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Source: Getty

In The Media

How Fear Drives American Politics

Instead of looking to build the future, it sometimes feels like the U.S. political establishment happily retreats into fear and willful ignorance.

Link Copied
By David Rothkopf
Published on Mar 16, 2015

Source: TED2015

Does it seem like Washington has no new ideas? Instead of looking to build the future, it sometimes feels like the U.S. political establishment happily retreats into fear and willful ignorance. Journalist David Rothkopf lays out a few of the major issues that U.S. leadership is failing to address—from cybercrime to world-shaking new tech to the reality of modern total war—and calls for a new vision that sets fear aside.

This talk was originally delivered at TED2015.

About the Author

David Rothkopf

Former Visiting Scholar

David Rothkopf was a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment as well as the former CEO and editor in chief of the FP Group.

    Recent Work

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David Rothkopf
Former Visiting Scholar
David Rothkopf
Political ReformDemocracyForeign PolicyNorth AmericaUnited States

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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