The Reagan Doctrine: Lessons for Today with Ambassador Frank Lavin
September 16, 2025
6:00PM
To Be Announced
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Foreign policy during the Cold War served as a model for the US for decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but recent years have shown increased dissatisfaction with US international leadership and alliance management - whether you look at Obama's reduction in US commitment to NATO, Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan, or Trump's sharp breaks with NATO and challenges to international trade. Is international leadership no longer central to US security and prosperity? Or do the costs of leadership simply exceed the benefits? Does the US need to reduce its international role and commitments, or is this reduced international footprint a mistake?
Frank Lavin takes us back to the Reagan era of Cold War foreign policy for an examination of what worked during that period and in what ways might America have fallen short - and discusses why the lessons of that era still might apply today, as different as circumstances might be.
About the Speaker
Frank Lavin is active in U.S.-Asia policy, U.S. domestic politics, and trade policy matters. He serves as a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution as well as a Trustee of the Asia Foundation and as a Director of the Asia Society of Northern California.
Lavin served as Under Secretary for International Trade at the U.S. Department of Commerce in the Bush (43) Administration. In that capacity, Lavin served as lead trade negotiator for both China and India and was responsible for commercial policy, export promotion, and trade negotiations across the globe. Lavin was previously U.S. Ambassador to Singapore, where he helped negotiate the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement.
In the private sector, Lavin served in senior finance and management positions in Hong Kong and Singapore with Bank of America and Citibank.
Lavin also served in the Bush (41) and Reagan Administrations, working in the Department of Commerce, Department of State, National Security Council, and White House. In the Reagan Administration, Lavin served as White House Political Director.
Lavin earned a B.S. from the School of Foreign Service and an M.S. in Chinese Language and History (both Georgetown); an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from SAIS (Johns Hopkins); and an M.B.A. in Finance from Wharton (Pennsylvania).
He is a columnist for Forbes.com and has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and elsewhere. Lavin is the author of “Inside the Reagan White House” (Post Hill Press 2025), “The Smart Business Guide to China E-Commerce” (Penguin), co-author of “Export Now” (Wiley), and author of “Home Front to Battlefront” (Ohio University Press), a World War II history book.
Lavin also is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and on the Advisory Board of ECIPE, a Brussels think-tank. Lavin has participated in two humanitarian missions to Ukraine. He formerly served as a Lt Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserves.
