The Good American: The Epic Life of Bob Gersony, the U.S. Government’s Greatest Humanitarian

Can one State Department consultant make a lasting impact on American Foreign Policy? In this installment of People, Politics, and Prose with Ron Granieri, Granieri will speak with noted author Robert D. Kaplan about his new book, The Good American: The Epic Life of Bob Gersony, the U.S. Government's Greatest Humanitarian. They will discuss Kaplan's impressions of Gersony, a consultant for the U.S. State Department, whose work spanned the globe in some of the most dangerous and ungoverned spaces. They will also touch upon how Gersony challenged the traditional assumptions of the powers that be and how, in nearly every case, his advice and recommendations made American Foreign Policy at once smarter and more humane. Robert D. Kaplan is the bestselling author of nineteen books on foreign affairs and travel and serves as FPRI's Robert Strausz-Hupé Chair in Geopolitics.

 

People, Politics, and Prose with Ron Granieri features in-depth conversations with authors of recent books on international affairs and national security. Moderated by FPRI’s Ronald J. Granieri, each session will build on the book’s contents to discuss the author’s influences and motivations, relating everything to current events to elicit broader understanding of the geographical, political, and historical context of our contemporary world.