Resident Fellow  Ayaan Hirsi Ali

For her work exploring the philosophical roots of radical Islam's confrontation with the free world, Ayaan Hirsi Ali was named one of the world's top one hundred public intellectuals by Foreign Policy magazine. Among other "thinkers who are shaping the tenor of our time" were journalist and historian Anne Applebaum, an adjunct fellow at AEI, and eminent political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, a member of AEI's Council of Academic Advisers.

Antonia Patriota

On April 17, Brazilian ambassador to the United States Antonio Patriota spoke at AEI about Brazil's economic and political progress under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. But Patriota cautioned that Brazil faces challenges, particularly with inflation, deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, and political reform. He noted that Brazil has taken a lead in salvaging the Doha trade talks: "I believe that the rationale for concluding Doha is very, very strong." Late last year, AEI's Roger F. Noriega wrote in Folha de S.Paulo, Latin America's most widely circulated daily, that "Lula succeeds by proving that it is not necessary to sacrifice freedom for stability and there is no reason to surrender political liberty for economic opportunity."

Danielle Pletka, vice president for foreign and defense policy studies

Several analysts of North Korea examined the Bush administration's recent record in dealing with the Kim Jong Il regime at an April 30 panel. Carolyn Leddy, a former official at the National Security Council, offered a blistering critique: "I say it's probably about ten in favor of North Korea, zero for the Bush administration at this point. . . . The administration's rhetoric has never matched the reality of its policy decisions." In a May On the Issues, John R. Bolton and Danielle Pletka explore the collapse of the hard line on Pyongyang and its consequences for worldwide nuclear proliferation.

Newt Gingrich and Michael Barone, both prolific op-ed writers and frequent television news commentators, were named by London's Daily Telegraph to a list of America's most influential political pundits.

Edward Pietrzyk, the Polish ambassador to Iraq, addressed AEI on May 12 on the impending finale of Poland's military presence in Iraq and offered observations on the situation on the ground. He commented on how Polish forces have contributed materially to the mission in Iraq over the past five years and how Polish-American cooperation in Iraq can inform future multilateral counterinsurgency operations.

W. H. Brady Scholar  Charles Murray

In the May issue of The New Criterion, Charles Murray decries the "educational romanticism"--that is, the belief that all underachieving schoolchildren can reach proficiency--of both the Right and the Left. He argues that educational achievement is closely tied to intellectual ability as measured by IQ. Murray describes the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) as the destructive "apotheosis" of educational romanticism but writes that its flaws are visible in NCLB's failure to bring about much educational improvement.

Polar bears are cute and charismatic, Kenneth P. Green says in a May Environmental Policy Outlook, but the campaign to list them as endangered would have serious consequences. "Such a listing would basically wall off the entire Arctic region to exploration, resource extraction, and development--at least by U.S. companies," Green writes, "and a threatened species listing would give environmental groups the ability to sue future U.S. governments to force them to reverse climate change by whatever means necessary." Kevin A. Hassett also addressed the energy challenges that would result from a polar bear listing in his syndicated Bloomberg column.

"It is exceptionalism week in the world of American think-tanks," proclaimed The Economist's "Lexington" column in April, as AEI and other policy institutes held book forums on Understanding America: The Anatomy of an Exceptional Nation (PublicAffairs, 2008), edited by Peter Schuck and AEI's James Q. Wilson. The volume marshals the best and most current social science evidence to examine America's unique central institutions, culture, and public policies. Several of the book's contributors spoke at AEI's book event on April 22, including Martha Bayles, Arthur C. Brooks, and Orlando Patterson.

Mikhail Gorbachev and John C. Fortier

John C. Fortier gave an overview of U.S. election administration at a conference held in France on April 25 about elections in Russia, the European Union, and the United States in the context of international election standards. Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev presided over the conference. 

AEI scholars do not appear only on C-SPAN or the evening news. In April, Michael Auslin put his expertise on Japan to good use as a guest judge on Iron Chef America, the U.S. version of the blockbuster Japanese game show. He gave high marks to both the resident Iron Chef and the challenger. Auslin's latest article, in the International Herald Tribune, explores tensions and opportunities in Sino-Japanese relations.