“We are a deeply anxious society right now. So the shifts in values that are emerging will come in response to that anxiety. Typically, anxious people withdraw more, seek out the familiar, seek out someone to protect them. And, anxious people have little bandwidth for the needs of others and may act in more selfish ways.”

“My concern is that nationalism, isolationism, and nativism will continue to find favor with Americans who may not understand the ramifications, but will support these -isms because of the very real economic anxieties most Americans will feel throughout the duration of their lives. When an American is financially struggling, xenophobia and disregard for the international order can metastasize.”

Republican respondents to surveys who agree that “the US should be less involved in solving problems overseas” grew from 30% to 77% between 2015 and 2023.

“There is a deep question about to whom we have obligations and who we see as co-equals. That question is moving in all sorts of different ways right now. In some ways, the sphere of moral obligation is getting much bigger - think about the global response to the situation in Palestine. In other ways, the sphere of obligation is getting smaller - think, for example, the effort to reassert traditional gender norms in ways that put many women, LGBTQ folks in great danger.”

On how foreign issues influence domestic politics: “...globally, an emboldened global coalition of strongman leaders finding common cause and sharing tactics with one another, increased foreign interference in our information ecosystem, exploiting social cleavages and impacting elections.”

“I heard a civil rights advocate say, “I think we need to offshore some of the pro-democracy movement.”… It also opens up more possibilities for discussions with colleagues in other countries and learning from the experience of others.”

“The international community seems more willing to say the quiet part out loud. The historically often hypocritical role of the US in international affairs…has been a well-known “secret” throughout the world. But, international leaders seem to be losing their justification to maintain the facade and are starting to more explicitly call out behaviors that once would have been only discussed behind closed doors.”

“The role of the US overseas.” Response to the question “Future: What currently minor or fringe issues might become major political battlegrounds by 2054, and which traditional divisions might lose relevance? What signals of these shifts are you noticing in your work?”