The SMU Tower Center would like to invite you to a National Security Lecture: Bipartisanship in U.S. Foreign Policy: Why is it Declining? How Much Remains?

U.S. foreign policy has become increasingly polarized across party lines. This pattern is commonly described as a long-running breakdown of bipartisan consensus that continually makes it harder for the United States to maintain a coherent approach to global affairs. Yet, at the same time, U.S. foreign policy is frequently criticized for being the product of groupthink among the foreign policy establishment, in which a bipartisan "blob" of elites lacks meaningful dissent. How can the politics of U.S. foreign policy simultaneously be characterized by deepening divisions and long-standing consensus? Why do some elements of U.S. foreign policy stoke political controversy while others enjoy bipartisan support? How, if at all, have these dynamics changed over time? And how will those forces shape the future of America’s international role?

This talk grapples with those questions by explaining how the core principles that defined U.S. foreign policy during the early Cold War -- what Dr. Friedman calls the "Truman-Eisenhower consensus" -- have, with important but temporary exceptions, been broadly popular with both Democrats and Republicans over the last eighty years. Yet, from John F. Kennedy onwards, nearly every U.S. president has attempted to chart new international priorities that fall outside the Truman-Eisenhower consensus. The rise of political polarization in U.S. foreign policy has thus generally been a predictable symptom of presidents deploying U.S. power in new ways rather than a force that undermines traditional conceptions of America's global role. This argument has wide-ranging implications for understanding the history, politics, and future of U.S. foreign policy

Date: Wednesday, October 8, 2025, 5:00 – 6:30 pm

Time: 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.

4:30 – 5:00 p.m. Registration

5:00 – 6:30 p.m. Event

Location: Bank of Texas Dining Room,  SMU James M. Collins Executive Education Center, 3150 Binkley Ave. Dallas, TX 75205

Parking: Binkley Garage, 3105 Binkley Ave., Dallas, TX 75205

Registration is required and the seats are first come, first served. Please click below for registration.

Featuring:

Jeffrey Friedman, Associate Professor of Government, Dartmouth College

Jeffrey Friedman is an Associate Professor of Government at Dartmouth College, where he studies the politics and psychology of foreign policy decision-making and directs the John Rosenwald Postdoctoral Fellows Program in U.S. Foreign Policy and International Security. He is the author of The Commander-in-Chief Test (Cornell, 2023) and War and Chance (Oxford, 2019), recipient of the 2020 Peter Katzenstein Prize for an outstanding first book in international relations. His research has been published in leading journals including American Journal of Political Science, International Organization, International Security, and World Politics. He earned a Ph.D. from the Harvard Kennedy School and has held fellowships at the Weatherhead Center, the Belfer Center, the Tobin Project, the Dickey Center, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, France.

Discussant: Stefano Recchia, Distinguished Chair in international politics, director of studies, and director of the national security program at the Tower Center

Stefano Recchia is Distinguished Chair in international politics, director of studies, and director of the national security program at the Tower Center. Recchia’s new book, Strategies for Approval: Building Support for Military Intervention at the UN Security Council (Yale University Press, 2025), investigates how the United States and other major powers can reap the legitimacy benefits of UN approval for the use of force, even when veto-wielding permanent members like China and Russia are fiercely opposed at the outset. Professor Recchia has also published several other books and many articles in leading scholarly journals. His research has been funded by numerous bodies, including the Brookings Institution, Dickey Center at Dartmouth College, and Fulbright Commission.

Any person who requires a reasonable accommodation on the basis of a disability in order to participate in this program should contact the SMU Tower Center at tower@smu.edu in advance at least 4 days prior to the event to arrange for the accommodation.

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