As the American public continues to grow more polarized, Jon Pevehouse says the country’s division is shaping U.S. foreign policy.
“The polarized nature of the American public right now is a mirror image of foreign policy,” Pevehouse says. “Until polarization eases in the U.S., the extreme swinging of foreign policy is not going to change. This seems to be a new normal.”
Pevehouse is the Mary Herman Rubinstein Professor of political science and public policy and the development chair of the UW’s Department of Political Science. He’s an expert in foreign relations and international political economies, and he coauthored the textbook International Relations.
On February 24, 2026, Pevehouse will join the UW Now Live, alongside political science professor Yoshiko Herrera, to discuss geopolitics and shifting global power.
My Chief Area of Expertise Is:
I’m an expert in American foreign policy, international trade, politics, and international diplomacy.
On the UW Now Live, I’ll Talk About:
I’m going to talk about American grand strategy, which is the overall approach the Trump administration has taken to foreign policy, and I’m going to talk about how that strategy differs from the first time he was president and how it differs from Biden and Obama and George W. Bush. I’m going to discuss whether there is a grand strategy behind the Trump administration’s approach to foreign policy or whether it’s all strictly transactional, and I’ll discuss whether future presidents are likely to have to deal with some of the blowback for what’s occurring right now.
If There’s One Thing Viewers Should Take Away, It’s:
There’s been a very significant change in how the United States approaches foreign policy in this Trump administration, even a significant change from his first administration. We really haven’t seen foreign policy like this since World War II.
To Get Smart Fast, See:
For information on international relations and politics, read Foreign Policy magazine and Foreign Affairs magazine.
For news, see the Wall Street Journal and the BBC. Those are some of the first things I read every day.
