All New America Events for 2006

Since 9/11, the American psyche has been haunted by Osama bin Laden. Numerous military operations attempting his capture have failed, and what little is known about him has been obscured by anecdote and myth -- until now. Join the New America Foundation for a fascinating discussion with Peter Bergen, Terrorism Analyst for CNN and author of the New York Times best seller Holy War, Inc., about his just-released book, The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History… more

The New America Foundation's second event under the Early Education Initiative gathered a distinguished panel of speakers from academia and both sides of the political aisle to discuss the newly released issue brief, "Ladders of Learning: Fighting Fade-Out by Advancing PK-3 Alignment." Michael Dannenberg, the Director of New America's Education Program, set the stage with his remark that the education system was progressing on a continuum with regards to standards-based reform, a concept that is here to stay.

Kristie… more

On January 24th, 2006, the New America Foundation convened a forum of the leading asset development policy architects from around the world to discuss Children's Savings Accounts. Children's Savings Accounts, or CSAs, are savings and investment accounts, often established at birth, and usually restricted to enabling kids to go to college, buy a first home, and build up a nest egg for retirement. Many CSA policies and proposals are progressively funded, meaning that more public resources are available to… more

This event is co-sponsored with University of Southern California Bedrosian Center on Governance

Voters want change, despite the failure of last November's reform ballot measures. Political analysts have recommended a number of reforms, from redistricting, revised term limits, and open primaries to alternative election systems and the public financing of campaigns. But how do we change a system when powerful interests defend the status quo?

A model solution lies across the border in Canada. Called a Citizens Assembly, its strength lies… more

This event is co-sponsored with The Commonwealth Club of California.

Voters want change, despite the failure of last November's reform ballot measures. Political analysts have recommended a number of reforms, from redistricting, revised term limits, and open primaries to alternative election systems and the public financing of campaigns. But how do we change a system when powerful interests defend the status quo?

A model solution lies across the border in Canada. Called a Citizens' Assembly, its strength lies in restoring… more

This event is co-sponsored with the California Research Bureau.

Voters want change, despite the failure of last November's reform ballot measures. Political analysts have recommended a number of reforms, from redistricting, revised term limits, and open primaries to alternative election systems and the public financing of campaigns. But how do we change a system when powerful interests defend the status quo?

A model solution lies across the border in Canada. Called a Citizens Assembly, its strength lies in restoring power to… more

General Clark delivered the keynote address at this special event, where an honest assessment of the United States' foreign policy drove a lively discussion. The morning began with Steve Clemons and John O'Sullivan leading a discussion on "Benchmarking Successes and Failures: The Condition of America's Great Purposes and Evolving 21st Century Challenges". Next, a panel of experts discussed "Global Outlooks: American Grand Strategy and Widening Arcs of Instability."

The final panel,"Taking Stock of the U.S. National Interest:… more

The nation's child welfare system faces overwhelming financial and programmatic challenges. There is an urgent need for a national dialogue about how to reinvent and reshape effective services to best provide for vulnerable children and their families. What's working? What needs to change, and what can realistically be accomplished?

Join the National Association of Social Workers, the New America Foundation, First Star and policyAmerica for a day-long policy forum with some of the foremost leaders in the field… more

Globalization is one of the most important, yet least understood, forces shaping our world. In a world of shifting work conditions and family living patterns, it impacts how Americans, and citizens of the world, raise their children. It touches on issues of child health and development, barriers to parents getting and keeping jobs, and problems families confront daily and in times of crisis. There is much that the world learns from America's economic and social strength, and… more

With his usual candor, former Senator Gary Hart (D-CO) addressed the issues of security and military strategy -- the same issues he adopted while serving on Capitol Hill and which he explores in his new book The Shield and the Cloak: The Security of the Commons. His provocative remarks, delivered before a packed audience, offered a sobering assessment of America's security climate and a number of proposals to improve it.

