Grand Improvisation

Right after WWII, the Americans ran smack into an Anglo-Saxon colossus that had no intention of leaving the world stage. As the heart of an a historic and militarily adroit empire covering a quarter of the world’s land surface, Britain wouldn’t accept being a “junior partner” to anyone. The United States, in turn, didn’t suddenly drop its long-held insularity to transform itself into a world political-military force. Only in 1957 did it offer a “declaration of independence” from British authority. In his new book, Grand Improvisation, Derek Leebaert tells an unknown story of the rise and decline of superpowers, and he shows what this drama continues to mean for U.S. involvements in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia.

Leebaert is the author of Grand Improvisation: America Confronts the British Superpower 1945-1957 as well as of Magic and Mayhem: The Delusions of American Foreign Policy; To Dare and to Conquer: Special Operations and the Destiny of Nations, and The Fifty-Year Wound: How America’s Cold War Victory Shapes Our World. He has been a Smithsonian Fellow and Georgetown University professor, and he was a founding editor of the Harvard/MIT quarterly International Security. He has led a global management consulting firm for fifteen years and is a founder of the National Museum of the U.S. Army.

Join New America's International Security Program as they welcome Derek Leebaert for a discussion of his new book Grand Improvisation.

Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

Follow the conversation online using #GrandImprov and following @NewAmericaISP.

Participants:

Derek Leebaert
Author, Grand Improvisation

Moderator:

David Sterman, @Dsterms
Senior Policy Analyst, New America International Security program