Political Salon: Generation's End. A Personal Memoir of American Power after 9/11

In `Generation's End,` Scott Malcomson takes us into an intensely personal experience of life as a New Yorker in a wounded city, and of decision-making in a disorienting and challenging time. His tone is characteristically open, fearless and humane as he illuminates the crucial two years following 9/11 and leading up to the aftermath of the Iraq invasion in 2003, showing how post-Cold War optimism collided with post-9/11 reality.  `These two years,` George Packer writes in a foreword, `contain all the decisions that would set in motion the larger era, and because it was possible to imagine things taking a different course, the story unfolds and deepens like a tragedy.`  Ten years after the 9/11 attacks, Malcomson narrates the profound changes that unfolded after 9/11 as America became more assertive abroad even as opposition widened to its authority and legitimacy as the only superpower; and the limitations of the American-dominated post-World War II international structures, such as the UN, became clearer.

Malcomson will reflect and exchange views with Political Salon participants on the ways in which this critical two-year period set the tone for profound changes in America's relationship with the world.

About the Author
As an editor of Op-Eds at The New York Times in 2001-2002, Scott Malcomson helped shape the national debate on issues of war and peace, and as a senior advisor to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2003, he was deeply involved in forming the international community's response to the American-led war in Iraq; it is in these two roles that he narrates Generation's End:  A personal memoir of American power after 9/11.  Malcomson took his first trip as a foreign correspondent, to Britain and North Africa, in 1984.  Since then he has had an award-winning career as a writer and editor, publishing three books as well as articles in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The New Republic and many other distinguished publications. His work has taken him to Africa, Latin America, Central Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Pacific Islands. Since leaving the United Nations, Malcomson has been foreign editor of the New York Times Magazine.  He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
 
Moderator
Ami Dar is the founder and director of Idealist.org. Idealist is the most popular nonprofit resource on the Web, helping 70,000 people every day connect with 100,000 NGOs around the world.