Senator Hart -- noting that our Cold War-era military is… more

Rather than run for office, former Governor John Kitzhaber of Oregon has decided to direct his energies toward re-engaging his home state and the nation in dialogue about common sense health care reform. Kitzhaber recently launched the Archimedes Movement (http://www.archimedesmovement.org), a new vision for health care in Oregon. His opening proposition is simple but profound: let Oregon re-direct current health spending to guarantee all Oregonians access to quality health care services. Accomplishing this will require waivers… more

On Wednesday March 15, 2006, the New America Foundation hosted a forum about where American and Iraqi public opinion on the war stands three years after hostilities began, and how it's changing. Co-chaired by Steven Kull, the principal investigator of a survey conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), and Anatol Lieven, Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation, and moderated by Jerry Irvine, New America's Director of Communications, the panel served to announce PIPA's findings and… more

As the House-Senate conference takes up the pension funding and reform bill this month, the conversation about how best to update the nation's retirement saving system is far from over.

The pending pension bill may achieve some important improvements, but it does little to address the fact that American workers are clearly not saving enough: A majority of the workforce does not participate in an employer-sponsored plan, an increasing number of large companies are freezing their traditional pension… more

"Building Communities," a sequel to the highly popular 2004 "Bootstrap Capitalism" conference, aims to infuse fresh, new thinking into the current discussion about poverty in America.

Presentations addressed critical questions of economic justice and speak directly to current legislation before Congress, including the New Markets Tax Credit, the Community Development Block Grant, the Community Development Financial Institutions Loan Fund, and regulation of predatory lending. This was a very timely discussion with leading anti-poverty experts and community development practitioners from around the… more

Sixty years ago, the United States and Britain worked together to create a new world order based on international law. In Lawless World: America and the Making and Breaking of Global Rules, Philippe Sands, a British international lawyer and law professor, charts the course by which international relations have shifted from the Atlantic Charter's limitation of force to the the way international law is construed by the current U.S. and British administrations.

Sands argues that the principles underlying the… more

As the era of broadcasting as a primarily scheduled and one-way service fades to black, public broadcasting both here and abroad will need to transform itself to keep pace with commercial media. As the public becomes accustomed to consuming video anytime and anyplace -- including in bite-size segments on mobile wireless devices 24/7 -- traditional broadcasting will be eclipsed by a wide variety of new digital media formats and distribution platforms.

Our distinguished panel will offer… more

America's personal savings rate is abysmally low. Last year the personal savings rate was negative, the lowest annual rate since the Great Depression. Whether the objective is to promote retirement security, improve educational attainment, provide a financial cushion for life transitions, or increase national savings, the need to increase household savings is vitally clear. Public policy should take a cue from some innovative financial institutions that encourage connecting savings with the one activity that almost every household undertakes -- tax… more

Daniel Levy, former advisor to the Israeli Prime Minister's Office and member of the official Israeli negotiating team at the Oslo B and Taba talks, offered several incisive post-election observations on the prospects for resumed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at a talk at the New America Foundation on April 7, 2006. He outlined three possible routes an Israeli government, led by likely Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, could pursue in reaction to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.

Levy argued… more

In his first book, Louis Uchitelle, an award-winning business reporter for The New York Times, examines the accelerating trend of corporate layoffs in America. In The Disposable American: Layoffs and their Consequences, Uchitelle examines rising job insecurity from its origins as a largely blue-collar phenomena in the mid 1970s to how it today affects white-collar workers as well. Arguing that we are now in an era of "downward mobility," he blows the lid off the myth that in America there… more

Central America is the oldest region of U.S. external influence. It also remains one of the most important for U.S. interests. The history of American involvement in the region is a mixed one, with great successes, but also tragic failures and crimes. In recent decades, American supremacy has been maintained, the Communist threat in the region defeated, and forms of democracy established. But the cost to the peoples of the region, and to the international reputation of the U.S., has… more

Terrorists have discovered the internet as a valuable medium for furthering their cause. The number of websites operated by terrorists exploded from only 12 in 1998 to more than 4,800 today. “Postmodern terrorism… is less centralized, less structured, less organized, and far more dangerous than the terrorism of the late twentieth century,” asserts Gabriel Weimann in his newly released book Terror on the Internet: The New Arena, the New Challenges. Using data gathered from an exhaustive eight year study spanning four… more

Workplace Flexibility 2010 of Georgetown University Law Center and the Workforce and Family Program of the New America Foundation are bringing together a panel of researchers studying the mismatch between the needs of America’s families and the way the workplace is currently structured. These experts have studied how this mismatch impacts marital well-being, child-rearing, and caregiving responsibilities, including elder care.

