Talking American Nations with Monocle 24

While in Marrakesh for Atlantic Dialogues 2014, I sat down with Monocle editor Andrew Tuck to talk about the thesis laid out in American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America and why its essential for foreigners seeking to understand the United States.

That interview airs during the current edition of "The Urbanist" on Monocle 24, the magazine's radio arm. It's available online here; my conversation with Tuck begins at almost precisely 0:35.

I also have an essay in Monocle's recently released Forecast publication for 2015. It's not available online, but here's a preview of the edition, which is currently on newsstands in Britain and the capitals and airports of at least several global cities.

Thanks to Monocle for their interest.

Goodbye, Marrakesh

I've spent the last few days in Marrakesh, near the edge of the Sahara, attending "Atlantic Dialogues 2014", an international conference convened by the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the OCP Policy Center here in Morocco.

I've greatly enjoyed the proceedings and the opportunity to meet, converse, and share ideas with such an intriguing group of people from around the Atlantic Basin, including former heads of state, foreign ministers, policy advisers, scholars, parliamentarians, and journalists.

I also had the privilege to share the American Nations paradigm whilst part of a panel on "Decoding the United States" that included former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former City of Denver chief of staff Kelly Brough, and the state department's special representative for global intergovernmental affairs, Reta-Jo Lewis. Thanks kindly to the Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart for deftly moderating the session, where I did manage to make a pitch for Maine and other essentially "city-less" actors on the global stage of trade, investment, and cooperation.

For those who attended and wanted to learn more about American Nations, we've posted this Washington Monthly article and this follow-up here and on the AD Connect app; it should give readers a broader sense of what the paradigm is all about and its utility in understanding ongoing events as well as historical ones.

Thanks again to GMF and OCP for inviting me. Now, back to Maine.