New America Foundation Launches Global Strategic Finance Initiative
The New America Foundation is pleased to announce its launch of the Global Strategic Finance Initiative. The Initiative, co-directed by Douglas Rediker and Heidi Crebo-Rediker, is sponsored by the Economic Growth Program and American Strategy Program. The Global Strategic Finance Initiative will address the fast changing relationship between global capital flows, financial markets, foreign policy and national security.
“We believe that in the global era, the creative use of financial tools may prove every bit as important to national security as traditional diplomacy and military power,” said Steve Clemons, the Director of the American Strategy program. “The Initiative aims to inject financial issues into the policy debates of the 2008 presidential campaign and offer innovative solutions and sound advice for the next administration.”
The announcement of the Global Strategic Finance Initiative parallels this week’s events. Over the next several days, the world’s financial elite – finance ministers, central bankers, and financiers – will descend on Washington, D.C. for the annual meetings of the G-7, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank. Perhaps more than ever before, the issues they will discuss – sovereign wealth funds, the role of the IMF itself, the weak U.S. dollar, and even esoteric issues like the benefits and risks of securitization – will be of paramount interest to a wide American audience. The Global Strategic Finance Initiative will draw upon the Redikers’ extensive experience in international capital markets and finance to provide a new perspective on these crucial issues.
“We are extremely excited to join the New America Foundation where we will explore the increasingly important interaction between global financial markets and foreign policy. It is an area that requires just the kind of new thinking and paradigm shifts that thrive at New America,” said Ms. Crebo-Rediker.
Also, in an article published yesterday in The National Interest Online, “The Financialization of Foreign Policy,” the Redikers outline both the challenges and the opportunities that the new financial system presents. “We should all be encouraged as other nations embrace market based economics and accumulate more wealth. But, we need to think strategically about how to advance our interests at home and abroad,” explained Mr. Rediker.
For more information, visit the Global Strategic Finance Initiative website, and read the first GSFI working paper, “Foreign Investment and Sovereign Wealth Funds.”
Related Programs: American Strategy Program, Economic Growth Program, Global Governance Initiative, Global Strategic Finance Initiative
Topics: Economic Growth, Foreign Policy
