The Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program: Recent and Upcoming Events

On Wednesday March 15, 2006, the New America Foundation hosted a forum about where American and Iraqi public opinion on the war stands three years after hostilities began, and how it's changing. Co-chaired by Steven Kull, the principal investigator of a survey conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), and Anatol Lieven, Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation, and moderated by Jerry Irvine, New America's Director of Communications, the panel served to announce PIPA's findings and… more

Tax reform will be on the national agenda this coming year. Considered the opening salvo in a much-needed debate, the President's Advisory Panel on Tax Reform recently released its recommendations to reform the federal tax code. Tax experts with differing goals and differing perspectives will come together to discuss their own recommendations for reforming the tax code. Key questions to be addressed include: What constitutes a fair tax code? What are the priorities in reforming the tax code? Do… more

Four years after the tragic 9/11 terrorist attacks, the economic dimension in the fight against terrorism has received little attention in comparison to the ongoing focus of policy makers and the public on military responses and democracy promotion as a bulwark against continuing threats. Nevertheless, economic strategies and tools are critical as we work to help nations gird themselves against terrorist groups that seek a foothold in their societies or followers among their citizens.

On September 21st the New America… more

California has a history of urban innovation, from the earliest missions to the rise of the Gold Rush era in San Francisco, the sprawling metropolis of Southern California and the "technopolis" that emerged in late 20th Century in places like San Jose, San Diego and Orange County.

Today most Californians -- including those in the Central Valley -- live in cities. These cities face many challenges, from growing populations of poor, immigrants to soaring housing prices. Some, like Los Angeles and… more

During the past two decades, commercial forces have quietly transformed virtually every aspect of academic life. Corporate funding of university research is growing -- and the money increasingly comes with strings attached. Universities themselves are starting to behave like commercial entitities, while professors are behaving more like businessmen. The speakers will discuss the origins of this remarkable commercial transformation, and explore its impact on education, medicine, and U.S. innovation over the long term.

Edited by Karen Greenberg and Joshua Dratel, "The Torture Papers" is a compilation of the "torture memos" and reports written by U.S. government officials to prepare the way for and legitimize coercive interrogation in Afghanistan, Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. The authors of the memos and documents include Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and Counsel to the President Alberto Gonzales among others.

Ten years ago, veterans hospitals were dangerous, dirty, and scandal-ridden. Today, as Phillip Longman reports in the cover story of the current issue of the The Washington Monthly, they're producing what is demonstrably the highest quality care in America.

The story of how and why the Veterans Health Administration became the benchmark for quality medicine in the United States promises to shift the terms of the debate about health policy in America. Longman argues that precisely because the VHA is… more

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.

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

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

U.S. military force and cultural appeal have kept the United States at the top of the global order. But the hegemon cannot live on guns and Hollywood alone. U.S. economic policies and institutions act as "sticky power," attracting other countries to the U.S. system and then trapping them in it. Sticky power can help stabilize Iraq, bring rule of law to Russia, and prevent armed conflict between the United States and China.

According to Forrester Research, nearly 4,000 white-collar jobs are leaving the U.S. a week for low-cost locales. McKinsey & Co. forecast the U.S., Europe, and Japan combined lose 600,000 of these jobs a year. In the late 1990s, science and engineering accounted for 5% of U.S. undergraduate degrees; in China, they accounted for 73%. Intel Chairman Andy Grove recently posed the question, "Do we have the national will to take productive action? When the problem becomes… more

Noah Feldman, Former Senior Advisor for Constitutional Law, Office of Reconstruction & Humanitarian Assistance in Iraq; Author, After Jihad: America and the Struggle for Islamic Democracy; and Professor of Law, New York University

Pop-star Bono and Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill have just returned from their fact-finding trip to Africa to determine whether foreign aid works and how wealthy nations can successfully aid developing nations. But did they miss the biggest issue: Can information technology and the Internet help Africa develop economically and politically? What will the consequences be if the digital divide is added to Africa's other problems?

Nicholas Thompson discusses the extent to which the Internet has helped Ghana,… more

Please join us as Ricardo Bayon and John Shilling explore innovative ways to convert sustainability into a valued service in the marketplace. They will discuss the ingenuity and capital required to create demand and profit for environmental services. Furthermore, utilizing examples of successful and unsuccessful endeavors, both at home and abroad, they will identify the market conditions and interventions necessary to foster the growth and success of these environmental businesses.

Robert D. Kaplan is a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly and the bestselling author of seven previous books on travel and foreign affairs, translated into many languages, including Balkan Ghosts, The Arabists, The Ends of the Earth, and The Coming Anarchy.

From one of our leading experts on foreign policy, a full-scale reinterpretation of America's dealings -- from its earliest days -- with the rest of the world. It is Walter Russell Mead's thesis that the United States, by any standard, has had a more successful foreign policy than any of the other great powers that we have faced -- and faced down. Beginning as an isolated string of settlements at the edge of the known world, this country-in two centuries-drove… more