Published in Megatrends in Global Interaction, Bertelsmann Foundation, October 2012. In 1914, in the wake of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, a foreign affairs writer named F. Cunliffe-Owen looked for the bright side. “While it is only natural that one should be stricken with horror at the brutal and shocking assassination,” he wrote in […]
Archive | 2012
Campaign 2012
As part of the Brookings Campaign 2012 Project, which I directed, I conducted a series of interview with Brookings scholars who wrote chapters for the Campaign 2012 book. Here they are:
James Madison, Presidential Power, and Civil Liberties in the War of 1812
Coauthored with Ritika Singh, Published in What So Proudly We Hailed: Essays on the Contemporary Meaning of the War of 1812, October 31, 2012. In November of 1814, the White House lay in ashes, burned to the ground by British troops. President James Madison was living in temporary quarters at the so-called Octagon House, having […]
Brookings Event on 2012 Election Results
Washington D.C., November 7, 2012 A wrap-up of Campaign 2012 with Brookings colleagues Thomas Mann, Isabel Sawhill, Jonathan Rauch, and Bob Kagan.
Economic Growth and the Presidential Election
Brookings Institution, August 13, 2012 The economy is shaping up to be the focal point of the 2012 election. Federal government efforts to jumpstart the economy started at the end of the Bush administration, and many of the same policies continued in the Obama administration, which also added a multi-billion dollar package of tax cuts […]
Two Parties, One Policy
Coauthored with Ritika Singh, Commonweal Magazine, September 14, 2012 Political parties in the United States, like a spatting couple in a bad marriage, have been fighting over the law of counterterrorism for more than a decade. And like the spatting couple, they have developed an almost rote script for their fight. The script has a […]
Iran’s Challenge for the Next President
Brookings Institution, August 20, 2012 Despite negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program, the diplomatic approach has continued to result in stalemate. Senior Fellow Suzanne Maloney and Campaign 2012 director Benjamin Wittes discuss how the next president should handle a defiant Iran.
Counterterrorism a Strong Suit for Obama in Reelection Bid?
Brookings Institution, August 6, 2012 A soft economy has cemented the focus of the 2012 presidential election on economic issues, with little attention paid to foreign policy, a topic often considered a Republican strength. But with Osama bin Laden dead and no new terror attacks during his term, President Barack Obama isn’t seen as weak […]
The Next President Needs to Focus on the Federal Budget
Brookings Institution, July 16, 2012 The federal budget crisis is a key issue in the upcoming presidential election, with both parties unable to compromise thus far on government spending and tax reform. Ron Haskins and Campaign 2012 Project Director Benjamin Wittes discuss what the next president must do to address the nation’s budget crisis during […]
How Far Did Roberts Really Stray?
Brookings Institution, June 28, 2012 It was always easier to count to five for an opinion upholding the Affordable Care Act than for one striking it down. In order to strike it down, all five of the high court’s conservatives would have to be rock-solid, they would have to stand together on everything. If one […]
America’s Role in the World
Brookings Institution, June 25, 2012 With its continuing weak economy and the growing power of China and other countries, America’s role as the pre-eminent power in the world has changed in the past few years. Senior Fellow Bruce Jones, a director of the Managing Global Order Project, and Campaign 2012 Project Director Benjamin Wittes discuss […]
Federalism and Economic Growth
Brookings Institution, June 4, 2012 The role of both state and federal government is crucial to building economic growth in the coming years. Bruce Katz, vice president of the Metropolitan Policy Program and Campaign 2012 Project Director Benjamin Wittes discuss what the next president must do to galvanize the talents and energies of America’s cities, […]
Improving Relations With China
Brookings Institution, May 23, 2012 Expert Q&A with Benjamin Wittes and Jonathan D. Pollack | Jonathan Pollack: There’s no denying that China will eventually have the world’s biggest economy so, it’s imperative that the next President find a way to build a more fulsome and cooperative relationship with China.