The briefing will also highlight how workplace flexibility benefits families and how one company is using flexibility as a key… more

In its recent report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, the National Academies concluded what many have long feared to be true — that the nation's outdated K-12 educational system is inadequately preparing America's youth for the jobs and global competition of the 21st Century. One of the most promising ways to remedy this is by investing in the research and development of advanced learning technologies, a.k.a. “Serious Games.” We all know of the power of video games to captivate and… more

Entrepreneurs and small businesses are the backbone of the American economy. They comprise 99% of all employers and create 75% of our nation's new jobs. Both sides of the aisle consistently claim to represent their interests -- yet what policies should Washington pursue to help this vital sector?

This half-day conference will address the most pressing economic issues facing America's small enterprises today, from health care costs and tax burdens to workforce and regulatory concerns. In the first… more

Since the breaking story of the alleged CIA kidnappings, rendition program and secret prisons in Europe, the European Union has released a report stating that "European governments condoned the abduction, transport and detention of terrorist suspects by the United States on European territory." The report examines the extent to which there have been violations of national, EU, and international law.

Cem Oezdemir, a Member of the European Parliament, currently serves as Vice President for the Temporary… more

While many books have been written on post war Iraq, only a handful have been by writers who speak Arabic and --until now--none by a writer who has had direct access to the insurgents. Nir Rosen’s new book fills this important gap. The New America Foundation is pleased to host the first DC event featuring Rosen, author of the forthcoming In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq.

The title of… more

Thanks to the digital revolution, people, companies, and industries can increasingly choose to locate anywhere, making regions with a good quality of life increasingly attractive as economic centers of activity. In this regard, the Heartland, that vast expansion of America from the Middle West to the Mountain West, has enormous underutilized and untapped resources -- from low housing costs and good schools to a favorable business climate, plentiful land and other natural resources -- that make it a potentially attractive… more

America’s image has been steadily deteriorating over the past five years, with a slight recovery in some countries in 2005. Yet overwhelmingly, anti-Americanism is on the rise. Why is this so? Pew pollster Andrew Kohut and journalist Bruce Stokes use surveys from more than 91,000 people in 50 countries to explore this deeply unsettling finding in their recently released book, America Against the World: How We Are Different and Why We Are Disliked.

Kohut and Stokes argue that… more

In April Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney signed into law one of the most ambitious health care reform proposals in recent history. The legislation mandates that all Massachusetts residents purchase health insurance, provides subsidies for low- and middle-income families, and sets up a new purchasing mechanism to reform the health insurance marketplace. Some observers hail this law as a major step toward achieving universal coverage. Others worry that it is a first step on the slippery slope to national health care.

With the FCC dramatically increasing fines for indecency over broadcast TV -- and influential members of Congress threatening to extend decency standards to cable and satellite networks -- the debate over how best to protect children from inappropriate media has reached a fever pitch.

The problem is real: A plethora of studies show that repeated exposure to violence in the mass media increases aggression, desensitizes children to acts of violence and heightens their fears of becoming a victim of violence. Even… more

 

In its recent report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, the National Academies concluded what many have long feared to be true -- that the nation's outdated K-12 educational system is inadequately preparing America's youth for the jobs and global competition of the 21st Century. One of the most promising ways to remedy this is by investing in the research and development of advanced learning technologies, a.k.a. “Serious Games.” To commemorate House Innovation Week, the New America Foundation and Digital Promise,… more

In his first book, Charles Pena, Senior Fellow at the Coalition for a Realistic Foreign Policy and Terrorism Analyst for MSNBC, re-examines the U.S. national security strategy, tackling key questions such as: What is the best way to restructure homeland security to prevent future attacks? How should the U.S. dismantle the al Qaeda terrorist network? Should this be a top priority? And how can we construct a foreign policy that will tamper down, rather than assist recruitment for, al Qaeda… more

Employment-based health insurance provides health care for 160 million Americans.  But the number of employers sponsoring coverage and the proportion of employees taking benefits when they are offered are both dropping.  Employment-based insurance has been charged with causing “job-lock,” the unwillingness of workers to change jobs even when other jobs beckon.  Yet agreement on an alternative to provide health insurance to workers and their families seems no nearer today than it has for generations. On Friday, June 16,… more

Over the past several decades, breakthroughs in medicine and biotechnology have begun to alter the basic process of birth. Increasingly, parents are able to protect their unborn children from potential life-threatening diseases, or give birth to children that are chosen for specific genetic qualities. Infertility treatments are pushing back the age at which women can give birth, and novel surrogacy arrangements have given couples the opportunity to have others bear their children.

