Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies Dean Vali Nasr, a Middle East scholar, foreign policy adviser and commentator on international relations, will talk about his book, The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat on Oct. 9 at 5:30 p.m. in Devlin Hall, room 101. The Dispensable Nation is about the implications of the Obama administration’s foreign policy on American strategic interests. Nasr’s other books, Forces of Fortune and The Shia Revival, examined the postwar sectarian violence in Iraq and the uprisings known as the Arab Spring and contributed to U.S. policy formulated in response to those events. From 2009 to 2011, Nasr was special adviser to the president’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He is currently a member of the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board and a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Copies of The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat will be available for purchase at the event. Sponsor: The Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy.