Where to, America?

(Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

Barring a repeat of the 2000 presidential election, which ended in a virtual tie followed by months of bitter partisan controversy, America by tomorrow should know who its next president will be, whether Barack Obama or John McCain. What's likely to be far less clear is how strong and healthy a nation the new leader will inherit when he takes office, what the country's long-range strategic goals should be, and how his promised policies will mesh with the many nations anxiously awaiting the election's outcome.

The future of US foreign policy and influence will be the focus of an on-the-news discussion at Boston University tomorrow, part of the school's Great Debate series. Modeled on the tradition of public debates at Cambridge and Oxford, a panel of internationalists will plumb the question: "Is the American Century Ending?"

Arguing yes will be Andrew J. Bacevich, a BU professor and author of "The Limits of Power: The Age of American Exceptionalism." A retired Army colonel whose own son was killed in Iraq last year, Bacevich believes that thoughtful diplomacy is too often sidetracked in favor of simplistic military responses. Joining him will be Robert S. Litwak, director of international security studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Litwak, a onetime Clinton administration official, says America needs a broad foreign policy that takes into account other nations' concerns.

Opposing them will be Robert J. Lieber, a Georgetown University professor whose latest book, "The American Era: Power and Strategy for the 21st Century," contends that the United States is uniquely qualified to confront the threats of Islamic terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, and must continue to do so. Joining him will be Ruth Wedgwood, a Johns Hopkins University professor who says that US muscle remains essential to international stability. The gloves come off at 6:30 p.m. at the Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Ave.

TWO SISTERS, IN BLACK AND WHITE
Julia Glass, a longtime painter who became a novelist when in her 40s, was the surprise winner of a National Book Award in 2002 for her first effort, "Three Junes." Glass, who used her resultant earnings to move with her family from a Greenwich Village apartment to a Marblehead home, is back with her third novel, "I See You Everywhere," which chronicles the bumpy relationship between two sisters, whose perspectives alternate with each chapter. Glass reads Friday at 7 p.m. at Jabberwocky Bookshop, 50 Water St., Newburyport.

THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE, NOW
Sana Krasikov is not exactly a household name, but that's likely to change soon. Krasikov is a talented young writer who was born in the Ukraine, raised in nearby Georgia, and lives in New York City. She writes multilayered short stories that feature complex characters who have one foot planted in the East, the other in the West, and who are comfortable in neither place. Her first story collection, "For One More Year," was released to strong reviews last summer. She'll read on Monday at 4:30 p.m. at the Clapp Library, Wellesley College.

JIM CONCANNON