanford, must have been the latter part of the decade, 2008, 2009, Something Like that. Blake picked me up from the airport, we were driving to campus he has passed away now. And we were talking, and he said, you know, it is funny because there are a couple of wars going on right now, this war in afghanistan, this war in iraq, and you look around, it is like nothing is going on. American troops are fighting, there are wars happening in these countries, but around you, there is nothing. You go onto campus, you give a lecture, it is not affecting anybody. Theres no protests, no nothing. And he was sort of baffled and horrified by this state of affairs. And i thought a lot about that, and i have thought about it many times since. America has wound up, if we talk about where america could go, what might be the optimistic future. And i think that, in a sense, what you see now is life in the country disproportionately provided the troops that went to fight in these wars, that have proven catastrophic for the countries in which these wars were fought but also catastrophic for the families of the young people who fought in them, the United States, are now reeling with a sense of betrayal, a sense of disenchantment with what United States is. And i think that something quite profound has been happening in the United States, you know, if you compare the current generation of america to those mobilized to fight the second world war, basically everybody is different. America has found a way to numb itself to Foreign Policy a way. Wars can be fought, people can do things, and people can be somewhat insulated. I think that has resulted in america making a series of very bad decisions, and if i would imagine a more positive future for the United States, i would think, you know, America Needs to look inward, actually. It is not clear to me that americas interventions around the world are particularly helpful or useful. I think that American Society is deeply divided. American people are grappling with all sorts of problems. I went to Public School in california in the 1970s, and when i went to pakistan and went to one of the best schools locally, my Public School california education was so much better than the best education on offer in lahore. It is not like that today. So i think, in a sense, i would imagine a future american engagement, and optimistic engagement, would be one where america did much, much less in the world, did it with enormously more humility, focused much more on the United States, and people are saying this is sort of isolationism, etc. It needed to be isolationism, but i suppose my take on all of this is informed by, when you are in pakistan, pakistan is a u. S. Ally for much of the cold war. Every dictator in history has been massive for usaid. What is the legacy of that fight . The legacy of that fight was the transformation of Pakistani Society under the islamist dictators, this horribly disfigured society. And it continues to this day. And you can save the cold war was defeated, it was a great intervention. It was not a great intervention. I tend to think that come in many ways, the optimistic vision for the United States is in fact the United States comes to recognize that its power to shape the world for good is quite limited, not nothing, but more limited that it would sometimes have us believe. And it is fundamentally premised on the america that is good for americans. Lenny so lets stay there for a second, mohsin, if i could ask ben i mentioned president 45. He worked for president 44, sorry. [laughter] s