event

Threat Politics: Promise and Peril

Tue. July 29th, 20251:00 PM - 2:00 PM (EDT)
Live Online

There is no policy change without politics and no politics without persuasion. Rational arguments abound, but motivating change often requires tapping into what moves people, what makes them feel.  U.S. policymakers have a long bipartisan tradition of turning to fear to spur action, choosing to invoke threats—and sometimes inflate them — to influence the public, Congress, and foreign partners and adversaries. 

Why do politicians choose to emphasize or exaggerate threats? What benefits can they derive from such tactics and what costs do they incur? What forms of threat politics can we expect in an era of record polarization and how might they be used in efforts to address some of the greatest challenges facing the United States, from strategic competition with China to the climate crisis? 

Please join Carnegie’s American Statecraft Program for the virtual launch of Brett Rosenberg’s new paper, "The Promise and Peril of Threat Politics." Christopher S. Chivvis will moderate a conversation with Brett Rosenberg, Dominic Tierney, Leonardo Martinez-Diaz, Rachel Myrick, and Ryan Hass.  

Political ReformSecurityForeign PolicyClimate ChangeUnited StatesChinaEast Asia
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.
event speakers

Christopher S. Chivvis

Senior Fellow and Director, American Statecraft Program

Christopher S. Chivvis is the director of the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Ryan Hass

Director, John L. Thornton China Center, Brookings Institution

Ryan Hass is director of the John L. Thornton China Center and the Chen-Fu and Cecilia Yen Koo Chair in Taiwan Studies at Brookings. He is also a senior fellow in the Center for Asia Policy Studies.

Dominic Tierney

Claude C. Smith '14 Professor, Swarthmore College

Dominic Tierney is a professor of political science, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and a former contributing editor at The Atlantic.

Leonardo Martinez-Diaz

Senior Fellow and Director, Sustainability, Climate, and Geopolitics Program

Leonardo Martinez-Diaz is senior fellow and director of the Sustainability, Climate, and Geopolitics Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His fields of expertise include climate politics and diplomacy, climate finance, and mitigating and managing the risks of climate change to economies and communities.

Rachel Myrick

Associate Professor, Duke University

Rachel Myrick is an associate professor of Political Science at Duke University. She studies the domestic politics of international security, with an emphasis on how polarization affects contemporary US foreign policy.

Brett Rosenberg

Nonresident Scholar, American Statecraft Program

Brett Rosenberg is a nonresident scholar in the Carnegie American Statecraft Program. She is a former White House, State Department, and Senate official.