Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program
 

A New Generation of Public-Minded Thinkers

One of the underlying causes of our nation’s impoverished public discourse is the lack of career opportunities and support structures to help young, public-minded writers and thinkers establish themselves as credible voices in the national debate. New America’s Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program addresses this problem by identifying and supporting a new generation of highly promising policy entrepreneurs.

Each year, New America awards up to 35 Fellowships to individuals who have powerful ideas for moving public thinking into new terrain. The Program supports both Senior Fellows, who have already distinguished themselves as leading policy thinkers, and younger Fellows, who have exceptional potential, but are not yet well established. All come to New America to pursue solutions-oriented research and writing projects of their own design.

Our fellows' most recent events and publications are featured below, and all can be found in the site's searchable archives.

For a more detailed program description, please click here.

Articles

Honduras and the Cuba Exception

The images were decidedly retro and jarring in their distant familiarity, as if a grainy old family film long left in the attic had been brought out for a screening. In defense of la patriala patria, army troops overpowered el palacio at dawn and placed el presidente on an airplane to be flown into exile, still wearing his pajamas. Sunday's coup in Honduras followed a script once so familiar it acquired cliche status, material even for a Woody Allen sendup.

Andrés Martinez | Los Angeles Times | June 30, 2009

Answers Can Be Found in Questions

With apologies to Nike, if the United States were a for-profit venture, its slogan would be "Just do it." Few would dispute the notion that we are an action-oriented people. From an early age, Americans are bombarded with the message that actions speak louder than words and that talk is cheap. Who among us as a child opening presents on his birthday really believed the moral that it's the thought that counts? Come on!
Gregory Rodriguez | Los Angeles Times | June 29, 2009

What Iran Can Learn from South Africa

A generation of American activists was inspired by the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, which promised moral clarity amid the cruel compromises of the cold war. As Barack Obama vividly explained in Dreams from My Father, he was one of them. Given the foreign policy dilemmas that the president will face in the years ahead, it's worth thinking through the lessons of the South African transition.

Reihan Salam | Forbes.com | June 29, 2009

We'll Miss Mark Sanford

Don't cry for Mark Sanford, beautiful Argentinean mistress. Cry for the would-be American revolutionaries Mark Sanford has let down.

Reihan Salam | Daily Beast | June 26, 2009

Obama's Inner Neocon

After watching President Obama's latest press briefing, I've reached a troubling conclusion: For the good of America and the world, the man badly needs a regular supply of nicotine.

Though smoking will undoubtedly put the president at grave risk of developing a serious illness, it also will keep him from lashing out at innocent reporters and, behind closed doors, any number of worshipful subordinates.

Reihan Salam | Daily Beast | June 24, 2009

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Policy Papers

To Save America's Finances, Bring Back Community Banking

In the fall of 2007, Countrywide Financial, then the nation's largest mortgage lender, had a curious new idea -- or, more precisely, an old one. It would no longer import foreign capital through Wall Street to make subprime loans. Instead, it would depend entirely on deposits from savers, who would finance each other's mortgages -- kind of like that humble thrift institution run by George Bailey in the movie It's a Wonderful Life."

Phillip Longman, Ellen Seidman | November 20, 2008 |

How Not to Lose Afghanistan (and Pakistan)

In late May, some 40 Pakistani journalists received a summons to an unusual press conference held by Baitullah Mehsud, the rarely photographed leader of the Pakistani Taliban, who is accused of orchestrating the 2007 assassination of Benazir Bhutto, sending suicide bombers to Spain earlier this year, and dispatching an army of fighters into Afghanistan to attack U.S. and NATO forces in recent months. Surrounded by a posse of heavily armed Taliban guards, Mehsud boasted that he had hundreds of trained suicide bombers ready for martyrdom.

It was… more

Peter Bergen | October 10, 2008

The Energy Security for American Families Initiative

Lisa Margonelli | September 23, 2008 |

Redressing America's Public Infrastructure Deficit

Chairman, Oberstar, Representative Mica, and Members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me to testify today on the question of "financing infrastructure investments."

Over the past several decades, we have accumulated a sizeable public infrastructure deficit. As a result, a variety of infrastructure bottlenecks-traffic congested roads, clogged ports, and an antiquated air traffic system, to mention just a few-have begun to undercut our economy's efficiency and undermine our quality of life.

Bernard L. Schwartz | June 19, 2008

Uprooted And Unstable

Five years after the US -led invasion, Iraq remains a deeply violent and divided society. Faced with one of the largest displacement and humanitarian crises in the world, Iraqi civilians are in urgent need of assistance. Particularly vulnerable are the 2.7 million internally displaced Iraqis who have fled their homes for safer locations inside Iraq. Unable to access their food rations and often unemployed, they live in squalid conditions, have run out of resources and find it extremely difficult to… more

Nir Rosen | April 15, 2008

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Events

CA EVENT: What Does Armageddon Look Like?

Late last year, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called California’s looming budget crisis a fiscal armageddon waiting to strike. Now, as the state faces a $24 billion budget shortfall and major cuts are inevitable, doomsday seems to have come to California, and particularly to its poorest. The one-million-plus Californians on CalWorks, the state’s main welfare program, could lose monthly income beginning in July. Support for those who care for disabled Californians is set to be slashed.
07/09/2009 - 7:30pm
07/09/2009 - 9:00pm

CA EVENT: Was Pete Wilson Right?

Pete Wilson’s California wasn’t too different from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s. The state’s education system lagged behind the rest of the country, interest groups had a tight grip on Sacramento, healthcare costs were rising, and the economy was the worst it had been since the Great Depression. While Wilson may be best remembered for his more controversial stances—like supporting Proposition 187, which sought to refuse services to illegal immigrants—he also managed to pass budgets and break partisan stalemates, ultimately leaving his successor… more
06/29/2009 - 7:00pm
06/29/2009 - 9:00pm

The House at the End of the Road

In 1914, in defiance of his middle-class landowning family, a young white man named James Morgan Richardson married a light-skinned black woman named Edna Howell. Over more than twenty years of marriage, they formed a strong family and built a house at the end of a winding sandy road in South Alabama, a place where their safety from the hostile world around them was assured, and where they developed a unique racial and cultural identity. Jim and Edna Richardson were… more

06/29/2009 - 12:15pm
06/29/2009 - 1:45pm

Is Asia on the Rise?

06/29/2009 - 8:30am
06/29/2009 - 10:00am

The Evolution of God

Is our people's God jealous of your people's God? Should religion unite us or divide us? Is our view of your God driven by theology, or is it shaped by whether we want to trade with you or take your land? Why can't we all just get along, anyway?

06/15/2009 - 6:00pm
06/15/2009 - 7:30pm

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About Bernard L. Schwartz

Bernard L. Schwartz's generous support underwrites New America's fellowship program, as well as various issue-specific initiatives at the foundation.

One of the nation's leading philanthropists in the realms of medical research, higher education, foreign affairs, and public policy, Mr. Schwartz is the former Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Loral Space & Communications, Ltd., one of the world’s largest satellite manufacturing and satellite services companies. In recent years, he has established endowed programs at the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University, at the Graduate Faculty at the New School University, and at the Council on Foreign Relations.

For more information on Mr. Schwartz, please click here.

 
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