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The freshman senator took direct aim at the parts of the Republican Party that eschew foreign interventions or global coalitions.

Fawaz Gerges, professor of Middle Eastern Politics and International Relations at the London School of Economics and author of Obama and the Middle East: The End of America's Moment?, talks about the Egyptian presidential election and looks at Obama's foreign policy in the Middle East.

Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng arrived in New York to a throng of cheering supporters on Saturday. He will soon begin a fellowship at New York University Law School's U.S.-Asia Law Institute, and he spoke to the crowd at NYU about his plight: "After much turbulence, I have come out of Shandong," he said, through an interpreter. "This is thanks to the assistance of many friends." Bob Fu is a Chinese human rights activist and pastor, living in the United States. He was instrumental in publicizing Chen Guangcheng's case and helped negotiate his release.

Steve Coll, president of the New America Foundation and contributor to the New Yorker, and now author of Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power, discusses the history of the oil company that sees itself as an "independent sovereign."

Some argue that the United States' global leadership has waned, but Ian Bremmer argues that the our role in the international community isn't over, it’s just different. Today’s international order must be one of strategic partnerships and compromises, Bremmer argues, like President Obama’s so-called "leading from behind" strategy in Libya.

The debate over whether to intervene in Syria continues, and many questions remain. What role would the U.S. play in an intervention? How should Americans engage the international community? Should we arm the Syrian opposition? 

Today we have the opportunity to reflect on the U.S.’s role in two recent conflicts. One year ago today, the American troops joined their French and British counterparts on the battlefield in Libya. Nine years ago today, the U.S. launched Operation Iraqi Freedom. What have we learned from these conflicts, and how do they inform U.S. foreign policy today? 

In this election, where the economy looms largest, and Iran is puffed up to me the international bogeyman, most candidates have something in common with most Americans: they'd rather not discuss Afghanistan.

Sunday morning's shooting, which killed at least 16 Afghan villagers, including nine children and three women, raises many questions: how much does this imperil the US mission in Afghanistan? And is it time for an earlier troop withdrawal? Michael Semple, former deputy to the EU Special Representative for Afghanistan, and Nick Colgin, a medic stationed in Afghanistan from January 2007 to April 2008, join the show to explain the possible ramifications of Sunday's act of violence. 

As the Republican Presidential candidates fight for the GOP nomination, President Obama is getting slammed on all sides. While voters consistently say that the economy is the most important issue in this election, the Republican candidates are particularly critical of President Obama’s foreign policy. Both Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney criticized President Obama for his stance on Iran's nuclear capabilities at the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) Conference earlier this week. Santorum was particularly critical of the President for apologizing for the Koran burnings in Afghanistan last month. 

Robert Kagan, one of the country’s most influential strategic thinkers, looks at whether America is in decline and shares his view of what the world might look like if the United States let its influence wane. The World America Made  investigates what the world would look like if America were to reduce its role as a global leader in order to focus on solving its problems at home and asserts that the current pessimism about America’s stature is misplaced.

Historian Robert Kagan holds the distinction of influencing both Mitt Romney and President Obama's political discourse. A foreign policy adviser to the Romney campaign, Kagan's ideas were also evident in President Obama’s state of the union address, which disputes the claim that America is in decline.  

On Sunday, the American Embassy in Cairo offered to shelter American citizens barred from leaving the country after the Egyptian government instituted a travel ban on 17 American citizens working for NGOs within the country. Sam LaHood, son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, is among the Americans stuck in Cairo. The American Embassy's need to shelter American citizens in a once-friendly nation symbolizes a serious rift in U.S.–Egypt relations.

Michael Neuman explores the practical realities of conducting humanitarian negotiations in complex situations. He’s the editor of Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed: The MSF Experience, published on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which addresses the evolution of humanitarian goals, the resistance to these goals, and the political arrangements that overcame (or failed to) this resistance.

On Monday Arab League representatives met with the United Nations Security Council to discuss a plan of action for Syria. More than 5,000 Syrians have been killed by government forces since protests against President Bashar Al-Assad began last March. Secretary of state Hillary Clinton delivered a strong message of support to the Syrian resistance the same day: "The longer the Assad regime continues its attacks on the Syrian people and stands in the way of a peaceful transition, the greater the concern that instability will escalate and spill over throughout the region."

The escalating tension between Israel and Iran over the latter's nuclear program has been at the center of many foreign policy debates and diplomatic talks over the past decade. Proponents of an Israeli strike say it's needed for to preserve Israel's national security while detractors say such an attack would precipitate World War III. 

A number of political analysts have noted that President Obama has been far more successful in the foreign policy arena than domestically. But the President who managed to find Osama Bin Laden still faces a tough re-election battle this year. David Sanger, Chief Washington correspondent for our partner The New York Times, and contributor to WQXR's The Washington Report gives his thoughts on the foreign policy points made during last night's state of the union address.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor under Carter; counselor and trustee at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and co-author of Strategic Vision:  America and the Crisis of Global Power, offers a foreign policy blueprint for the 21st century.

EVENT: Booksigning at Barnes & Noble Union Square 1/24 at 7PM in conversation with Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough.

Yale historian John Lewis Gaddis talks about George Kennan, troubled Cold War mastermind. In the late 1940s, George Kennan wrote two documents that set the strategy of containment that defined U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union for the next four decades. He was also an architect of the Marshall Plan and would become an outspoken critic of American diplomacy, politics, and culture. George F. Kennan: An American Life took almost 30 years to write, is based on interviews with Kennan and his voluminous diaries and other personal papers.

On this week’s Underreported, Foreign Policy’s Joshua Keating discusses “The Stories You Missed in 2011,” including India’s military buildup and the shrinking supply of camel meat in Saudi Arabia.

Kati Marton, Richard Holbrooke’s widow;James Traub, contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine; and Reuters columnist David Rohde, talk about the career of Richard Holbrooke, who was a pivotal player in U.S. diplomacy for more than 40 years and who died last December. Most recently special envoy for Iraq and Afghanistan under President Obama, Holbrooke also served as assistant secretary of state for both Asia and Europe, and as ambassador to both Germany and the United Nations, and played a key role in brokering a peace agreement in Bosnia that led to the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords. The Unquiet American: Richard Holbrooke in the World is a tribute to his work as a public servant and a backstage history of the last half-century of American foreign policy.