The breaching of the US Capitol – a symbol of one of the world’s oldest democracies – by a pro-Trump mob on January 6, 2021, marked the culminating point of years of seditious rhetoric, incitement to violence, disinformation, and institutional destabilization by the outgoing US President. Next to the far-reaching implications at home, these events are bound to have a serious impact on US foreign policy after Joe Biden takes office. This panel co-organized by the American Academy in Berlin and the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College addressed these implications as well as likely international security ramifications more broadly.

The panelists were Michèle Flournoy, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, WestExec Advisors, and former US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy under President Barack Obama; Ivan Krastev, Chair, Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sofia, and Permanent Fellow, IWM Institute of Human Sciences, Vienna; and William C. Wohlforth, Daniel Webster Professor of Government, Dartmouth College.

The discussion was moderated by Daniel Benjamin, President, American Academy in Berlin; and former Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the US Department of State under President Barack Obama; with introductory remarks by Christianne Hardy, Interim Director, John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College.

In cooperation with the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College