This discussion will consider how governments craft… more

Regardless of income or race, kids are growing up without knowing the basics that will keep them out of financial trouble. In a time when the personal savings rate is negative, credit card debt is growing and kids are more likely to see their parents go through a bankruptcy than divorce, financial education is more important that ever.

Many groups from the private, public, and nonprofit sectors have responded to this need by mandating financial education in schools, developing… more

In his new book, 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy, author Steven Hill says that American democracy has been working about as well as the levees around New Orleans. Hill, who is director of the New America Foundation's Political Reform program, establishes that American democracy is rooted in outdated methods and practices, from voting equipment to the way we elect the President and Congress. He outlines ways for overhauling and reinvigorating our political system and presents a comprehensive vision… more

Since 9/11, many have cast the Global War on Terrorism as the forces of democracy and freedom pitted against an emerging and increasingly dangerous “Islamofascism”. Author and editor Robert Dreyfuss contends that during the Cold War (and since), the forces of the Islamic right have been erstwhile allies of the United States.

Dreyfuss, author of Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam, will discuss the lessons our shared history offers us in dealing with the war… more

In his new book, America’s Promise Restored: Preventing Culture, Crusade and Partisanship from Wrecking our Nation, Harlan Ullman contends that America’s current political system and its ideologically driven society have transformed, fragmented, and perverted the democratic process. Ullman, a Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, argues that our government is ill-equipped to deal with the myriad challenges we face as a nation -- highlighted by a growing international jihadist movement -- while the electorate is increasingly… more

In the rapidly evolving technology industry, software platforms offer the benefits of innovation broadly to a wide "ecosystem" of partners and competitors. As successful high tech companies develop new products and platforms, they must balance the demand of consumers and partners for cutting-edge technology with the need to fully preserve opportunities for others to offer technologies that may complement or compete with parts of the platform itself.

As Microsoft prepares to launch Windows Vista, enhancements to its… more

Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia presented a half-hour speech to over a hundred guests at the New America Foundation on Tuesday, July 25, 2006. Kaine described his views on the importance of early childhood education, which studies show can reduce the number of unprepared students entering kindergarten each year and reduce the number of elementary school children who fail to advance to the next grade at the end of the school year. Kaine noted that, in Virginia, 10,000 children… more

Paycheck paralysis, rising cost of living, out of control student loans, credit card debt... many young workers, even those with college degrees, are facing hard economic realities. Is it just perception, or is it really tougher being a 20- or 30-something today than it was 30 years ago? Americans of all ages face an era of economic insecurity. This uncertainty is now so common that younger generations know it as part of the experience of being American. But it hasn't… more

The American military is a tightly sealed community that few outsiders are able to penetrate. But many senior officers shared their true thoughts and sentiments about the Iraq war with renowned Washington Post military reporter Thomas E. Ricks. In Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, Ricks combines these astonishing on-the-record military accounts with his own on-the-ground reportage for an account of the war thus far.

Ricks drew upon hundreds of interviews with people involved in every aspect of… more

Health care is a top priority for California, but solutions to its critical problems are still challenged by the complex politics of powerful, competing stakeholders and fear of change. New America Foundation presented an insider’s view about how Massachusetts was recently able to overcome similar obstacles and reach bipartisan consensus on a landmark plan for achieving universal health care.

John McDonough, director of Health Care for All in Massachusetts and a former Democratic legislator, is a veteran health care… more

Please join us as Steve Clemons, Director of the New America Foundation’s American Strategy Program, moderates an examination of the important challenges we face in the Middle East with James Dobbins and Daniel Levy.

