Our Next Live Debate: Should the U.S. Still Police the World?

Since winning the Second World War, the United States has been the dominant world superpower. And we’ve been ready to use that power to defend our national interests, to defend the values of liberal democracy, or both. 

But there has always been a tension in this country between isolationism and interventionism between those who think we should maintain an aggressive stance in world affairs and those who want to focus on our own problems here at home. 

The post–9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have led many of us to question the efficacy and wisdom of U.S. military intervention. As hot wars rage in Ukraine and Gaza, and as U.S. adversaries like China and Iran threaten to further destabilize the world order, more Americans than ever are asking themselves: What is our role on the world stage? And what should it be?

Does the United States still possess the will to protect our allies and defend our values? Are we still capable of military interventions that are strategically sound and beneficial to global stability? Should we fight to maintain our sole superpower status, or submit to a multipolar world that many insist is already upon us? 

On October 9, The Free Press will host the final installment of our America Debates series at Symphony Space in New York City. We are proud to partner with the country’s leading defender of free speech rights, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), to bring you this debate. And we are thrilled to welcome four brilliant people to hash out the question: Should the U.S. Still Police the World?

Arguing that yes, the U.S. must maintain its role as world policeman, is Bret Stephens, opinion columnist for The New York Times and editor-in-chief of Sapir, a new journal focused on Jewish issues. He is a former editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post and foreign affairs columnist of The Wall Street Journal, for which he was awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Stephens is the author of America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder. 

Joining Bret is Jamie Kirchick, contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, writer at large for Air Mail, and contributing writer for Tablet. He is the author of The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues, and the Coming Dark Age, and Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington, which was an instant New York Times bestseller and Notable Book of the Year.

Arguing that the U.S. needs to rein in its foreign interventions is journalist Matt Taibbi, founder of Racket News. Taibbi is the author of ten books, including four New York Times bestsellers. He was previously a contributing editor for Rolling Stone and winner of the 2008 National Magazine Award for columns and commentary. He began his career in the former Soviet Union, where he wrote in English and in Russian for more than a decade.

Joining Matt is Lee Fang, an independent investigative journalist, primarily writing on Substack at leefang.com. From 2015–2023, he was a reporter for The Intercept and has previously written for The Nation and VICE, among other outlets. Fang’s work uncovering illegal foreign influence in the American campaign finance system led to one of the largest Federal Election Commission fines in American history.

We hope you’ll join us. 

Paid subscribers get access to the 24-hour presale window for tickets HERE, using the code at the end of this email. 

If you haven’t attended one of our debates, we urge you to check this one out. They are fun, fiery, thought-provoking—and a chance to be in a room with other Free Pressers. For a taste of what’s to come in New York, paid subscribers can now view the filmed version of the latest Free Press debate from earlier this week in Washington, D.C., below. 

We are grateful to our paid subscribers for making this debate, and everything we do at The Free Press, possible. We encourage you to take advantage of the presale period by using the access code below. 

Head here, enter the promotion code TFPDEBATENYC, and select your ticket.

We are also excited to invite you to our exclusive debate after-party, where you’ll be able to chat with Bari and members of The Free Press and FIRE teams, mingle with the debaters, and get a chance to meet other Free Pressers in the flesh. To attend the after-party, make sure to purchase a Tier 1 ticket.