U.S. Global Engagement (USGE)

For the last five years, the post-Cold War bipartisan consensus in U.S. foreign policy—that the sustained deployment of U.S. power around the world is indispensable for maintaining the international system—has been called into question. There are now a series of competing narratives providing very different rationales for the degree and scope of U.S. engagement being advanced by different groups on the U.S. domestic political spectrum—each resting on a different understanding of what constitutes ethics in international affairs.

In this context, Carnegie Council's U.S Global Engagement program (USGE) seeks to:

1. Reshape wider discussions on American foreign policy to seriously address the causes and consequences of U.S. disengagement and re-engagement;
2. Move ethical considerations to the center of policymakers' thinking about international relations, including the emergence of new ethical perspectives based on environmentalism, a focus on greater inclusivity, and the emergence of new technologies;
3. Probe the ethical considerations in a world increasingly defined by geopolitical and ideological competition among major powers; and
4. Inform democratic citizens' understanding of international affairs, global engagement, and U.S. foreign policymaking.