Ted Widmer Named Senior Research Fellow with the American Strategy Program

New America Foundation today announced that Ted Widmer, a former senior adviser to President Clinton and a former director of speech writing at the National Security Council (1997-2001), joins its American Strategy Program as a Senior Research Fellow. Dr. Widmer will examine U.S. foreign policy through the contours of the American historical experience.

"Ted Widmer is one of the emerging key chroniclers and interpreters of American political history,” said Steve Clemons, director of the American Strategy Program at New America. “His knack for drilling down into the deep philosophical and political origins of contemporary foreign policy behavior will significantly broaden a team that already includes some of the most important national security and foreign policy experts in the nation.”

As a leading expert in U.S. presidential history, the colonial period, and 19th and 20th century U.S. political history, Dr. Widmer currently directs the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University and will release his new book, Ark of the Liberties: America and the World, in 2008. From 2001 to 2006, he was the inaugural director of the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College. Previously, he taught at Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D, A.M. and A.B. degrees. Dr. Widmer is the editor of a two-volume set entitled American Speeches (2006), and is the author of Martin Van Buren (2005), Campaigns: A Century of Presidential Races (with Alan Brinkley, 2001), and Young America: The Flowering of Democracy in New York City (1999).

New America also announced that Senior Research Fellow Anatol Lieven has been appointed Chair of International Relations and Terrorism Studies at King’s College London; his tenure begins in September. Dr. Lieven will continue in his role at the New America Foundation in addition to serving in his new capacity in London. Dr. Lieven’s work with the College will cover the international system and Western strategy, as well as, investigate the nature, origins, ideology and cultural background of terrorist movements, with particular attention to Pakistan and Afghanistan. As a Senior Research Fellow with the American Strategy Program at New America, Dr. Lieven focuses on U.S. global strategy and the war on terror. He will continue to write regularly for the Financial Times and other publications while abroad.

“Anatol Lieven will have an important new opportunity at King’s College to help educate a new generation of ‘ethical realists’ -- the name of his recent book on U.S. foreign policy that has been one of the most important of the year,” said Mr. Clemons.

A former senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Dr. Lieven co-authored Ethical Realism: A Vision for America’s Role in the World, published in 2006. As a journalist, he covered central Europe for the Financial Times, and wrote on Pakistan, Afghanistan, the former Soviet Union and Russia for The Times (London). In addition, he was an editor at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, where he was also employed by the Eastern Services of the BBC.

Learn More About: Anatol Lieven, Ted Widmer
Related Programs: American Strategy Program
Topics: Foreign Policy