Defense
U.S. domestic security and foreign policy depend on a strong and well-funded military, a streamlined force structure armed with cutting-edge technology, and robust intelligence policies. AEI’s Defense Policy Studies Program seeks to redefine the U.S. force posture for the twenty-first century; to explore the prospects for global rebasing; to interpret the war in Iraq and its part in the larger war on terror; and to examine security policies and practices around the world. Thomas Donnelly and Frederick W. Kagan have launched a major initiative of conferences, working groups, and publications to evaluate and offer recommendations about the present organization and future orientation of land power services within the overal defense context. Their new book, Ground Truth: The Future of U.S. Land Power (AEI Press, May 2008), offers conclusions and recommendations from the project's findings. Stemming from questions raised by this project, Messrs. Donnelly and Kagan are commissioning six new essays on related topics for a second volume, which will be released in early 2009. Mr. Donnelly is also writing a new book, America's Long Wars, which will chart the success of four American long wars "abroad" and will conclude with some reflections on the nation's current long war in the greater Middle East. Addressing security issues in other areas of the world, Christopher Griffin is leading a project to examine the future of defense-industry cooperation and security assistance in the Asia-Pacific region, and Gary J. Schmitt and Reuel Marc Gerecht are collaborating on a new book project that will examine the security policies and practices in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France, and the United States. Mr. Donnelly and Mauro De Lorenzo are studying security issues in Africa, forming a working group and pursuing ongoing dialogue targeted toward defining a strategy for the U.S. Africa Command, the newest regional combatant command. In December 2006, Mr. Kagan published "Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq" (phase I report, based on recommendations from AEI's Iraq Planning Group); and in April, phase II of this report. In September 2007, he released "No Middle Way: The Challenge of Exit Strategies from Iraq," and in March 2008, the phase IV report, "Iraq: The Way Ahead." Of Men and Materiel: The Crisis in Military Resources, edited by Messrs. Schmitt and Donnelly, was published in February 2007. In May 2007, HarperCollins Publishers released Making War to Keep Peace, a book by longtime AEI scholar Jeane Kirkpatrick, who passed away in December 2006.
Program on Advanced Strategic Studies
Since 9/11, the United States has adopted an ambitious grand security strategy that, to be successful, will require sufficient resources, effective institutions at home and alliances abroad, and policies that zero in on our adversaries’ weaknesses and use America’s competitive advantages. Resident Scholar Gary J. Schmitt leads a program that analyzes the long-term issues that will impact America’s security and its ability to lead internationally. The program publishes articles and op-eds and conducts regular conferences and seminars on topics including transatlantic relations, new security structures for addressing the “rise of China,” the role of “political warfare” in the war against Islamic extremism, and the impact of recent reforms to the U.S. intelligence community. In collaboration with Thomas Donnelly and Christopher Griffin, Mr. Schmitt recently completed a project to evaluate the structure and role of U.S. country teams within foreign embassies, and a report of the project's findings is forthcoming. Mr. Schmitt contributed a chapter to The Future of American Intelligence, published in November 2005, and coedited with Mr. Donnelly Of Men and Materiel: The Crisis in Military Resources, published in February 2007.
