A Conversation with Philip Reeker

Listen to the full episode:

Time Codes:
4:13 Fielding questions about the U.S.
5:05 Witnessing ‘end of history’ in 1989
6:35 ‘Shocking’ U.S. assault on European ties
8:36 Early curiosity about the wider world
10:00 Childhood travels in Europe
11:39 When America stopped telling its story
12:42 9/11 and the start of the security state
15:41 Article 5 was invoked on behalf of U.S
16:08 U.S. education short on history, civics
16:54 ‘Government’ as problem, not solution
17:51 The cruelty of dismantling USAID
21:25 What America’s standing has lost abroad
23:15 WW2 and shared history with Europe
25:09 America has, and can, reinvent itself

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America’s ties to Europe don’t just go away

Philip Reeker is not European. But in many ways, his outlook is. The U.S. career diplomat has spent nearly his entire professional life focused on the transatlantic relationship and the democratic transformations that took root across Central and Eastern Europe in the wake of the Soviet collapse. From his earliest posts in Budapest and Skopje to his tenure as acting Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs overseeing a portfolio of 50 countries, Reeker served as a firsthand witness to the sudden end of the Cold War and the flurry of democratic nation-building that followed in what was heralded, prematurely, as “the end of history.” 

For many Europeans across the post-communist space – as well as Iraqis following the execution of Saddam Hussein – Reeker became the face of U.S. efforts to usher in a new chapter of relative prosperity and shared values. Now, with the Trump administration’s summary dismantling of American foreign-aid institutions like USAID, Reeker – who now works in the private sector – mourns the vacuum left by the evaporation of American global assistance and says the U.S. is experiencing “a moment of great change” that threatens to diminish its standing abroad. 

A potential solution? The resurrection of curiosity. Reeker credits his own global outlook to an early appreciation for the immigrant communities that lent their skills to the industrial might of his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Childhood years spent in Australia and frequent trips to Europe only piqued his interest further, while also nurturing a growing pride in what it meant to be American and the ability of U.S. democratic institutions to effect positive change abroad. 

Reeker talks about how his formative years dovetailed with explosive moments in political history and says while America’s years as a foreign-aid powerhouse may be over for now, they still pay dividends in the form of Europeans whose democratic values and robust civil society were built with the help of U.S. support. He also mulls what the authors of the U.S. Constitution would make of current events in Washington and encourages Americans to Make History (the school subject) Great Again.

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