Dobbins, Director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at Rand Coproration, published an op-ed in the August 13, 2006 edition of the International Herald Tribune titled "Moral Clarity in the Middle East." Levy… more

At this recent New America event, Flynt Leverett, former National Security Council Senior Director of Middle East affairs and Middle East expert with the current Administration's Policy Planning Staff, outlined a compelling vision for a U.S. recovery strategy for the region in this special event with American Strategy Program Director Steven Clemons.

The discussion elaborated on Leverett's cover story for The American Prospect, which makes a cogent case for the return of a realist-based… more

Please join us for this important discussion on the prospects for peace in the Middle East. A more detailed event description will follow shortly.

In his new book, The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror, Soros outlines his perception of the greatest threats to global stability and prosperity. He zeroes in on the key missteps of the so-called war on terror and argues that at base, the American strategy isn't working because it relies on war and conflict metaphors that are counterproductive, and that these illusions are undermining our own and the world's security.

Join the New America Foundation as… more

President Bush is likely to face in the not too distant future a “bleak binary choice” regarding Iran that juxtaposes two fundamental options that have profound geostrategic consequences. The first of these is to launch a military operation against Iran's perceived nuclear capacity, and the other is to acquiesce and adjust to Iran's eventual acquisition of nuclear weapons. These are the two framing options in the debate -- but concerned members of the foreign policy establishment are racing to construct… more

In his new book, Looming Towers: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, Lawrence Wright uses his unique brand of journalism to paint a vivid portrait of the global history and specific people and events that culminated in the 9/11 attacks on America. The book focuses on four key figures to guide its narrative: the two leaders of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri; the FBI’s counterterrorism chief, John O’Neill; and the former head of Saudi intelligence, Prince… more

Within the next two weeks, the U.S. Department of Education’s Inspector General is expected to release an audit of the Nelnet Corporation, a major student loan provider, recommending that it be ordered to repay hundreds millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidy payments to the U.S. Treasury and halt additional, future subsidy billings estimated to exceed $1.3 billion.

At issue are subsidy payments guaranteeing Nelnet and other student loan companies a 9.5 percent rate of return for student loans originally… more

On June 28, 2006, the Senate Commerce Committee approved wide-ranging (and highly-contentious) telecommunications legislation which is now awaiting action on the Senate floor. The Advanced Telecommunications Opportunity and Reform Act (HR 5252) includes two key sections meant to remove barriers to rural and municipal wireless broadband networks. Title VI would open up much-needed -- and currently unused -- TV spectrum for use by unlicensed wireless broadband devices, and Title V would lift state-level restrictions on municipal broadband networks.… more

At this launch event for Sidney Blumenthal's new book, How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime, New America's Whitehead Senior Fellow Michael Lind introduced Blumenthal, and moderated the Q&A that follows. Video of the event is available at right.

Review Excerpts:"Sidney Blumenthal...understands the workings of the White House. His recently published book, How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime, collects his columns from November 2003 to April 2006, and they provide week-by-week freeze-frames of… more

In the second of a series of sponsored conversations about the future of the employer-based health insurance system, Sens. Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) offered their perspectives on how the employer system can continue to provide coverage for American workers and their families, if appropriate bi-partisan policy actions are taken soon. Both senators are authors of legislation designed to encourage more small firms to offer insurance to their employees. Len Nichols, director of the Health… more

At the 10th anniversary of welfare reform, Congress is now engaged in a debate about how best to help the working poor. At the federal level, there is much discussion about whether an increase in the minimum wage would be the best approach. Meanwhile, at the state level, ten states have increased their minimum wage this year and six more have wage initiatives on their ballots this November. Many states and municipalities have gone ahead and instituted… more

Dr. Mark P. Lagon is Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (since January 2004). In this capacity, he has broad responsibility for multilateral policy development, negotiations and administration, particularly within the United Nations system. He has lead responsibility for UN-related human rights and humanitarian policy, UN administration and reform, as well as the IO Bureau's public diplomacy and outreach programs.

Dr. Lagon previously served as a Member of the Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff, where he focused… more

This event -- hosted jointly by the New America Foundation and the Princeton Project on National Security -- was a major day-long conference on Capitol Hill probing panels of experts on the challenges of the 21st Century with regards to developing a grand strategy, maintaining economic security, and revamping institutional rules for new threats.

