For two and a half centuries, the United States has faced a challenging world. Some of its responses have advanced U.S. interests and values. Others have not. The Council on Foreign Relations asked members of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, the world’s foremost organization dedicated to the scholarly study of the history of American foreign relations, to identify and rank what in their judgment were the ten best and ten worst U.S. foreign policy decisions since the writing of the Declaration of Independence. The Marshall Plan, the creation of the United Nations, and the 1778 Treaty of Alliance with France topped the list of the ten best U.S. foreign policy decisions. The invasion of Iraq and the deployment of combat forces to Vietnam led the list of the top ten worst decisions.
As the United States celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the survey results provide an opportunity to learn more about the foreign policy choices past generations made, to assess what has and has not worked with America’s engagement with the world, and to consider how the United States can best meet the challenges of today.
Tuesday, November 10 I 11:00 am – 1:00 pm
* Luncheon Event *
Venue:
Bass, Berry & Sims
21 Platform Way S., Suite 3500, Nashville, TN 37203
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Moderator: Karl Dean
Karl Dean served as the sixth Mayor of Nashville and Davidson County. He was elected in 2007 and re-elected in 2011. Dean first held public office when he was elected as Nashville’s Public Defender in 1990. He was re-elected in 1994 and 1998. He served as Metro Law Director from 1999 to January 2007, when he resigned to run for the office of mayor. Karl Dean has taught at Vanderbilt Law School, Belmont University, and Boston University.
Featured Speaker: Dr. James Lindsay (Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations)
James M. Lindsay is the Mary and David Boies Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). His scholarly work examines U.S. national security policy, the U.S. foreign policymaking process, and the domestic politics of U.S. foreign policy.
From 2009 to 2024, Lindsay served as senior vice president, director of studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg chair at CFR, where he oversaw more than six dozen fellows in CFR’s David Rockefeller Studies Program. From 2024 to 2025, he also served as director of Fellowship Affairs, where he supervised CFR’s fourteen external fellowship programs. Before returning to CFR in 2009, Lindsay was the inaugural director of the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas at Austin, where he held the Tom Slick chair for international affairs at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. From 2003 to 2006, he was vice president, director of studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair at CFR. He previously served as deputy director and senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution. From 1987 until 1999, he was a professor of political science at the University of Iowa.
From 1996 to 1997, Lindsay served as director for global issues and multilateral affairs on the National Security Council staff. He has also served as a consultant to the United States Commission on National Security/21st Century (Hart-Rudman Commission) and as a staff expert for the United States Institute of Peace’s congressionally mandated Task Force on the United Nations.
Lindsay has written and edited more than a dozen books on U.S. politics, foreign policy, and international relations. His most recent book, co-authored with Ivo H. Daalder, is The Empty Throne: America’s Abdication of Global Leadership. His previous book with Ambassador Daalder, America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy, won the 2003 Lionel Gelber Prize, was named a finalist for the Arthur S. Ross Book Award, and was selected as a top book of 2003 by The Economist. He has also contributed articles to many major newspapers and magazines, including Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. He hosts the weekly podcast The President’s Inbox.
Lindsay holds an AB in economics and political science with highest distinction and highest honors from the University of Michigan and an MA, MPhil, and PhD from Yale University.
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