Home > Programs > Current Programs > Public Affairs Program
Public Affairs Program
Upcoming Events
Even as Latin Americans are striving to promote the values of democracy in their native countries and beyond, a mutual understanding between this region and the U.S. remains lacking. Why has this process proved to be such a struggle, and what does the future of the region hold? (Public Affairs Program)
In the decades since World War II, presidents from both parties have assumed broad war-making powers never intended by the Constitution and have pumped trillions of tax dollars into the Pentagon. Has this pursuit made the U.S. safer or has it only done irreparable damage to the ideals of American democracy? (Public Affairs Program)
Past Events
Perhaps no one in the 20th century had a greater long-term impact on world history than Deng Xiaoping. How did one of the original leaders of China's Communist Party come to reform the economic and social policies that he had helped create? (Public Affairs Program)
|
David J. Scheffer
|
01/31/12
|
David Scheffer was at the forefront of the efforts that led to criminal tribunals for the Balkans, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia. What new insights does he provide in the continuing struggle for international justice? (Public Affairs Program)
|
James G. Rickards
|
01/26/12
|
Currency wars have happened before--twice in the last century alone--and they always end badly. Is the United States now facing the very real danger of the collapse of the American dollar? (Public Affairs Program)
Well-meaning advocates for privacy worry that the Internet and how we share is making us dumber, crasser, distracted, and vulnerable to threats of all kinds. But Jeff Jarvis argues that the Internet and our new sense of publicness are, in fact, doing the opposite. Based on exclusive interviews with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Google's Eric Schmidt, and Twitter's Evan Williams, Professor Jarvis introduces us to the new world of sharing. (Public Affairs Program)
Have the diplomatic efforts of the Obama administration toward Iran failed? Was the Bush administration's emphasis on military intervention, refusal to negotiate, and pursuit of regime change a better approach? How can the United States best address the ongoing turmoil in Tehran? (Public Affairs Program)
|
Grigory Yavlinsky
|
12/14/11
|
If economists and other scholars, politicians, and business professionals understand the causes of economic crises, as they claim, then why do such damaging crises continue to occur? (Public Affairs Program)
The Supreme Court has the awesome power to strike down laws enacted by our elected representatives. How can it help make our democracy work? (Public Affairs Program)
|
Bruce Bueno de Mesquita,
Alastair Smith
|
12/08/11
|
What is the difference between tyrants and elected leaders? How do politics and leadership actually work? (Public Affairs Program)
In his book, "Justice for Hedgehogs," his most comprehensive work, Ronald Dworkin argues that value in all its forms is one big thing. (Public Affairs Program)
How is the Internet transforming the nature of our collective intelligence? Will the Internet help us to better understand our world? Can it expand our problem solving ability? (Public Affairs Program)
How did the insights of thinkers that extend from Victorian England to modern-day India transform the world by rescuing humankind from squalor and deprivation to a world of modern economics? (Public Affairs Program)
|
Andrew Feinstein
|
11/18/11
|
Andrew Feinstein exposes in forensic detail both the formal government-to-government trade in arms and the shadow world of illicit weapons dealing, and lays bare the shockingly frequent links between the two. Is our security compromised and our democracy undermined in the process? (Public Affairs Program)
|
John Lewis Gaddis
|
11/15/11
|
Yale historian John Lewis Gaddis began this history almost 30 years ago, interviewing Kennan frequently and gaining complete access to his voluminous diaries and other personal papers. What is revealed in this landmark work? (Public Affairs Program)
|
Barbara Crossette
|
11/03/11
|
Just this week, the world population reached 7 billion. By the end of this century, the UN predicts that there could be more than 10
billion. Barbara Crossette, author of the UN population Fund Report, discusses the situation. (Public Affairs Program)
Should our understanding of economics be informed more by Charles Darwin, a naturalist, than by the views of economist Adam Smith? Does Darwin's understanding of competition describe economic reality far more accurately than Smith's? (Public Affairs Program)
You recycle? You turn down plastic and paper? Good. But none of that will save the tuna or stop global warming. If you want to make the planet notice, follow the economics, says Gernot Wagner.
|
G. John Ikenberry
|
10/12/11
|
Should the United States renegotiate its relationship with the rest of the world and pursue a more enlightened strategy--that of the liberal leviathan? (Public Affairs Program)
The structure and culture of the internet favor spies over government and corporations, and hackers over privacy. How can we right this imbalance and bring to cyberspace the freedom, accountability, and security we expect elsewhere in our lives? (Public Affairs Program)
If we learn to think of economics as a cultural phenomenon rather than as mathematical models, can we then go on to calculate economic value differently? (Public Affairs Program)
How did a nation founded as a homeland for South Asian Muslims become a haven for al-Qaeda and a rogue's gallery of domestic jihadist and sectarian groups? (Public Affairs Program)
How will the drama of oil--the struggle for access to it, the battle for control, the insecurity of supply, the consequences of its use, its impact on the global economy, and the geopolitics that dominate it--continue to shape our world? (Public Affairs Program)
What are the key features of contemporary Indian foreign policy and India's policy within its South Asian neighborhood? (Public Affairs Program)
|
Thomas L. Friedman,
Michael Mandelbaum
|
09/07/11
|
What can America do as it faces four major challenges--globalization, the revolution in information technology, chronic deficits, and its energy consumption? (Public Affairs Program)
The world has witnessed the beginning of a dramatic revolution in the Middle East. What are the prospects for democratization in the region? What should America's role be moving forward?
Is it possible for civility to transcend money and economic issues? (Civility in America Series)
Drawing on neuroscience, Jack Fuller explains why the information overload of contemporary life makes us dramatically more receptive to sensational news, while rendering the objective voice of standard journalism ineffective. (Public Affairs Program)
|
Mitchell B. Reiss
|
12/07/10
|
When, how, and under what conditions should our government talk to terrorists? Can opening a dialogue bring conflicts to a faster resolution? (Public Affairs Program)
Most Emailed Pages