The conference was punctuated by remarks on national security from Senators Joseph Biden (D-DE) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and closed by a discussion on democracy building… more

Conflicts of interest may be endemic to American medical research, but better policy could improve the chances that we draw the right conclusions about which drugs are best for which conditions and for whom.  The New America Foundation invited Ross McKinney, M.D., Vice Dean of Research at Duke’s Medical School, and Jerry Hoffman, M.D., emergency department physician and professor of clinical epidemiology at UCLA, to join Schwartz Senior Fellow Shannon Brownlee to discuss the realities, incentives, and policy options before us. … more

America’s personal savings rate is abysmally low. Last year the personal savings rate was negative, the lowest annual rate since the Great Depression. Whether the objective is to promote retirement security, improve educational attainment or increase financial literacy, the need to increase household savings is vitally clear.

Children’s Savings Accounts (CSAs), which can be established automatically at birth, are gaining momentum as they form the base of many new and exciting proposals to increase savings. Many believe that CSAs hold great… more

Ethical Realism: A Vision for America’s Role in the World is a cogent, refreshing, and striking new prescription for America’s foreign policy. The co-authorship of the book marks a truly rare coming together of two minds from different parts of the political spectrum. Anatol Lieven and John Hulsman, who differ considerably over domestic policy, are united in their belief that the foreign policy being advocated by both the Republican and Democratic wings of the U.S. establishment is bankrupt.

Lieven… more

Workplace Flexibility 2010 of Georgetown University Law Center and the Workforce and Family Program of the New America Foundation are bringing together a panel of experts in the fields of parenting, child development, and workplace innovations who will discuss the implications of work-family tensions on children, with a particular focus on the role of fathers.

The briefing will also highlight how workplace flexibility is a necessary part of the response to these issues.

For more… more

Alastair Crooke is considered the foremost international expert on Hamas. As EU Security Envoy under Javier Solana during the Second Intifada Crooke mediated with all the Palestinian political and armed factions, including ending the Bethlehem Church of the Nativity siege. Crooke worked for more than two decades in the broader Middle East region, including as a member of the Senator Mitchell Fact Finding Committee and a negotiator between Israeli security forces and Palestinian factions such as Hamas. … more

Michael Zielenziger's new book, Shutting Out the Sun, offers an intelligent, insightful look into the economic disquiet and disturbing social trends afflicting Japan. Though once on the verge of eclipsing the United States as the world’s dominant economic power, Japan failed to recover fully from the economic collapse of the early 1990s and now confronts a Japanese society and economy jeopardized by disaffected youth.

Exploring the reasons behind Japan’s status as the industrialized nation with the highest suicide rate and the… more

Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, Deputy Chairman of the German Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament, has served as a Member of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, Foreign Affairs Committee, and on the Parliamentary Delegations for the United States and Japan. Lambsdorff has been selected as a highly significant European Union Parliamentarian by German political magazine Focus and serves as one of Europe's most effective commentators on the pressing issues of European politics today.

In addition to his… more

Criticism of existing policies has brought together unlikely coalitions on both the right and the left of the American political spectrum. Does this serve as a sufficient basis for a new bipartisan conception of U.S. foreign policy, grounded in realism?

This event -- co-sponsored by the New America Foundation, The Nation, The National Interest, and the World Affairs Council of Washington, D.C. -- brought together prominent conservative and progressive foreign policy thinkers to debate and discuss the issue. Video is… more

In a lunchtime forum jointly sponsored by The New America Foundation's American Strategy Program and The Century Foundation's Prospects for Peace Initiative, Robert Malley, Middle East and North Africa Program Director at the International Crisis Group, presented and discussed the report, The Arab-Israeli Conflict: To Reach a Lasting Peace.

This new International Crisis Group report looks at the lessons from the conflict this summer, the last six years of regression, and the United States' political absence from the process.… more

David Corn of The Nation and Michael Isikoff of Newsweek will discuss their new book, Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War.

Hubris explores the inner workings of the current administration and the deliberations behind the decision to begin the Iraq War. After brief presentations by the authors, a Q&A will be moderated by New America Schwartz Senior Fellow Peter Bergen.

