Best Events of 2004

Sponsored by the New America Foundation and New York University Center on Law and Security

The Conference featured some of the world's leading experts on Al Qaeda, Islamic fundamentalism, and transnational terrorism. The meeting took place in the historic and beautiful Caucus Room of the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill.

Tax reform is one of the Administration's top agenda items, but little is known about what their tax proposal will look like. What should the goals of tax reform be? How do we determine the winners and losers? Can fairness and inefficiency be balanced? How likely is it that tax reform will pass?

The New America Foundation's Fiscal Policy and Work & Family Programs brought together a panel of experts with varying perspectives to discuss the goals, prospects for and effects… more

In his just released book What We Owe Iraq: War and the Ethics of Nation Building, Noah Feldman presents a penetrating analysis of the present and future complexities involved in rebuilding Iraq. He fosters an urgent discussion on why America's ethical obligations to the Iraqi people should be at the forefront of the nation building process. Drawing on both historic and modern day examples, Feldman reveals why Iraq poses more ethical dilemmas than any prior nation undertaking. … more

Health care emerged as a central domestic policy issue during the 2004 election in both the Presidential campaign and in local Congressional races throughout the country. With the election behind us now, but with high costs and a growing number of uninsured still with us, what are the prospects for health reform? Which health care ideas from the campaign trail, if any, are likely to gain traction? Please join us for a discussion with Reps. Jim Cooper and Christopher Shays… more

Featuring New America Experts

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In his book The Fourth Power, Gary Hart demonstrates the linkage between a principled foreign policy and national security in the age of terror. He argues that when U.S. sanctions on the world stage are inconsistent with established democratic values, America is made more vulnerable. Stating that policies that erode America's image weaken our fight in the war of ideas, Hart argues there may be no more important arena going forward.

Leo Hindery offers his take on the choice between President Bush and Sen. Kerry.

Anatol Lieven, Carnegie senior associate, will analyze the diverse and conflicting currents in contemporary American nationalism, arguing that aspects of this nationalism are the greatest present threat to American hegemony in the world -- greater even than the actions of America's enemies.

In Lieven's view, American nationalism possesses two souls. The first is an optimistic and universalist civic nationalism based on the values of democracy, law, and individualism. Although a foundation of America's global leadership, this nationalism is flawed by a… more

In 2002, Congress passed the most far-reaching reform and expansion of Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) since the program was established more than 40 years ago. Now, two years later, it is time to ask, how successfully have these changes been implemented and how effective is TAA in addressing the needs of workers and communities facing severe dislocations as a result of changes in international trade and investment?

The Trade Adjustment Assistance Coalition is a non-profit 501(c)(3) public policy organization, housed… more

With over ten thousand employees and tens of billions of dollars in investment in the world's poorest nations, the World Bank is at the nexus of global development and social change. Sebastian Mallaby's new book, The World's Banker, pulls back the curtain on this influential entity and its inner workings. What drives this institution? How does the leadership style of World Bank's president James Wolfensohn effect the current and future direction of the World Bank? Mallaby, one day after the… more

Sponsored By:The New America FoundationPolicyAmericaCenter for Social Development, Washington UniversityInstitute on Assets and Social Policy, Brandeis University

A key question the panelists and audience explored was, "What are the components of the next generation of anti-poverty policies in the U.S.? What roles do asset building and financial services play? What are the other components? And how can a new anti-poverty agenda move forward?

The quickening rate of major new developments in all spheres of human knowledge and organization is challenging the adaptive capacity of democratic governance, and demands both conceptual and political innovation in the way we deal with the longer range future. Leon Fuerth argues that we need to develop a policy -- domestic as well as international -- that addresses longer range contingencies.

At this event, Fuerth introduced and discussed his idea of Forward Engagement, a methodology intended for practical application… more

Social Security, the single largest government program, faces hundreds of billions of dollars in annual deficits, and changes will have to be made to the program. While the Presidential candidates are not yet focusing on Social Security reform, many in Congress are. A number of plans have been offered this year. The recent report by the Congressional Budget Office, "The Outlook for Social Security," provides a new framework for comparing different approaches to reform.

