If the World Is So Dangerous, How Come So Few of the 2016 Candidates Really Know Anything About It?

Donald Trump says he can just buy foreign-policy chops. Ben Carson seems to think it hardly matters at all. Marco Rubio is making it a centerpiece of his campaign. And Hillary Clinton would be the first U.S. secretary of state elected president since James Buchanan. None of America’s presidential contenders disagree with the proposition that the world is a mess. The candidates just don’t seem to agree about whether having any experience dealing with that world matters. Our panel debates which candidates have the know-how and which know nothing — and how to tell the difference between them.

About the participants:

Rosa Brooks teaches international law, national security, and constitutional law at Georgetown University. Follow her on Twitter @brooks_rosa.

Kori Schake is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution where she focuses on military history. She is a former foreign-policy advisor to Sen. John McCain. Follow her on Twitter @KoriSchake.

Robert Kagan is a historian, bestselling author, and columnist at the Washington Post. He is also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

David Rothkopf is CEO and editor of the FP Group. Follow him on Twitter @djrothkopf.

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