Challenging the Washington D.C. Foreign Policy "Blob" w/ Kelley Vlahos

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On this edition of Parallax Views, the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft is attempting to change the conversation about foreign policy in Washington, D.C. today. In dong so they're challenging what has been referred to as the Washington "Blob", or the foreign policy consensus that dominates the beltway. A trans-partisan effort that boasts voices from both the right and left ends of the political spectrum, the Quincy Institute has been promoting the possibilities of diplomatic approaches to foreign policy over the hawkish, militaristic approaches.

Kelley Vlahos, who plays a key role in the Quincy Institute's official online magazine Responsible Statecraft, joins us to discuss the work of the Institute and make the case that U.S. "Forever Wars" have not been in the national interest. In this conversation we discuss a number of different topics related to foreign policy from U.S. relations with North Korea and Russia to the Iran deal and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Kelley offers her thoughts on what she considers the damage that's been done by the D.C. "Blob" and why she believes the conversation on foreign policy is finally shifting to a different approach. In addition, Kelley discusses her latest article for Responsible Statecraft entitled "In major address Biden says ‘America is back.’ But what does that mean?". In this regard Kelley and I discuss what direction President Joe Biden's U.S. foreign policy may be headed in, her hopes that it will show more restraint in its approach, and how the previous Presidential administration of Donald J. Trump did not deliver on its promises concerning a major sea change in U.S. foreign policy. Near the end of the program Kelley fills listeners in own her own podcast The Empire Has No Clothes at The American Conservative. All that and more on this edition of Parallax Views.