Upcoming New America Events

Confronting the Debt Culture

Communications — Mon, 12 May 2008 11:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
05/12/2008 - 5:00pm

"By some estimates, payday loans topped $28 billion last year, and have doubled every year for the past five years. These numbers are really frightening."

-Sheila Bair, Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, April 19, 2007

Join the New America Foundation/Asset Building Program and the Institute for American Values for a timely conference on thrift and its increasingly important role in reducing and managing personal and societal debt. Speakers will discuss changing the debt culture, solutions to payday lending, and lessons from abroad.

For attendees who register through the New America website, the conference is free (otherwise it is $50). Your free registration through New America entitles you to:

receive a copy of the report, For a New Thrift: Confronting the Debt Culture;
participate in all sessions and attend the May 13 luncheon; and
attend a reception at 5:00 p.m. on May 12 and preview the exhibit, Thrift: In Search of the Art of Living Well.

For more information and the conference agenda, please visit the conference website.

This conference is co-sponsored by Demos, the Institute for American Values, the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions, the New America Foundation, Public Agenda, and the University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture.

Briefing on Beirut

Communications — Tue, 13 May 2008 09:30:00 -0400

A New America Event
05/13/2008 - 9:30am

Is Lebanon on the brink of civil war? What are the implications for the region? What is America's role in the current crisis?

Daniel Levy, director of Middle East Policy Initiative at the New America Foundation and publisher of ProspectsforPeace.com, will chair this discussion, with additional speakers to be announced shortly.

Foreign Policy Follies

Communications — Tue, 13 May 2008 12:15:00 -0400

A New America Event
05/13/2008 - 12:15pm

While one political party offers a bold, coherent, and failed vision for foreign policy, the other has proffered an inchoate and incoherent response that falls far short of a strategy. Matthew Yglesias -- a known "ringleader-of-sorts for the D.C. blogging community" -- suggests looking past both parties to offer a set of tried-and-true approaches for renewed internationalism and U.S. engagement with the world.

Copies of Heads in the Sand will be sold at the event.

Competing in the Green Economy

Communications — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
05/14/2008 - 3:00pm

With our current renewable energy policy, the U.S. risks losing its competitive edge in the green economy. Applied Materials President and CEO Michael Splinter asserts that doing nothing is neither a strategy, nor a policy and he will discuss innovative solutions to create new green-collar jobs and re-establish the U.S. as a technology leader.

Grover Norquist on the Next Republicanism

Communications — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:15:00 -0400

A New America Event
05/15/2008 - 12:15pm

Of the two competing coalitions in American politics -- the "leave us alone" coalition and the "takings" coalition -- Grover Norquist argues that the "leave us alone" coalition is growing in both power and size and will continue to do so with the next generation. The debate stretches beyond the role of taxation and government to the heart of U.S. foreign policy and its role in the world.

Please join us for this provocative discussion, which will be moderated by American Strategy Program Director Steven Clemons.

Copies of Norquist's book, Leave Us Alone, will be sold at the event.

Posturing About the Future of Nuclear Weapons

Communications — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 12:15:00 -0500

A New America Event
05/20/2008 - 12:15pm

In 2009, the United States will undertake another Nuclear Posture Review, the third since the end of the Cold War and the second to be mandated by Congress. Although the goal of the nuclear posture review is to "set forth short-term and long-term objectives of United States nuclear weapons policy,” efforts to match our strategic forces to a pragmatic assessment of the international security environment often founder on operational and political realities. What are the likely issues and challenges facing the 2009 Nuclear Posture Review? What are advantages, disadvantages, and traps of such posture reviews in general?

Join the Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative at the New America Foundation for an engaging discussion featuring Dr. Janne Nolan. Dr. Nolan is currently a professor of international affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the author of An Elusive Consensus: Nuclear Weapons and American Security after the Cold War, considered to be the definitive study of the 1994 Nuclear Posture Review. Dr. Nolan is a former national security official in the State Department and a representative to the Senate Armed Services Committee, and she has served as a member of several government commissions, including the investigation of the l998 embassy bombings in East Africa. She is the author of numerous books and articles about the politics of national security and teaches at Georgetown University in addition to the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.

The American Strategy Program's Nuclear Strategy and Nonproliferation Initiative is designed to build a new bipartisan consensus around a reduced role for nuclear weapons in U.S. security policy and a renewed emphasis on building international institutions to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.

International Summit for Community Wireless Networks 2008

Communications — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
05/28/2008 - 4:00pm

The New America Foundation/Wireless Future Program is pleased to announce that the International Summit for Community Wireless Networks (ISC4CWN) will be held on May 28th – May 30th, 2008 in Washington, DC.

Co-hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) at its downtown headquarters, IS4CWN is the largest gathering of community wireless networking developers, implementers and allies working to build universal, low-cost wireless broadband networks around the world. The Summit serves as an integral lynch pin for connecting and supporting an alliance between technologists, government leaders and community advocates implementing wireless networks worldwide, and providing a rare international forum for discussion of technology, policy and practical solutions to problems facing community wireless.

Since the first National Summit for Community Wireless Networks in 2004, over 300 Community Internet and municipal broadband projects have sprung up in the United States alone. Previous summits have also helped to spur the development of community wireless networks in places such as Chile and Venezuela, Ghana and South Africa, and throughout Europe. This year’s Summit will focus on how these networks can better serve their target populations, the policies needed to support broader deployment of community wireless systems, and the latest technological and software innovations.

For more information and to register, please visit the conference website.