Douglas Holtz Eakin, the Director of the… more

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-Carneigie Endowment for International Peace 1779 Massachusetts Ave Washington, 20009 United States

-Jodie Allen Senior Editor, Pew Research Center and former Managing Editor, U.S. News & World Report Michael Lind Whitehead Senior Fellow James Fallows Chairman, New America Foundation Dimitri Simes President, Nixon Center; and author, "America's Imperial Dilemma," Foreign Affairs James Steinberg Vice President and Director of Foreign Studies, Brookings Institutionand former Deputy National Security Adviser to the President Jessica Tuchman Mathews President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

The recent political discussion of the "middle class squeeze" has emphasized themes of both economic opportunity and values. This event delved more deeply in the policies that address the stresses on modern families, as New America's Work & Family Program presented its third event in a series entitled "The Stresses on 21st Century Families."

This event series provided a venue for discussing the current state of American families, including their need for increased workplace flexibility to balance work and family commitments… more

Walter Russell Mead's book, Power, Terror, Peace, and War: America's Grand Strategy in a World at Risk examines America's historical approach to the world as well as the foreign policy of the Bush administration and its effects both at home and abroad. Mead takes a closer look at how the 2001 terror attacks have changed the political and strategic problems of American foreign policy.

Assessing both Bush and his critics, Mead offers a new approach to the war that can… more

Terrorists fight their wars in cyberspace as well as on the ground. However, while politicians and the media have hotly debated the dangers that cyberterrorism poses to the Internet, surprisingly little is known about the threat posed by terrorists' use of the Internet.

Today, as this report makes plain, terrorist organizations and their supporters maintain hundreds of websites, exploiting the unregulated, anonymous, and easily accessible nature of the Internet to target an array of messages to a variety of audiences.… more

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The U.S.'s leadership in facilitating and capturing the economic benefits of innovation has two cornerstones: fostering broad R&D activity and creating an environment that facilitates commercial innovation of R&D results.

This strategy has drawn increasing study and emulation by other countries. Japan, the European Union and, more recently, China have made considerable progress in successfully adapting features of the U.S. innovation model in an attempt to gain parity with or even challenge the U.S. competitive edge in innovation. These and other… more

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Deficits are back, the debt is rising, and the coming election is the last before the baby boom generation begins to retire. Tough policy choices will be needed to get the country back on track, yet politicians continue to postpone making them. This policy forum -- hosted by nine different organizations with varying perspectives -- explored and debated a number of possible options to help address these fiscal challenges before it is too late.

Sponsored By:Brookings InstitutionNew America FoundationProgressive… more

Fifty years ago, Brown vs. Board of Education desegregated schools. But an achievement gap still exists between black and white students. Last year, six of ten African American fourth graders scored below the basic level on national exams, while more than seventy five per cent of white students scored basic or higher. As a result, fewer black students graduate from high school or succeed in college.

To help close that gap, Sen. Lamar Alexander suggests a different way of spending some… more

In this major policy address, Senator Joe Lieberman unveiled a new strategy for tackling the growing threat from the offshore outsourcing of American jobs. He described what he believes to be the true dimensions of this problem and outlined specific policy proposals for addressing it.

Sen. Lieberman argued that the current political debate on offshore outsourcing misses the underlying structural changes at work, and that only strong bipartisan leadership can save American jobs and restore America's economic strength.

