The Great Decisions global topics speaker series and discussion group launches its 2025 season on Friday, Feb. 21, from noon to 1 p.m. at the William Street United Methodist Church in Delaware with a presentation on "American Foreign Policy at a Crossroads" with special guest Christopher McKnight Nichols, Ph.D.

This timely discussion centers on a global review of U.S. foreign policy in recent decades and what we may expect for American foreign policy under the Trump administration. The U.S., polarized and divided, faces a world overflowing with challenges, dangers and uncertainties. Conflict and disorder have become the defining features of world politics. Nichols' talk will explore some of the most pressing current threats and opportunities to situate them in terms of the historical context that has shaped today's U.S foreign relations global crossroads.

McKnight Nichols is professor of history and Wayne Woodrow Hayes chair in National Security Studies, Mershon Center for International Security Studies, at The Ohio State University. Nichols specializes in the history of the United States and its relationship to the rest of the world, with a focus on ideas and particularly isolationism, internationalism, and globalization.

An Organization of American Historians Distinguished Lecturer, Andrew Carnegie Fellow, and award-winning teacher, Nichols is a staunch advocate for history and the humanities. He is also an active public commentator, notably in the Washington Post and on NPR, on the historical dimensions of U.S. foreign policy and politics. Nichols is author or editor of six books. His well-known book is "Promise and Peril: America at the Dawn of a Global Age" (Harvard UP, 2011, 2015) and he has received accolades his volume "Rethinking American Grand Strategy" (Oxford UP, 2021). His most recent book, with co-editor David Milne, is "Ideology in U.S. Foreign Relations: New Histories" (Columbia UP, 2022), awarded the International Studies Association's 2023 Joseph Fletcher Prize for Best Edited Book in Historical International Relations. His next book will be on the election of 1952 as a pivotal moment in U.S. foreign and domestic policy (Oxford). Nichols is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The Great Decisions series is a non-partisan, community-based annual lecture series sponsored by the Foreign Policy Association (www.fpa.org). Billed as America's largest discussion program on world affairs, Great Decisions endeavors to bring respectful, thoughtful, community-based conversation to local communities as we explore the major topics that shape the U.S., our state, and our city in the coming years. The events are free and open to the public.

Guests may purchase an optional Great Decisions essay book at the event. Light refreshments will be offered. The Great Decisions series continues each Friday through April 11. For further information, contact Erinn Nicley at [email protected].