Middle East Studies
AEI’s Middle East Studies Program examines the key political, economic, and social developments in the region and, more broadly, the prospects and challenges of democratic reform. Encompassing the work of Danielle Pletka, Reuel Marc Gerecht, Michael Rubin, Michael A. Ledeen, Joshua Muravchik, Richard Perle, Michael Rubin, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the program covers U.S. strategy in the Middle East and issues such as Islamic radicalism, democracy promotion, Iraqi reconstructions, Iran's nuclear intransigence, U.S.-Turkish relations, the stability of Pakistan, and the growth and influence of opposition groups throughout the area. In February, the AEI Press published Dissent and Reform in the Arab World: Empowering Democrats, a collection of essays from Arab reformers and activists. In September 2007, Mr. Ledeen's latest book, The Iranian Time Bomb: The Mullah Zealots' Quest for Destruction, was published by St. Martin's Press. The book considers Iran's ties to terrorism, its human rights violations since 1979, and the country's current domestic politics. Ms. Pletka and Mr. Kagan recently hosted a public AEI event to mark the release of their latest report, written with Kim Kagan, "Iranian Influence in the Levant, Iraq, and Afghanistan." The work details the extent and nature of Iran's activities in its near and abroad. They are currenlty directing a new "Iran Project" that will build upon and expand this report. Mr. Muravchik continues his work on Lonely Voices: Democrats of the Middle East, which will be released by Encounter next year. Mr. Rubin is writing a book tentatively titled Talking to the Enemy: The Promise and Peril of Engagement, which will illuminate the costs, benefits, and complexities of engagement as a tool of statecraft. Ms. Hirsi Ali's extraordinary memoir, Infidel, was published in the United States in February 2007, and she is currently at work on her next book, Shortcut to Enlightenment. AEI also publishes the Middle Eastern Outlook (translated into Arabic, Farsi, Kurdish, or Turkish depending on the topic). In June 2007, the AEI Press published "Europe and Islam," the Irving Kristol Lecture delivered by the West's preeminent scholar of Islam, Bernard Lewis.
Asian Studies
AEI’s Asian Studies Program includes the work of foreign policy and defense specialists Dan Blumenthal, John R. Bolton, Thomas Donnelly, Nicholas Eberstadt, Christopher Griffin, Gary J. Schmitt, and our new scholar in Japanese studies, Michael Auslin, as well as economists Claude Barfield, Kevin A. Hassett, Philip I. Levy, and John H. Makin. The program address both immediate and long-term policy issues in the Asia-Pacific region, aiming to look beyond traditional questions and explore the prospects and uncertainties of the region. AEI's scholars work to identify systemic flaws in U.S.-Asia policy concerning security, trade, economic development, democratization, and human rights issues. Current research focuses on key issues facing the region, including the rise of China as an economic and political power; Taiwan's security agenda; Japan's military transformation; the threat of a nuclear North Korea; and the impact of regional alliances and rivalries on U.S. military and economic relationships in Asia. The program also publishes the highly regarded periodic Asian Outlook; recent issues have addressed the need for trilateralism between the U.S., South Korea, and Japan; the policies of the United States and Japan toward a rapidly growing China, the role of human rights in America's approach to China, China’s containment of India, and the security of Taiwan. Mr. Schmitt is editing an essay collection entitled Rising China: Implications for Long-Term U.S. Policy, which will be published by Encounter this year. Messrs. Blumenthal and Levy will address the chasm between economic and strategic analyses that complicates government policymaking on China in a book entitled Bridging the Gap: A Project on the Future of U.S.-Sino Relations, which is expected for publication by the AEI Press in 2009.
Latin American Studies
Roger F. Noriega studies the Western Hemisphere, the region with the fastest-growing trade partners for the United States and one that is critical to U.S. security and energy concerns. He writes AEI’s Latin American Outlook (published in English and in Spanish and circulated throughout the region) and conducts regular public and private sessions on key regional issues, including democracy and the rule of law, poverty, energy policy, free trade and foreign aid, and U.S.-Latin American relations. In February 2007, Mr. Noriega organized and moderated a full-day seminar titled, "Moving Toward a Free Cuba," which examined the role the United States can play in bolstering reform and capturing economic opportunities. He also organized a private working group, bringing together democracy activists, economists, and private sector representatives to discuss current conditions in Cuba, outline political and economic transition benchmarks that the Cuban people and the international community should expect, and define a series of principles under which U.S. companies should invest or do business in Cuba. The group's findings were the subject of a public event in January, which challenged the international community to set agreed requirements for future economic engagement. Mr. Noriega's most recent Outlook discusses this critical time in Cuba's history. At the end of May, AEI hosted Anoop Singh, director of the Western Hemisphere department at the International Monetary Fund, to discuss the risks and opportunities posed by the U.S. subprime crisis to Latin America. A forthcoming, two-day conference in Monterrey, Mexico, will gather experts from the United States and Mexico to discuss issues relating to competitiveness, prosperity, and freedom.