In the years after the Soviet Union imploded, the United States was described first as the globe's "lone superpower," then as a "reluctant sheriff," next as the "indispensable nation," and now, in the wake of 9/11, as a "New Rome." In his new book, Chalmers Johnson explores the new militarism that is transforming America and compelling its people to pick up the burden of empire. Reminding us of the classic warnings against militarism -- from George Washington's farewell… more

In her just-released book, "Fanatics & Fools," Arianna Huffington offers an unabashed look at America's messy circumstances today and her vision of where the nation needs to head in the future. In her take-no-prisoners book, Huffington examines both "fanatics" in the Bush White House as well as "fools" in the Democratic opposition. She provocatively sketches the corruption and dysfunction embedded in America's contemporary political landscape while laying out her game plan for winning back American democracy.

 

The U.S. faces significant education and worker training challenges in the global economy of the 21st century. Indeed, the first signs of this trend can be seen in the high-tech business world of today. Employers are simply not finding the workers they need based on the math, science and technology skill levels of the students graduating from U.S. high schools, colleges and universities. Workforce training -- and retraining -- is also receiving considerable scrutiny from policymakers as… more

Based on about 200 interviews with American, Afghan, Pakistani and Saudi intelligence sources, Ghost Wars narrates the intelligence, foreign policy and counterterrorism wars in the Afghan theater preceding the September 11, 2001 attacks. The book's third part is the first and only detailed account of CIA efforts to arrest, kill or disrupt bin Laden at his Afghan base prior to September 11, describing how this CIA covert action unfolded and why it failed. It describes the officers in… more

 

 Amy Sullivan Frequent Writer, Washington Monthly and Author of the weblog, "PoliticalAims.com" Joseph Loconte Fellow in Religion and a Free Society, The Heritage Foundation Julie Segal Independent Strategy and Policy Consultant; Former Legislative Director, Americans United for Separation Church and State

January 2004 is the 20th Anniversary of the Divestiture Order in January 1984 that broke up AT&T into many competing companies. The question today is what the future of communications will look like -- and whether the nation which was well served by breaking up a huge monopoly twenty years ago is still facing serious competition problems in the telecommunications/IT policy arena.

We have asked AT&T's CEO, David W. Dorman, to reflect on this anniversary; to comment on… more

Is the neo-liberal path advocated by the I.M.F. and World Bank the best route to prosperity for developing countries, or are there better alternatives? Washington's recent failures to advance its agenda at Cancun (WTO) and Miami (FTAA) have sparked increasing interest in this question.

Two of the world's leading experts on development will present their views

Schedule for the Conference

8:30am REGISTRATION AND BREAKFAST

9:00am WELCOMING REMARKS

Ted Halstead and John Fox Sullivan

9:10am SESSION I: THE AMERICAN ECONOMY: WHAT LIES AHEAD?

The Hon. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Michael Lind, The Hon. Martin Baily, Maya MacGuineas, and Sherle Schwenninger; Moderator: Slan Murray

11:00am SESSION II: U.S. FOREIGN POLICY AFTER IRAQ: HAS AMERICA OVER-REACHED?

James Fallows, Francis Fukuyama,Kenneth Pollack, Paul Glastris, and Martin Walker; Moderator: Kathryn Kross

12:30pm LUNCHEON PROGRAM: AMERICAN POLITICS: BLUE VS. RED AMERICA

The Hon. John Breaux, The Hon. Harold E. Ford, Jr. Charlie… more

James Fallows National Correspondent, The Atlantic Monthly Francis Fukuyama Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy, SAIS, Johns Hopkins University Kenneth Pollack Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations Martin Walker Editor, English Language Operations, United Press International Kathryn Kross Washington Bureau Chief & Vice President, CNN

John Breaux (D-LA), United States Senator Charles Cook The Cook Political Report Harold E. Ford Jr. (D-TN), U.S. House of Representatives Ted Halstead President and CEO Paul Starobin Correspondent, National Journal Brian Kelly Executive Editor, U.S. News & World Report

Shannon Brownlee Schwartz Senior Fellow Paul Glastris Editor in Chief, The Washington Monthly Karen Kornbluh Director, Work and Family Program Laurie Rubiner Director, Universal Health Insurance Program Susan Dentzer Health Correspondent, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer