James Fallows: All Publications, Events and Press

Eric Schmidt in San Jose Mercury News | Google CEO Will Take New America Foundation's Helm

Communications — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 07:35:00 -0500

Google CEO Will Take New America Foundation's Helm (San Jose Mercury News)

Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt has been named to be the next chairman of the New America Foundation, which researches issues such as health care and education.

Schmidt will become chairman June 1, the foundation said Thursday in a statement. He succeeds James Fallows, a writer for the Atlantic Monthly magazine and former speechwriter for President Jimmy Carter.

Schmidt will help the organization as the endowment and staff grow, Steve Coll, the foundation's CEO, said in an interview. Other board members include Quadrangle Group principal Steven Rattner and Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International. more

New America on CNET | Google's Schmidt named chair of think tank

Communications — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:58:00 -0500

Google's Schmidt named chair of think tank (CNET)

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has been named as chairman of the board to the New America Foundation, a non-partisan think tank in Washington, D.C. that focuses on issues like healthcare, education and foreign policy.

Schmidt joined the board 10 years ago when the centrist think tank was founded and before he joined Google. He will assume his new role June 1... more

Eric Schmidt in The Associated Press | Google CEO Named Chairman of Think Tank

Communications — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:49:00 -0500

Google CEO Named Chairman of Think Tank (The Associated Press)

Eric Schmidt, the chairman and chief executive of the world's largest search engine, needs to update his profile on the company Web site.

If he doesn't, his new chairmanship at the New America Foundation won't show up if Schmidt Googles himself.

On Thursday, the Google chairman and CEO became chairman of the Washington think tank whose various issues include telecommunications and technology policy.

His unpaid position will be effective June 1.

The first chairman for Google Inc. when he joined in 2001, Schmidt will be the think tank's second since it began in 1999. He's been on the think tank's board since its inception. He follows James Fallows, a national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly magazine. Fallows will remain on the board.

Schmidt's election also follows the September arrival of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll as the president and chief executive of New America, which has a $13.5 million annual budget, 75 staff members and 25 fellows. The group's policy issues also include economic growth, foreign policy and trade, among others. ... more

--This article appeared online in BusinessWeek, Forbes, Conde Nast Portfolio, CNN Money, The… more

Eric Schmidt in Chronicle of Philanthropy | Google CEO Named Chairman of New America Board

Communications — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:41:00 -0500

Google CEO Named Chairman of New America Board (Chronicle of Philanthropy)

Eric Schmidt, chairman and chief executive officer of Google, will become the chairman of the New America Foundation’s Board of Directors on June 1, the group announced. He plans to mark his new role by making an an unrestricted $1-million donation to the group.

Mr. Schmidt has served on the foundation’s board since its founding in 1999, but he has not been as actively involved in philanthropy as many of his fellow billionaires.

He says he was attracted to the group from the beginning because “they would try to do things that were unconventional. They were like Google, but before Google existed.”

Even when he disagreed with work produced by the scholars and journalist at the foundation, he says, he still found the work worthwhile and provocative. more

Google CEO Eric Schmidt Appointed as Chairman of New America Foundation's Board of Directors

Communications — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 01:16:00 -0500

The New America Foundation, a nonpartisan ten-year-old think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., announced today the appointment of Dr. Eric Schmidt, the chairman and chief executive of Google, Inc., as the new chairman of New America's Board of Directors.

Dr. Schmidt, who has been a member of the New America board since the policy institute's founding, will succeed James Fallows, the author and national correspondent of The Atlantic. Fallows will remain on New America's board after the transition, which will take place on June 1st; Fallows was New America's founding board chairman.

"New America is a place where first-rate scholars are producing concrete, creative solutions for some of our nation's biggest challenges," said Dr. Schmidt. "I'm proud to be associated with the Foundation and look forward to helping shape its work and future."

"New America's influence and excellence over this last decade exceed what any of its founders could reasonably have expected," said Fallows. "We couldn't be more fortunate than to have Eric Schmidt devote some of his time, intelligence, and public-mindedness to New America's next stage of growth."

Dr. Schmidt's election to the chairmanship coincides with the arrival at New America of a new president and chief executive, the journalist Steve Coll, a staff writer at The New Yorker and former managing editor of The Washington Post who has twice received the Pulitzer Prize. Coll succeeded New America founder Ted Halstead last September; Halstead remains a New America board member.

"New America's success has been built on innovation and the search for promising new voices in scholarship, policy and journalism," Coll said. "Building cultures of innovation and seizing on breakthrough ideas has been the hallmark of Eric Schmidt's extraordinary career in Silicon Valley, and most recently at Google. New America has long benefited from Eric's counsel and support, and everyone here is delighted about his new role, which will strengthen the Foundation immeasurably in the years ahead."

