Foreign Wars Debate

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On Wednesday, May 20, we took the stage at Meridian Hall for a high-stakes Spring 2026 debate on foreign wars.

Motion: Be it resolved, don’t go hunting monsters.

About the Debate

John Quincy Adams’s 1821 warning that America “goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy” remains the touchstone for modern advocates of foreign policy restraint. This school of thought argues that decades of overextension and “global policing” have eroded domestic prosperity, destabilized the world, and allowed foreign actors to exert undue influence over domestic politics. From this perspective, prolonged interventions have yielded diminishing strategic returns while compromising national security and unity. Conversely, liberal interventionists argue that active U.S. engagement with the world is the bedrock of global order. They maintain that American leadership secures vital trade routes, promotes economic prosperity, and prevents bad actors from exploiting power vacuums. As the world’s preeminent democracy, they contend that the U.S. bears a unique responsibility to underwrite global stability; without it, the rules-based international system—and the eighty years of peace it has provided—will disintegrate.

The Debaters

Arguing against the motion was Mike Pompeo, 70th U.S. Secretary of State (2018-2021), former Director of the CIA (2017-2018), and former four-term U.S. Congressman (2011-2017). He was joined by Victoria Nuland, whose 35-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service includes roles as Acting Deputy Secretary of State (2023–2024), Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs (2013–2017), and U.S. Ambassador to NATO (2005–2008). Arguing in favour of the motion were two of the world’s leading proponents of U.S. foreign policy restraint: John Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt, Professor of International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School.