U.S. Politics Publications

The Next Industrial Revolution

Nov 20, 2012
The next industrial revolution will fundamentally change the way we make things, and where. Government needs to create policy frameworks that support the transition to a new manufacturing paradigm and we also need to have a public conversation about what this world should look like and what policies are needed to make sure that both society and the planet will benefit. more

Completing the Asia Pivot

Nov 19, 2012
President Barack Obama has made “pivoting” or “rebalancing” of U.S. policies toward Asia one of his strategic priorities. The next administration must not simply maintain this policy on autopilot; it must also provide institutional structure, budgetary support, and conceptual legitimacy to the policy. more

Redefining U.S. Economic Rivalries in Asia

Nov 19, 2012
Promising to level the playing field with China has been a vote-winning mantra among Democrats and Republicans alike. Yet competition for new markets, natural resources, good jobs, and global talent is as likely to come from Japan and South Korea as from China. more

Policy Brief: Dealing with a Rising China

Nov 15, 2012
Washington and Beijing both consider good bilateral relations to be vital, but their growing strategic rivalry has the potential to evolve into mutual antagonism. In this new policy brief, published as the new leadership was announced in Beijing, China expert Stapleton Roy argues that the US should focus on regional engagement through multilateral organizations like ASEAN, as opposed to its military presence in the region. more

Fast-Track Funding Bills Always Hard to Derail

Oct 23, 2012
In a rare show of bipartisanship, Congress agreed in October to fund the government for six more months rather than suffer the political consequences of a government shutdown. While outrage over the killing of U.S. personnel in Libya threatened to derail the agreeement, pressures to adjourn for election campaigns prevailed. more

Policy Gridlock: Is It the New Regular Order?

Oct 09, 2012
Is the dysfunction and policy gridlock in government simply a product of our polarized country politically, or a deeper symptom of a changing culture in Congress aimed more at gaining and holding political power than in producing good public policy for the country. Don Wolfensberger sees more signs of the latter taking place. more

House Tax Overhaul Process Divides Parties

Sep 11, 2012
It’s unusual for Congress to plan in advance, but House Republicans have pushed through a bill to establish a process for considering comprehensive tax reform next year. Don Wolfensberger writes that the process is aimed more at blasting Senate obstruction and appealing to this fall’s electorate than to making a serious commitment to tax reform. more

Appropriations Process Wilts in the Sunshine

Jul 26, 2012
While the House and Senate appropriations committees were off to a good start this spring in reporting most of their 12 money bills, the process slowed down considerably this summer with a raft of floor amendments. This portends a repeat of last year with no bills enacted by the start of the fiscal year and an omnibus bill wrapping things up well past the deadline, writes Don Wolfensberger in his Procedural Politics column. more

Contempt Charges Are Not Partisan Fodder

Jul 16, 2012
While House Democrats charged Republicans with playing politics by forcing a contempt of Congress vote against Attorney General Eric Holder, and some Republican Members seemed too anxious to punish the Attorney General by pushing Speaker John Boehner for an earlier vote, Wolfensberger points out that neither party nor branch of government stands to gain politically from what is a complex interbranch dispute over documents related to the government’s botched Fast and Furious gun-walking operation in the southwest U.S. more

In Blaming Republicans, Authors Miss the Point

Jun 22, 2012
Two prominent political scientists claim Republicans are principally to blame for Washington’s dysfunction because they are more extreme and less inclined to compromise. In this article, Don Wolfensberger notes Congress has been just as dysfunctional under Democratic majorities and the fault lies in the increasing polarization between the parties and the imperatives of “the permanent campaign” to hold on to power by shaping legislation for political purposes rather than finding common ground in the national interest. more

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The Wilson Weekly

Dialogue

<a href="/">Way of the Knife</a>

Way of the Knife

May 22, 2013 – May 29, 2013

This week on Dialogue at the Wilson Center our guest is Mark Mazzetti, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for The New York Times. He is the author of the new book, “The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth.” We also spoke with Curtis Brainard, Editor of The Observatory, the Columbia Journalism Review’s “lens on the science press,” to survey the landscape of science journalism.

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