One of New America's priorities during the next several years, Coll said, is to evolve toward a "digital think tank" model that will use new technologies to improve the Foundation's reach; to generate innovative research and develop new ideas; and to create networks of expertise around the most important issues facing the United States in domestic and international policy arenas.

"New America has experienced tremendous growth and success by trying to work outside of the traditional think tank categories and boundaries," Coll said. "We remain focused on our investments in great people, great ideas, and great scholarship and journalism, but we are searching for new ways in which our scholars and researchers can make themselves heard, and make a difference in national life -- and we think new technology can be an important part of these ambitions."

"Generating ideas about public policy is still a very traditional business," said Fareed Zakaria, the author and editor of Newsweek International, and a New America board member. "Eric brings high intelligence and erudition, of course, but also a fresh perspective and focus on innovation that will be extremely valuable."

Dr. Schmidt earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at Princeton University and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California at Berkeley. He rose to become Chief Technology Officer at Sun Microsystems, from where he was recruited to become Chairman and Chief Executive of Novell. He became Chairman and Chief Executive of Google in 2001.

Working with founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Dr. Schmidt has helped Google to become one of the world's most important companies - an innovator in Internet strategy, technology and corporate culture.

The New America Foundation is a nonprofit public policy institute whose purpose is to bring exceptionally promising new voices and new ideas to the fore of American public discourse. Relying upon a venture capital approach, the Foundation invests in outstanding individuals and policy solutions that transcend the conventional political spectrum. Headquartered in Washington D.C., New America also has offices in California.

The Foundation has made a significant impact on a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues since its inception in 1998. With about 100 staff and Fellows and an annual budget of $13.5 million, New America has twelve domestic and foreign policy programs, in addition to a Fellows Program and a California Program.

Contact: Jerry Irvine, (301) 801-3356, irvine@newamerica.net

Steve Coll Named Next President of New America Foundation

adminn — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 06:00:00 -0400

The Board of Directors of the New America Foundation announced today the appointment of Steve Coll as the Foundation’s next President & CEO. Coll will succeed New America’s founding President & CEO, Ted Halstead, who will remain on New America’s Board.

“Ted Halstead has been a wonderful leader through an astonishingly successful first chapter in New America’s history,” said James Fallows, Chairman of New America’s Board of Directors. “What New America represents in 2007 exceeds in all ways the expectations with which the organization began nearly ten years ago.”

“Steve Coll has the right combination of intellectual energy and achievement, managerial experience, and personal stature and integrity to make New America even better in its second chapter,” said Fallows. “As a manager of creative talent, he is deeply experienced. And as a public intellectual and creative talent himself, he sets an admirable model for our organization.”

“It has been a great honor to work alongside such an exceptionally talented and diverse Board of Directors, Senior Staff and team of Fellows in building New America as a home to the ideologically homeless,” said Ted Halstead. “I could not imagine a more worthy successor than Steve Coll, whose intellectual depth, strategic vision and managerial savvy make him uniquely qualified to lead New America to ever greater heights in the years ahead.”

“New America has an exceptional record of innovation and influence in its relatively young life, and I’m thrilled by the opportunity to join such a talented group and help shape its next chapter,” said Steve Coll. “The Foundation’s emphasis on young, unorthodox, and independent thinkers, and its connections to the pioneering state of California, are among the many great strengths that we inherit from Ted Halstead and his colleagues – strengths that we should preserve and advance.”

“This is a critical period in the country’s life, one that demands a commitment to unconventional thinking and change – a time that only emphasizes how vital New America’s mission remains,” said Coll.

Steve Coll served as Managing Editor of The Washington Post from 1998 to 2004. He is currently a Staff Writer at The New Yorker, where his work will continue to appear. An author of numerous books, he won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for general non-fiction for Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. Coll also won a Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for explanatory journalism for his coverage of the Security and Exchange Commission.

The Foundation has made a significant impact on a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues – and experienced tremendous growth – since its inception in 1998. With close to 100 staff and Fellows and an annual budget over $10 million, New America has 12 domestic and foreign Policy Programs, in addition to a Fellows Program and a California Program. Over the past nine years, New America scholars have published 33 books, convened over 650 public events, and published over 2,800 opinion pieces in leading newspapers and magazines.

The New America Foundation is a nonprofit, post-partisan public policy institute whose purpose is to bring exceptionally promising new voices and new ideas to the fore of our nation’s public discourse. Relying on a venture capital approach, the Foundation invests in outstanding individuals and policy solutions that transcend the conventional political spectrum. Headquartered in our nation’s capital, New America also has offices in California and New York.

Steve Coll will take over from Ted Halstead as President of the New America Foundation in mid-September, 2007.

Terrorism, Security and America's Purpose

Communications — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 12:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
09/06/2005 - 12:00pm

On September 6-7, 2005, just days before the fourth anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the New America Foundation convened a major national policy forum to examine the challenge of international terrorism and how best to confront it.

