Walter Russell Mead is the Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship at Hudson Institute, the ‘Global View’ columnist at the Wall Street Journal and the James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and the Humanities at Bard College in New York. He is also a member of Aspen Institute Italy and board member of Aspenia. He has authored numerous books, including the widely-recognized Special Providence: American foreign policy and how it changed the world.