rebels. Decline of the "Blue Social Model" Mead has written extensively about the decline of the "Blue Social Model," which refers to the political and economic status quo of the United States following the New Deal and World War II. Dispute with Walt and Mearsheimer Mead has been a strong critic of the "Israel Lobby" hypothesis advanced by political scientists Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer. In a review of their book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy in Foreign Affairs, he insists that domestic factors are generally irrelevant to foreign policy, and the "Israel Lobby" hypothesis strongly insists on the opposite. Mead also notes that contrary to Walt and Mearsheimer's claim that pro-Israel groups exert influence through campaign finance, pro-Israel groups contributed less than one percent of PAC contributions in the 2006 election cycle. Mead agreed that pro-Israel political advocacy is a topic worthy of study but argued that the US policy on Israel grows out of more diverse and complicated historical reasons than described in The Israel Lobby. Transatlantic relations Mead has been a strong supporter of transatlantic relations. He is currently a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow at the Bosch Stiftung. "China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia" controversy In February 2020, Mead published an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal titled "China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia". The title, chosen by the Journals editors, was criticized by a Chinese foreign spokesperson and some professors in the United States as racist; the article was defended by the CEO of the company that published the journal 53 reporters and editors of the Wall Street Journal signed an open letter criticizing the headline and urging the newspaper's leaders "to consider correcting the headline and apologizing to our readers, sources, colleagues and anyone else who was offended" by it. The demand for apology was rejected by academic Susan L. Shirk who, according to an article in The New York Times, said that there was reason for the newspaper to refrain from making an apology as the Chinese government had also demanded one. In March the Chinese government expelled three Wall Street Journal reporters from China over the article, the first such expulsion since 1998. This decision drew criticism from the State Department, the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China and an article in USA Today. Personal life Mead lives in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the