The forum brought together national and international public leaders, policymakers and scholars, security and intelligence officials, media, and citizens from diverse viewpoints to discuss a comprehensive plan of action for addressing the threat of terrorism around the world.

Among… more

The Legacy of John Kenneth Galbraith

Communications — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 12:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
04/04/2005 - 12:00pm

In his recently released biography, Richard Parker tells the story of John Kenneth Galbraith, one of the world's most famous living economists. Parker captures Galbraith's long career in economics and politics as well as the evolution of his economic thought.

As a Harvard professor for forty years, and an adviser to Democratic presidents and presidential candidates since the 1930s, Galbraith has been a powerful and witty voice for progressive thought. His work focuses on inequality of wealth, income, and… more

The U.S. In The World: What Should Drive America's 'Next' Foreign Policy?

Communications — Thu, 15 Jul 2004 15:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
07/15/2004 - 12:07pm

-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

Cyberterrorism: How Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet

Communications — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 12:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
07/07/2004 - 12:00pm

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

Confronting the Coming Anarchy

Communications — Mon, 21 Jun 2004 12:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
06/21/2004 - 12:00pm

The Forgotten Home Front

Cecille Isidro — Sat, 01 Feb 2003 00:00:00 -0500

At kabuki performances in Japan audiences sometimes exclaim "Matte mashita!" during crucial points in the drama. In context this means something like "Here it comes!" or "This is what we've been waiting for!" and it greets the best-known lines in the play. If American theatergoers followed the same custom, people would yell "Matte mashita!" when they heard "To be or not to be ..." in Hamlet or "I'll be back" in a Terminator movie.

In American political culture, which displays some of the same affection for formulaic stagecraft, the theatrical highlight of the year is the State of the Union address. Presidents have presented Congress with reports on the state of national affairs since the republic's beginning, as required by the Constitution. But since Woodrow Wilson established the modern custom of a President's delivering the report in person, in a speech to a special session of Congress, the State of the Union address has evolved into the main kabuki-like ceremony in our national politics.

Even more than the inauguration, the State of the Union has become a ritual celebration of the glory of the presidency. At an inauguration the excitement surrounding the President is often tempered by the pathos of an old President's being ushered off the scene. The State of the Union is all about the incumbent.

With live TV cameras on them, representatives and even proud senators fidget in a packed House chamber until the President arrives. Foreign diplomats troop in to pay the world's respects to America's leader. The military chiefs of staff, in their uniforms, are there; the justices of the Supreme Court, in their robes; the members of the Cabinet -- minus one, who will take over the government in case of disaster. Honored guests, whose achievements will be praised in the speech, are seated near the President's spouse. With all the supporting cast in place, the sergeant at arms comes to the chamber's door -- and the President makes his way toward the dais through a crowd of cheering politicians from both parties, many reaching to touch him as he moves by. He stands at the front of the chamber until the cheers finally die -- and as soon as they do, the speaker of the House plays his role in the drama. He tells his colleagues that he has the "high privilege and the distinct honor in presenting to you the President of the United States." As he utters these words, another minutes-long standing ovation begins.

On it goes for most of the next hour: the President's backers cheering the partisan items in his list of proposals, the opposition sitting noticeably still at those moments. The Vice President and the speaker of the House, onstage props visible whenever the President is on camera, try to sit still at all times. Perhaps at the beginning of the speech, perhaps at the end, the President builds toward his Matte mashita! line. "The state of the union," he tells the crowd -- which prepares to cheer, knowing that the expected sentence has arrived -- "is good."

Or perhaps it's not just "good." It was good "with room for improvement" according to Gerald Ford as he prepared to leave office in 1977; and it was "sound" according to Jimmy Carter the following year. For Bill Clinton in 1995, speaking after his party had been routed in midterm elections, the state of the union was merely "stronger than it was two years ago." By the end of his second term Clinton was ready to declare the state of the union "the strongest it has ever been." George W. Bush began his State of the Union address one year ago, as bombs fell in Afghanistan, with the speech's punch line, an artful two-sentence version of the usual one-liner: "As we gather tonight, our nation is at war, our economy is in recession, and the civilized world faces unprecedented dangers. Yet the state of our union has never been stronger."

In its substance as in its procedural pomp, the State of the Union address has come to represent all that is ritualistic and insiderish about modern politics. It is the one major speech a President is sure to deliver each year. Therefore, the day after one address has been given, much of the government gears up to influence the content of the next year's. The impetus comes in the coded language of Washington: a sentence here about the "high priority" of some new education program, which can be used to defend an extra $100 million in budget requests; a mention there of a "strong new partnership" with a certain country, which can settle a dispute between the State Department and the Pentagon. Speechwriters dread this speech as they do no other assignment (or at least I did, when working for Jimmy Carter), because so many forces conspire to make it a clotted, committee-bred document whose hidden signals the ordinary listener will completely miss. The closest thing to a memorable line in recent addresses was Bill Clinton's declaration, in 1996, that "the era of big government is over."

