Spring Break
Things I've Learned, with Michael Lind
Issue date: 5/1/08
As an academic, author, children's writer and poet, Michael Lind is a foreign affairs specialist with diverse interests. His writings have influenced the world of international relations for several decades. He has also worked as a journalist or editor for publications including Harpers Magazine, The New Yorker and The National Interest, and is currently the Whitehead Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation.
The News-Letter caught up with Professor Lind, a guest professor in the political science department, before his American Grand Strategy course on Thursday to chat about his remarkable career and his most recent book of poems.
News-Letter (N-L): In the past you've written for and edited Harpers Magazine, The New Yorker, The Washington Post and many others. Now you're a senior fellow at the New America Foundation. What made you decide to come and teach a course at Hopkins?
Michael Lind (ML): Well my background is in foreign policy, and I've taught courses before at Harvard and Virginia Tech. When I heard that Dr. Deudney was taking a sabbatical this semester, we discussed the possibility of my teaching a course on grand strategy.
N-L: Why specifically grand strategy, as opposed to one of your other specialties?
ML: I thought the [grand strategy] would be of the most interest to both undergraduate and graduate students, and it's a good way to organize the various debates over American foreign policy that have taken place today in newspapers and journalism.
N-L: Working as a journalist for so many years must have put you in contact with all sorts of fascinating people. Who would you say had the most impact on you personally?
ML: Well in my twenties I got to know Jeanne Kirkpatrick, spent time him. The individual with the most lasting impression on me was the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a former senator of New York. He was a dear friend and mentor, and he's influenced my views from matters ranging from domestic policy to foreign policy. He was one of the greatest philosopher-statesmen in American history. Not a week goes by without my thinking about what Pat Moynihan would say about a particular issue.
The News-Letter caught up with Professor Lind, a guest professor in the political science department, before his American Grand Strategy course on Thursday to chat about his remarkable career and his most recent book of poems.
News-Letter (N-L): In the past you've written for and edited Harpers Magazine, The New Yorker, The Washington Post and many others. Now you're a senior fellow at the New America Foundation. What made you decide to come and teach a course at Hopkins?
Michael Lind (ML): Well my background is in foreign policy, and I've taught courses before at Harvard and Virginia Tech. When I heard that Dr. Deudney was taking a sabbatical this semester, we discussed the possibility of my teaching a course on grand strategy.
N-L: Why specifically grand strategy, as opposed to one of your other specialties?
ML: I thought the [grand strategy] would be of the most interest to both undergraduate and graduate students, and it's a good way to organize the various debates over American foreign policy that have taken place today in newspapers and journalism.
N-L: Working as a journalist for so many years must have put you in contact with all sorts of fascinating people. Who would you say had the most impact on you personally?
ML: Well in my twenties I got to know Jeanne Kirkpatrick, spent time him. The individual with the most lasting impression on me was the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a former senator of New York. He was a dear friend and mentor, and he's influenced my views from matters ranging from domestic policy to foreign policy. He was one of the greatest philosopher-statesmen in American history. Not a week goes by without my thinking about what Pat Moynihan would say about a particular issue.
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