Book Forum 

# *The President’s Echo System: How Foreign Policy Is Sold to Americans*

Published By Harvard University Press • 2026 

##### Watch the Event 

Submit questions in the comment box on this page and join the conversation on social media using [\#CatoEvents](https://x.com/hashtag/CatoEvents). For event updates, follow [@CatoInstitute](https://x.com/catoinstitute) on X. If you have questions about the event or your registration, please email <events@cato.org>.

#### Submit a Question 

Date and Time 

September 16, 2026 12 - 1:30 PM EDT 

Location 

Cato Institute, 1000 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC 

Share This Event 

[Register](https://register.cato.org/presidents-echo-system-how-foreign-policy-sold-americans/register) 

##### Featuring 

![Chad Levinson portrait](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2026-08/chad-levinson-modified.png?itok=otrwKm0R) 

Chad Levinson 

Author and Assistant Professor of Government and International Affairs, Virginia Tech

[![Emma Ashford New](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2025-07/emma-ashford-new.jpg?itok=IOYhTao_)](/people/emma-ashford) 

[Emma Ashford](/people/emma-ashford)

Senior Fellow, Stimson Center

[ 

](https://twitter.com/EmmaMAshford) 

[![Justin Logan cropped portrait new](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2023-08/Justin-Logan-cropped.jpg?itok=1xXiDWfG)](/people/justin-logan) 

[Justin Logan](/people/justin-logan)

Director of Defense and Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute

[ 

](https://x.com/JustinTLogan) [ 

](mailto:jlogan@cato.org) 

How do US presidents cultivate public support for their foreign policy agendas, which so often start out running counter to public opinion? Chad Levinson’s *The President’s Echo System* details how successive administrations have collaborated with outside groups to popularize ideas that voters initially reject. Drawing on extensive archival research, Levinson illuminates how extra-governmental partnerships that originated during the Interwar period and evolved throughout the Cold War shaped the US national security discourse during the triumphalism of the 1990s and ultimately set the stage for the Global War on Terror.

**Lunch to follow.**

![The President's Echo System: How Foreign Policy Is Sold to Americans cover](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/promo_block_book_cover_1x/public/2026-08/Presidents%20Echo%20System%20Cover.jpg?itok=fFgcJ0T4) 

##### Featured Book 

### *[The President’s Echo System: How Foreign Policy Is Sold to Americans](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0674302516?tag=catoinstitute-20)*

How do US presidents motivate public support for their foreign policy agendas, which so often start out running counter to public opinion? The President’s Echo System details how successive administrations have collaborated with outside groups to popularize ideas that voters initially reject. Chad Levinson shows how these collaborations have shaped all of the most consequential US foreign policy programs of the past century, from participation in World War II and the establishment of the United Nations to the wars in Vietnam and Iraq.

[Purchase Book](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0674302516?tag=catoinstitute-20)