The Hungarian Institute of International Affairs (HIIA) organized a roundtable disussion entitled „The foreign policy tradition of Thomas Jefferson and the American conservativism” on 11 May in Bajza Street. The discussion was part of an event-series of four. Our guests were Professor Tamás Magyarics and vice-rector Péter Rada. The moderator of the roundtable was Béla Gedeon.
During the discussion it has been said, that using archtypes to identify foreign policy behavior was a useful and ambitious idea from Walter Russel Mead more than 10 years ago, however every single such experiment has its own limits. Our experts highlighted that during the time of Thomas Jefferson the US has been the number four or five economic power in the world. Hence, isolationist policies of the late US president served the American interests back then, which would be somehting hard to imagine today. Washington would not let its hegemon postition go, so every Jeffersonian metaphor used to reflect on 21st centrury decisions will be flawed. But it is still worth to contemplate on the origins and traditions which shaped US foreign policy making during the centuries, to understand the present challenges a bit better.
Photos by: Hungarian Institute of International Affairs (HIIA)