The safety net on which Americans once relied is fast unraveling. With retirement plans in growing jeopardy and health coverage eroding, more and more economic risk is being shifted away from government and business and onto the fragile shoulders of the American family. And no matter how well educated and hard working, many Americans fear that bankruptcy could be just one unexpected lay off or health crisis away.

In The Great Risk Shift: The Assault on American Jobs, Families, Health… more

With the possibility of Congress changing hands this January and the start of the race for the next White House, what kind of foreign policy will guide the country post-Bush? Recently, a debate about what U.S. foreign policy should look like has begun in earnest among realists, idealists, multilateralists, and nationalists.

This event, sponsored jointly by the New America Foundation and Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, brought together thinkers from across the political spectrum to debate the future of American… more

As Congress prepares for reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act, policymakers will be forced to answer difficult questions about the relationship between teacher quality and student outcomes at all levels of education. What should teachers of young children know and what skills do they need? How can colleges of education improve the PK-3 workforce? How can the federal government improve the quality of PK-3 teachers through NCLB?

This event, hosted jointly by the New America Foundation and the… more

In January 2006, the Herbert Quandt Foundation started a new project on the future of the middle class in Germany and beyond. Part of their Politics & Society program, the project reflects the perception that there is a looming tectonic shift in the composition of German society that is of increasing public concern. The widespread perception of a decline of the “middle class” and the end of German “middle class society” is connected with the perceived threat of a more… more

We are pleased to invite you to a discussion with David Kimche, who served for many years as Deputy Head of the Mossad and later became Director-General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Relations. Mr. Kimche will be discussing the current situation in Israel and the region, the prospects for a peace move, a new round of conflict or something in-between. Kimche brings his wealth of experience and depth of analysis to an assessment of the options for a comprehensive… more

In 2002, only months after the Taliban was dispersed throughout Afghanistan, Rory Stewart set out in the footsteps of 15th century emperor Babur to traverse one of the most rugged and conflict-ridden countries in the world. He recounts this epic journey in The Places In Between, a New York Times best-selling book that describes harrowing scrapes with nature while negotiating passage through de facto Taliban-ruled land.

Stewart, a resident of Scotland, has written for the New York Times Magazine and the… more

The New York Times Sunday Book Review calls The American Way of Strategy: U.S. Foreign Policy and the American Way of Life “a shrewd and plausible critique of the drift of policy since the cold war" and Publishers Weekly praises it for “exposing the folly of the current imperial strategy” of the United States. Michael Lind, Whitehead Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation and author of The American Way of Strategy, recently appeared on CNN’s " more

From Venezuela to Russia, the increasing control that state-owned companies exercise over world oil and gas reserves is empowering some energy exporters to act with increasing boldness against U.S. interests and policies. In a recent article for The National Interest, Flynt Leverett and Pierre Noël argue that U.S. foreign policy is ill-suited to cope with the challenges to American leadership that flow from the new petropolitics because current policy does not take energy security seriously as a foreign policy… more

After watching first responder communications systems fail on 9/11 and after Hurricane Katrina, with tragic results, the vital importance of spectrum management for public safety communications has taken center stage in recent years. Congress recently passed legislation to reallocate 24 MHz of prime spectrum from TV to public safety in 2009, as part of America’s transition from analog to digital television. Currently, this new spectrum is set to be managed under the same assumptions and orthodoxies as current public safety… more

This important New America conference features some of the nation's foremost economic experts. Video of the complete event is available at right.

Two new papers from our Economic Growth Program are being released as well -- one detailing the larger growth agenda, the other focused on developing America's Heartland. Both documents are now available below.

Governor Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders want voters to approve more than $37 billion in bonds to shore up the state’s aging transportation system, provide more affordable housing, finance school improvements, and address flood concerns.

This Nov. 1 event, co-hosted in Sacramento by the New America Foundation and the Public Policy Institute of California, provided a provocative discussion to help California voters understand the stakes and issues involved in the bond referenda on the November 7th ballot.

Thirteen Propositions to be Voted… more

The New America Foundation is pleased to invite you to the Washington, D.C. Premiere of a new documentary film by Rob McGann. This screening of "American Zeitgeist: Crisis and Conscience in an Age of Terror" will be followed by a panel discussion on terrorism featuring New America's Peter Bergen and William Rosenau of the RAND Corp.