Campaign 2012: Twelve Independent Ideas for Improving American Public Policy
Ready or not, the quadrennial run for the White House is upon us. American voters face a very different landscape than they did four years ago, when the presidential race was relatively wide open and neither the sitting president nor vice president was seeking the nation’s highest office. Osama bin Laden and Muammar Qaddafi are […]
Will Military Commissions Survive KSM?
The Washington Post, May 3, 2012 When Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four others are arraigned Saturday in a military commission at Guantanamo Bay on charges of orchestrating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, it will be the public’s first glimpse in several years of the 9/11 mastermind. The event holds the promise of long-delayed justice and […]
Policies for Reducing Carbon Emissions
Brookings Institution, April 20, 2012 Ted Gayer and Campaign 2012 Project Director Benjamin Wittes discuss what the next president will need to do to address climate policy during his term.
Regulating Domestic Drones on a Deadline
Coauthored with John Villasenor. The Washington Post, April 20, 2012. In February, President Obama signed into law a reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that requires the agency — on a fairly rapid schedule — to write rules opening U.S. airspace to unmanned aerial vehicles. This puts the FAA at the center of a […]
Detention, Interrogation and Trial of Terrorist Suspects — 10 Years Later
Jones Day LLP, April 12, 2012 This panel, featured during the 2012 National Security Symposium, will analyze, from myriad perspectives, U.S. policy and practice on these issues as we enter the second decade of the armed conflict.
Health Care Is a Necessary Reform
Brookings Institution, March 20, 2012 Presidential candidates are sparring over the Affordable Care Act, and the Supreme Court is set to review its constitutionality. But Alice Rivlin argues the next president should focus on structural reform of Medicare, a driver of deficit spending.
ConText: An Experiment in Crowd-Sourced Commentary
Brookings Institution, March 16, 2012 What do the Constitutional Convention, the Talmud, and Wikipedia have in common? That’s the question behind a new project Brookings has launched in partnership with the Center for the Constitution at James Madison’s Montpelier. The project, about which I am deeply excited, is at one level an attempt to bring […]
Partisan Polarization Highest in a Century
Brookings Institution, March 13, 2012 William A. Galston: The president has been intensely frustrated by how many of his nominations have been stalled in the partisan cross-fire. Partisan polarization today is at highest level it is reached in 100 years.
Analogy to Feminism
American Enterprise Institute, February 22, 2012 Some slightly off-color remarks at AEI about Michael Greve’s excellent and challenging new book on federalism, The Upside-Down Constitution.
There’s Still Hope in Pakistan
Brookings Institution, February 21, 2012 Michael O’Hanlon: I don’t think we can go as far as to treat Pakistan as a hostile state. If we do, we’ve already lost the game in Afghanistan. We must recalibrate our policy to push Pakistan in the right direction.
The Debate Over Military Commissions and the Reality
American Enterprise Institute, February 2, 2012 Comments at AEI about military commissions in our mythical debate, and their very different reality.
On the Ten-Year Anniversary of Guantanamo Bay Detentions
Brookings Institution, January 13, 2012 Summary: After years of legal battles over whether to engage in non-criminal detentions, the prisoners now come under the jurisdiction of U.S. courts. However, U.S. law restricts transfers from Guantanamo Bay, so, the facility won’t close any time soon.
How the Next 10 Years of Guantanamo Should Look
The Washington Post, January 11, 2012 In a decade of policy experimentation at Guantanamo, some efforts have succeeded, some have failed tragically and some are still in process. But far more interesting than the past 10 years is what the next 10 will look like. And that subject seems oddly absent from the current conversation.
Drones Are a Challenge — and an Opportunity
Coauthored with Ritika Singh, Cato Unbound, January 11, 2012 David Cortright crafts his essay as a series of cautionary warnings about the rise of drone warfare, but his core argument goes far deeper than drones: Cortright objects to drones, which promise unprecedented levels of humanitarian protection of civilians, chiefly because they facilitate the effective use […]
Benjamin Wittes 