The Quest for a Global Nation

What is a nation? Strobe Talbott joins Larry Mantle to tackle the question. In his new book, "The Great Experiment," the author and president of the Brookings Institutions looks back to the consolidation of tribes into nations – starting with Israel – and the absorption of those nations into the empires, through incessant wars of territory and religion, to modern alliances and the global conflagrations of the twentieth century. Talbott concludes his narrative with a biting critique of the worldview and policies of George W. Bush, whose presidency he calls a "consequential aberration" in the history of American foreign policy. Then, looking beyond the war in Iraq and the battle for the White House, he argues that the United States can regain the trust of the world by leading the effort to avert the perils of climate change and nuclear catastrophe.