The film explores the underlying fractures of the War on Terrorism from 1979 to the present. Interviewing over 40 leading voices from… more

Yossi Beilin, member of the Israeli Knesset and chairman of the Meretz-Yachad party, is the controversial realist-optimist of Israeli politics. In this special session, Dr. Beilin's only public appearance in Washington this visit, Dr. Beilin reflected on the dynamics in Israeli, regional, and global politics that make a revived peace effort not only a necessity, but also a working proposition. Dr. Beilin debunked the naysayer thesis that given the current political climate, Israeli-Arab peace is a non-starter.

A member of… more

As Americans need to, and are expected to, save more for their futures, millions of low-income Americans are hearing two conflicting messages from their government: Save, and don’t save. Over the last decade a consensus has been emerging among researchers, policymakers, and practitioners around the importance of enabling low-income persons to save and build wealth, and state and federal programs have emerged to do just that. Yet, with limited exceptions, the rules of our nation’s public assistance programs aimed at… more

Rita E. Hauser is President of The Hauser Foundation and Co-Chair of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. She is an international lawyer and of counsel to the New York City law firm, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan where she was a senior partner for more than twenty years. Dr. Hauser was previously appointed by President George W. Bush to the President's Intelligence Advisory Board and to the Intelligence Oversight Board.

Known for her public service and… more

At this California event, Barry Lynn, a New America Foundation senior fellow, discussed his ground-breaking book, End of the Line: The Rise and Coming Fall of the Global Corporation.

We are used to thinking about the effects of globalization and outsourcing in terms of winners and losers: how these trends harm certain classes of American workers or benefit consumers. Lynn goes beyond the stereotypical debate about whether this economic revolution is good or bad to expose the dangerous underside… more

Governor Schwarzenegger has said that the top goal he will announce next year is to expand health insurance coverage to all Californians. This half-day conference was designed to provide him and others with fresh answers to the hard questions of how coverage expansion can be financed and how responsibility could be shared among families, employers, and government.

Presenters ranged from state officials, private employers, health policy advocates, as well as experts from academia, think tanks, and international consulting firms. California's… more

In light of the mid-term election results and the deteriorating situation in the Middle East, both Republicans and Democrats must re-evaluate their existing approaches to the region. Republicans must face the stinging rebuke they received from the electorate due in great part to the debacle in Iraq. Democrats, on the other hand, now face the challenge of coming up with some serious and viable alternative strategies of their own. Anatol Lieven, Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation and… more

Ralf Fücks has recently suggested utilizing NATO as the de facto security guarantor between the Israelis and Palestinians and as the stabilizing force in the greater Middle East. Fücks proposes absorbing Israel into NATO and simultaneously restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, arguing that a U.S.-European alliance can both reassure Israel and secure support from Arab states to take a hard line position against an increasingly emboldened and unruly Iran. Bringing Israel into the transatlantic security compact guarantees Israeli security while offering… more

Federal housing assistance is stuck in a policy stalemate. Funding has stagnated and faith in the effectiveness of housing assistance has broken down. The current system for delivering federal assistance, often through public housing authorities, is sustained more by inertia and the difficulty inherent in unwinding financial obligations than by a consensus that these policies and programs are effective. The traditional justification for providing housing assistance has been undermined both by changes in the nature of housing problems faced by… more

In contrast to the Iraq Study Group and numerous other advocates of compartmentalized, incremental diplomacy with Iran, a new report authored by New America Senior Fellow Flynt Leverett and published by the Century Foundation calls for comprehensive engagement with Tehran. While the Bush Administration continues to cast doubt on the viability of negotiations with Iran, and the Iraq Study Group report advocates decoupling discussions about Iraq from those regarding the Iranian nuclear issue, Leverett’s report argues that the only… more

What will American foreign policy be like after George W. Bush leaves office? Drawing on a recent article in the November issue of Prospect as well as his other writing, Michael Lind, Whitehead Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, made a range of bold predictions about Iraq, the world and America in the next few years and beyond at this New America event.

Michael Lind has been described by Rolling Stone magazine as “that rarest of figures,… more