Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bret Stephens spoke to a packed house on Nov. 13 at the D-SSAC building on the Westville campus as part of the 63^rd season of the Sinai Forum.

Stephens won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary while writing for the foreign affairs column of the Wall Street Journal. Stephens laid out his “Ten Commandments for a Donald Trump Presidency” regarding foreign policy and discussed current issues facing the United States in the Middle East, Europe and East Asia.

Stephens sprinkled in humor throughout the presentation which was well-received by the audience and spoke eloquently of the importance of American foreign policy, which is the subject of his book “America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder”.

Members of the audience were then invited to ask questions, which ranged from the Spheres of Influence policy to border drawing in the Middle East. Stephens ended by saying that he is doubtful about the upcoming administration, but he hopes that he will be proven wrong over time and that president-elect Donald Trump will serve with decency. He cited the phrase “Small decencies are never beneath good men”, which drew heavy applause from the audience.

“The U.S. has to have a serious foreign policy that avoids the extremes of over commitment and isolationism, and recognizes that there are some global problems that only we can solve and must solve even as we work to make our country as prosperous as it can be,” Stephens said.

Jacob Wesley, junior psychology major, commented on what he believes the Trump administration needs to do.

“The next administration will need to do a better job finding common ground when attempting to bridge the gap with other foreign leaders,” Wesley said.