Longtime Washington insider David Rothkopf looks back on his forty year career in Washington, D.C., and asks a basic question: did Washington fail to lead? He argues that political expedience may have come at the expense of actually addressing real problems that have continued to fester in both domestic and foreign policy, with devastating societal and economic consequences. He also offers some ideas about what we can do now to improve things, and how we might avoid ending up here again. David Rothkopf is the CEO of The Rothkopf Group, a media and advisory company. Via its DSR Network it is a leading presenter of podcast and other web-based content on politics, foreign policy, national security and technology. Rothkopf is a well-known author whose next book Traitor: The Case Against Donald Trump is due out later this year from St. Martin’s Press.

His prior books include “National Insecurity”, “Power, Inc.”, “Superclass” and “Running the World: The National Security Council and the Architects of American Power.” He is also the author of “The Great Questions of Tomorrow” from Simon & Schuster and TED Books, based on his TED talk which has been seen to date by well over a million viewers.

He was previously editor and CEO of the FP Group, publishers of Foreign Policy Magazine, managing director of Kissinger Associates and served as a senior official in the Commerce Department. He has taught at the schools of international affairs at Columbia University, Johns Hopkins and Georgetown. He is a regular columnist and contributor to major newspapers, websites and broadcast outlets worldwide.