Episode 5: Storytelling in U.S. Foreign Policy

America's Why Project · Mar 4, 2026 · 43m

Leadership depends not only on power and policy, but also on the stories that give them meaning. In this first episode of a two-part series, Brian Katulis, Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute, and Danielle Pletka, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, dig into why America’s national narrative has fractured. They discuss how social media’s attention economy distorts foreign-policy debates and why fear-driven storytelling so often overwhelms clarity, purpose, and moral vision. Drawing on decades of experience in foreign policy analysis, they explore what…