While other items on President Obama’s foreign policy agenda have come and gone, his drive to coming to some kind of agreement with Iran over nuclear weapons has been remarkably consistent. But has the White House carefully considered the strategic consequences of “success”?

As the Middle East collapses into chaos, the U.S. must change the incentives for Iran—even if that means making uncomfortable choices in DC.

During the recent conference on democracy promotion put together by The American Interest and Freedom House, Walter Russell Mead sat down with Robert Kagan to discuss grand strategy in the age of Obama. Below is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.

ISIS is bigger, badder, richer, and better organized than any jihadi threat the United States has faced thus far. Its rise represents a foreign policy disaster of the first order.

The President’s new emissions rules are as historic as they are contentious, and it’s too early to see whether they can efficiently achieve their intended effect. What is clear, however, is that this breakthrough was made possible in spite of—not thanks to—the environmental movement, and that lasting green progress will come at the expense of the biases and ideals of those who claim they want to save the planet most.

From the Middle East to Europe to Asia, the Obama Administration looks increasingly adrift. A serious course-correction has to happen soon.

The bitter rivalry between “establishment” and “Tea Party” Republicans in many southern states today reflects the bitter divisions within the white South that date back to the political battles between the low country plantation owners and the poor white farmers of old Dixie.

The Supreme Court was right to uphold Michigan’s affirmative action ban, but this doesn’t mean we can ignore the lingering effects of years of entrenched racism.

Liberals see most of our ills resulting from our straying from the righteous path set forth for us by leaders like FDR and LBJ. Their impassioned narrative has deep roots in American society.

The country have taken a vacation from global leadership, but that’s likely to be temporary.