The oddity of this situation is that although the State of the Union in the Washington sense has become stylized and removed from everyday American concerns, the real state of the union is of enormous social and cultural interest. Pollsters have known for years that one question above all indicates Americans' satisfaction with public life and confidence in their leaders -- the question that is typically phrased as "In general, do you feel that things in America are moving in the right direction or the wrong direction?" This is another way of asking whether the state of the union is sound -- and when answering the question, people consider a wide range of concerns: How they and their family members are doing, materially and spiritually. What they observe or believe about others. What they think the future will bring. To what extent they feel in control of events, rather than feeling like objects or victims. Some components of this real state of the union are purely private matters, but many others are part of the environment that public life is supposed to help determine. The education system, the robustness of the national economic base, the physical safety of citizens, their pride in what the nation stands for -- these and many other areas involve politics to some degree.

That the components of the real state of the union are complex and subjective doesn't mean they can't be discussed -- and in many cases measured. An attempt to think broadly and originally about these elements of national well-being lies behind this special section. Some of the essays that follow offer specific action plans; others identify trends to watch. And although they are political in the broadest sense, most don't bother with comparisons of the Democratic and Republican positions on the subject at hand. The assumption is that in most of the areas under discussion the major-party platforms are essentially fundraising tools or ways to organize blocs of interest groups.

This first presentation, in what is planned as an ambitious ongoing effort to measure and assess national well-being, is deliberately confined to domestic policy. In part that is a corrective. The national discussion of the past year, in this magazine as elsewhere, has naturally emphasized the fight against terrorism, and America's new place in the world. But the main reason for the concentration on issues within our national borders is our conviction that in the long run, domestic policy matters most. America's wars have changed the world, mainly for the better, and they have had deep effects on the country's social and economic institutions. World War II led to official desegregation. The Cold War brought a government-funded scientific establishment. But the signature turning points in American history have mainly been defined by what happened inside the country: immigration, expansion, economic growth, economic difficulties. Over time the domestic strength of a country gives it the material and moral force to play a role in the world. And no President named George Bush need wonder what happens politically to those who forget about the domestic economy.

Lasting principles and clear, simple statements do rise above the specifics of any situation. But it is startling how out-of-date and out-of-touch each party's platform seems when compared with the details in the essays that follow. Indeed, if one theme emerges from these essays, it is how disconnected our official politics has become from the real-world, fast-changing, interesting-in-their-details elements that constitute our national welfare. After the recent midterm elections everyone said that the Democrats had suffered because they had run out of good ideas. That was partly true. But the Republicans don't have much to brag about either. The Democrats have over the past two years stood for the ideas that the Republican tax policy was unfair but not unfair enough to actually vote against, and that the Administration's strategy toward Iraq was rash but not rash enough to oppose. Meanwhile, the Republican domestic agenda can without too much violence be summarized as: reduce income taxes and eliminate the "death tax."

Americans have traditionally been vain about their pragmatism. Let the French have their philosophes, the British and the Germans their aristocrats who stand on ceremony. Ours would be the culture of the doer, the tinkerer, the keen observer who noticed what actually worked. In ideal form the American leader would be a Benjamin Franklin, with lofty interests but an unshakably realistic bent. Better, he would be a Lincoln: a true visionary who also recognized that the drunken General Grant was the best man for the job.

Lincoln, too, issued State of the Union messages, at a time when the existence of the union itself was in question. His second, in 1862, is the most memorable. "The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present," he said. "As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew." We offer these essays in that spirit.

What Is The Real State of the Union? (Panel One)

Communications — Tue, 14 Jan 2003 11:00:00 -0500

A New America Event
01/14/2003 - 12:00pm

8:30 am Registration and Coffee Welcoming Remarks

The Case for the Draft?

Communications — Fri, 16 Nov 2001 11:00:00 -0500

A New America Event
11/16/2001 - 12:00pm

In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, the debate surrounding National Service has drastically changed. Average Americans are suddenly eager to know what they can do personally to help the war effort, and lawmakers are beginning to provide answers. Senators John McCain and Evan Bayh have introduced legislation to dramatically expand the size and scope of voluntary national service programs such as AmeriCorps to include civil defense.

"Americans did not fight and win World War II… more

Whither the New Economy?

Communications — Mon, 20 Nov 2000 11:15:00 -0500

A New America Event
11/20/2000 - 12:15pm

No event summary is available.

A Neo-Realist Perspective on Information Technology

Communications — Thu, 14 Oct 1999 12:00:00 -0400

A New America Event
10/14/1999 - 12:00pm

No event summary is available.