On this U.S. politics edition of Encounter, John Fortier, resident scholar at The American Enterprise Institute, and Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at Third Way, discuss with host Carol Castiel the politics of President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure deal. Will Biden be able to garner at least 10 Republican Senators to pass the smaller, traditional bill and at the same time satisfy the more progressive wing of the Democratic Party, which intends to pass a more expansive human infrastructure package through budget reconciliation?

As the United States grapples with the legacy of slavery and centuries of racial discrimination, host Carol Castiel talks with Jennifer Oast, professor and chair of the Department of History at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, and Noah Millman, political columnist for the Week, about the merits and drawbacks of reparations for descendants of slaves and why the debate has been revived in recent days.

Ian Lesser, Vice President at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and director of GMF Brussels office, and Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Senior Fellow and Director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, discuss with host Carol Castiel the ramifications of US President Joe Biden’s first overseas trip as president and the outcome of summits with the G7, NATO, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Lucy Kurtzer-Ellenbogen, Director of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Program at the U.S. Institute of Peace, and Natan Sachs, Director of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, discuss with host Carol Castiel the new “Change Government” comprised of eight Israeli political parties from the far left to the far right and one Islamic party who united to oust long-serving Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Can these strange political bedfellows agree on other vital internal and external policies and manage to govern?

On this US politics edition of Encounter, John Fortier, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and Jim Kessler, senior vice president for policy at Third Way, discuss with host Carol Castiel the status of US President Joe Biden’s ambitious agenda and the challenge of passing at least part of it, like infrastructure legislation or police reform, with bipartisan support.