Conversations with Bill Kristol

In 2014, Bill Kristol sat down with General Jack Keane for a wide-ranging discussion about Keane's distinguished military career. To commemorate 9/11, we are now re-releasing General Keane's remarkable recollections of September 11, which were part of that larger Conversation. General Keane was in the Pentagon, and in this recording he speaks of the heroism and bravery he witnessed that day. (Orig...

What role can America play in an increasingly complex and dangerous world—one in which America no longer maintains the overwhelmingly decisive advantage it enjoyed after the end of the Cold War? What steps must the United States take in order to improve its security and standing in a “Post-Post-Cold War" era? Why does American engagement abroad remain important for American safety and prosper...

What is the status of freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and liberal education on university campuses today? How has modern feminism shaped the modern university? In this Conversation, Harvey Mansfield considers some of the central issues and tensions in higher education today. Describing his own recent “disinvitation” from giving a commencement address at Concordia University in Montreal, Man...

What are the roots of our idea of “meritocracy”? Why has meritocracy become a subject of intense scrutiny in our politics? Can there be a legitimate meritocracy? In this Conversation, James Hankins, a professor of history at Harvard University, presents a historically learned and deeply relevant account of the idea of meritocracy. According to Hankins, our current idea of meritocracy is closely ti...

The speeches of Abraham Lincoln are well known for their enduring importance in the history of the United States. But they also remain incredibly significant as texts—works of political rhetoric that have much to teach us about the nature of politics and the American regime. In this Conversation with Bill Kristol, Diana Schaub, a professor of political science at Loyola University Maryland and a p...

Is China already a serious strategic threat to the United States? If so, how should the United States respond to its rise as a regional and global power? In this Conversation with Bill Kristol, Aaron Friedberg, professor of political science and international affairs at Princeton University, argues that a rising China is now the most significant foreign policy challenge facing the United States. R...

Surveys tell us that Americans are increasingly dissatisfied with government institutions—from Congress and federal agencies to state and local governments. Given our aversion to taxes and bureaucracy, why do we demand the government do so much? And what can be done to improve the quality of our government's performance? In this provocative Conversation, University of Pennsylvania political scient...

Born in 1950 in New York City and raised in Montreal, Charles Krauthammer, who died on June 21, 2018, was an indispensable voice in American public life for nearly four decades. His writing and speaking—covering politics, religion, technology, sports, and many other subjects—enriched American public life in a profound way. A staunch defender of American exceptionalism, he was one of the most eloqu...

Why is Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America the best book “ever written on democracy and the best ever written on America?” Why is it indispensable both for understanding the country as well as defending it? In this Podcast, Harvey Mansfield, co-translator of Democracy in America (with Delba Winthrop), presents a detailed exposition of Tocqueville’s masterwork. Mansfield considers the majo...

How should we think about global warming and climate change? How can we develop a sensible strategy to confront a problem for which the risks are inherently difficult to predict with accuracy? And how might the risks from climate change compare with other threats we'll face in the years ahead? In this Podcast, Jim Manzi, a leading technology entrepreneur, shares his perspective. In contrast to the...

On how we can sustain economic growth, spur innovation, improve productivity, and ensure greater prosperity for the middle class. In this Conversation, businessman and best-selling author Edward Conard shares his perspective on how America can achieve these objectives. Conard counters the commonplace view, today, that the American middle class has been hollowed out and that economic mobility has s...

What is “identity politics”? How has it changed American culture? What are its political ramifications? In this podcast, the author and Atlantic Staff Writer Andrew Ferguson shares his perspective on identity politics and the condition of American culture today. Ferguson argues that the weakening of civic education in America created a void that identity politics has filled. Instead of attempting...

“[America], which promises freedom, can’t guarantee that freedom won’t be misused.” So argues Paul Cantor in our new Conversation. Drawing on his new book "Pop Culture and the Dark Side of the American Dream: Con Men, Gangsters, Drug Lords, and Zombies," Cantor explains how a country that offers a fresh start to everyone inevitably produces many false starts and opportunities for con men...

Does the rise of authoritarian powers represent an ideological threat to liberal democracy—or just a strategic challenge? Why must America defend the liberal order created after World War II? In this podcast, Robert Kagan, a historian and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, argues that authoritarian regimes represent an ideological as well as strategic threat to the America-led liberal dem...

What is the state of the race for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 2020? In this Conversation, veteran political consultant and commentator Joe Trippi draws on his extensive experience in Democratic campaigns to assess. Will the ideological energy of the Democratic Party grassroots determine the nominee? Or will a “safe choice” prevail? Trippi highlights party regulars’ attention...

Did James Madison invent the idea of the American founding? Why do we venerate the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and the figures who wrote and defended our founding documents? In this Conversation, University of Virginia politics professor James Ceaser explains how in 1787 James Madison deliberately encouraged the drafters of the Constitution in Philadelphia and other Americans...

Why is today's Congress so dysfunctional? Are today’s legislators worse? What reforms could improve Congress? Jeff Bergner has had a distinguished career in government, having served as Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs (2005 – 2008), Chief of Staff to Senator Richard Lugar, and Staff Director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Drawing on his new book "The Vanishing...

Kristen Soltis Anderson is a pollster, author, and political analyst. In her second conversation with Bill Kristol, Anderson analyzes the latest data on the political, social, and cultural attitudes of the two youngest voting generations, “Millennials” (ages 23-38 in 2019) and “Generation Z” (ages 14-22 in 2019). According to Anderson, both of these generations continue their leftward political tr...

Michael Strain is a scholar and director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. In this Conversation, Strain challenges the increasingly widespread notion that America is in decline economically—and reflects on the enduring importance of innovation and dynamism in the American economy. Highlighting measures like social mobility and increa...

Harvard government professor Stephen Rosen assesses the current geopolitical environment, and considers America’s capacity to meet its foreign policy responsibilities and deter its adversaries. Detailing threats to America from a rising China, the success of bad actors in the Middle East, and other geopolitical turmoil, Rosen explains why America must compete in economic, political, and military a...

What does Aristotle have to teach us about democracy and the relationship of philosophy to politics? A profound treatment of this theme is found in "Aristotle: Democracy and Political Science" by Delba Winthrop (1945 – 2006), which has just been published by the University of Chicago Press. In his sixteenth appearance on Conversations, Harvey Mansfield draws on Winthrop’s book and her st...

Veteran political strategist and commentator Mike Murphy assesses where the Republicans and the Democrats stand as we look toward 2020. What are President Trump’s prospects for reelection? Where are the divisions in the Democratic Party, and which Democratic candidates might prevail in the primaries? And could there be a successful primary challenge to Trump? Murphy shares his thoughts on these an...

Ronald Brownstein is a Senior Editor at The Atlantic, Senior Political Analyst at CNN, and a shrewd observer of American politics. In this Conversation, Brownstein shares his perspective on how the midterms reveal further intensification of the geographic and demographic divisions in American politics. Brownstein and Bill Kristol then look ahead to 2020. They assess the strengths and weaknesses of...

Jack Goldsmith is a professor of law at Harvard University and served as Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel (2003-2004). In this Conversation, Goldsmith shares his perspective on America’s vulnerabilities to cyber attack—the complex and systemic threats to our digital and physical infrastructures, as well as to our politics via hacking and digital espionage. As Goldsmith exp...

Christine Rosen is an author, the managing editor of The Weekly Standard, and a columnist at Commentary. Rosen shares her perspective on the confused and confusing state of relations between men and women in contemporary America. According to Rosen, the Me Too movement has shown how we lack the rules and even the language for understanding the new sets of challenges facing men and women today. In...