The U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) and AEI will be launching a new HRNK report entitled, “Marked For Life: Songbun, North Korea’s Social Classification System,” which will be discussed at this event. The panel will also examine the extent to which the growing reliance on money and bribery is eroding the songbun system’s influence.

Is global governance fundamentally different from earlier forms of international cooperation? Is it a necessary response to the effects of globalization? Does the U.S. Constitution limit the ways the United States can engage in global governance? The AEI Project on Sovereignty will explore the effects of globalization on international law, institutions and the Constitution. 

How do civil society organizations operate in the authoritarian environment of Vladimir Putin’s “sovereign democracy?”  To what extent are they able to further their causes despite pervasive corruption and the rule of courts that take their cues from the Kremlin?

AEI’s Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies will host Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter for a timely discussion of U.S. defense budgets, of the changing strategic landscape in the U.S. and the force that this landscape demands.

After placing a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, President Obama took special note in his Memorial Day remarks that the war in Afghanistan was “winding down” and our troops were on their way “home.” This has been a constant refrain of the president for the past month....

The Cold War is an increasingly distant memory in American military minds, except in the minds of the arms control community, and in particular those who seek the elimination of nuclear weapons. Alas, our president is a member in good standing of this community—indeed, an organizer.

By decade’s end, the United States will be spending more to service its debt annually than on national defense.

Barack Obama’s presidency has had profoundly negative consequences for our national security. From debilitating cuts in defense budgets, to gutting national missile defense efforts, to his unwillingness to acknowledge a continuing war against terrorism, to his inability to stem the nuclear proliferation threats posed by North Korea and Iran....the picture is bleak.