Walter Russell Mead

Who is Walter Russell Mead?

Walter Russell Mead is James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College and Editor-at-Large of The American Interest magazine. Until 2010, Mead was the Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a co-founder of the New America Foundation, a think tank that has been described as radical centrist in orientation.

Mead's father, Loren Mead, is an Episcopal priest in Washington, D.C., who grew up in several places in the South. Mead received his B.A. in English Literature from Yale University. He is an honors graduate of Groton School and Yale, where he received prizes for history and debate. In addition to his position at Bard, Mead currently teaches American foreign policy at Yale University.

Mead is a Democrat, and has said he voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential Election. In 2003, Mead supported the Iraq War.