Great Decisions, a national program of the non-partisan Foreign Policy Association, is America’s largest discussion program on world affairs. The Potomac Library group meets, usually with a guest speaker, 8 times a year on the first Thursday of the month: February, March, April, May, June, September, October, and November. We meet from 12:30-2:00. The program is free and open to the public. 

• A copy of the 2018 Briefing Book will be available in late January at the Information Desk.  The book cannot be checked out, but it only takes about an hour to read the relevant article. 

 The waning of Pax Americana? By Carla Norrlof 

During the first months of Donald Trump’s presidency, the U.S. began a historic shift away from Pax Americana, the liberal international order that was established in the wake of World War II. Since 1945, Pax Americana has promised peaceful international relations and an open economy, buttressed by U.S. military power. In championing “America First” isolationism and protectionism, President Trump has shifted the political mood toward selective U.S. engagement, where foreign commitments are limited to areas of vital U.S. interest and economic nationalism is the order of the day. Geopolitical allies and challengers alike are paying close attention. 

Sponsored by Friends of the Library, Potomac Chapter.