Russian Studies
After years of progress toward liberal democracy, capitalism, and international cooperation, Russia once again poses strategic challenges for the West. Leon Aron analyzes Russia’s key social, political, and economic trends. He writes AEI’s quarterly Russian Outlook--his most recent edition examines the strategic intentions behind Russia's foreign and defense policy--and comments regularly on U.S.-Russian relations for international news and media outlets. His latest book, Russia's Revolution: Essays 1985-2006, was published in April 2007. It features a collection of his essays on recent developments in Russia. He is currently working on another book, Roads to the Temple: Ideas, Values, and Culture in the Making of a New Russia: 1987–2003, which will examine how publicly expressed visions of a just and moral society have inspired and shaped the revolt against the Soviet communist regime. The book will trace the origins and eventual triumph of the ideals of personal liberty, private property, democracy, and a limited state subjugated to civil society as the necessary conditions for a moral and prosperous life. In September 2007, Mr. Aron organized a major conference of international experts on the upcoming Duma and presidential elections in Russia and in February hosted a conference about the current state of Russia's political economy. Nicholas Eberstadt is examining the implications of Russia’s looming health and demographics crises, and Reuel Marc Gerecht wrote about why America and Europe can no longer ignore Russia in the April 2007 edition of AEI's European Outlook.
Economic Development Studies
AEI’s research on international economic development comprises the work of nearly a dozen scholars, including Roger Bate, Charles W. Calomiris, Mauro De Lorenzo, Adam Lerrick, Philip I. Levy, Allan H. Meltzer, and Paul Wolfowitz, who joined AEI in July 2007 after his tenure as president of the World Bank. AEI's program seeks to monitor and assess the programs of the U.S. and international economic development agencies, USAID, the World Bank, and the regional development banks; to understand and improve the relationship of economic development policies to security and democracy-promotion policies; and to put forward original proposals for making the economic development institutions more effective and results-oriented. Mr. De Lorenzo is working on a project that seeks to discover what U.S. development policy would be like if it were focused on enhancing the business competitiveness of poor countries, rather than on funding and managing their social spending. Recent issues of AEI's quarterly Development Policy Outlook series, edited by Mr. De Lorenzo, include essays on the political economy of taxation applied to Africa, by Deborah Brautigam; entrepreneurial philanthrophy in the developing world, by Mr. De Lorenzo and Apoorva Shah; foreign aid in sub-Saharan Africa, by Sarath Rajapatirana and Deepak Lal; and how to allocate and measure the effectiveness of bilateral foreign assistance, by Mr. Levy.
National Sovereignty and Global Governance
How the United States, Europe, and other regions in the world approach ventures in global governance has profound implications for national sovereignty and the strength of international institutions. Through publications and conferences, AEI analyzes the impact of global governance on politics, economic welfare, counterterrorism, and foreign policy interests. Comprising the work of Claude Barfield, Mauro De Lorenzo, Joshua Muravchik, and Visiting Scholar John Yoo, the program is concerned with such topics as the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, terrorism and the laws of war, and the growing influence of formal and informal international law on domestic legislation. John R. Bolton, former U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, joined AEI in January 2007 as a senior fellow, further bolstering this already robust program of study. His New York Times bestselling book, Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad, was published by Simon and Schuster in November 2007. AEI and the Federalist Society have recently launched a joint project, Global Governance Watch (www.globalgovernancewatch.org), a web-based resource that addresses issues of transparency and accountability in the United Nations, NGOs, and related international organizations.
Other sections of AEI's current research highlights:
