Search results for ""Hoover Institution Press,U.S.""

Having undergone a transition from military authoritarian rule in 1987, Korea quickly became the most powerful democracy in East Asia other than Japan. But the onset of a major economic crisis revealed the dark side of the Korean model of democracy. With that crisis—and the subsequent election of the country’s most determined opposition figure as president—serious questions have arisen about the new democracy’s vitality. Institutional Reform and Democratic Consolidation in Korea examines the problems and prospects of democracy in Korea a decade after the transition from military authoritarian rule, including the key factors shaping the quality and viability of Korean democracy. The authors evaluate the reform agenda of recent years and explain: Why the current electoral system is deficient in producing an effective government How the current system of local government autonomy is in fact just a variation of past authoritarian central control—under the guise of democracy Why Korea will remain vulnerable to renewed economic crisis unless it can better address the fundamental structural flaws that hamper its economic competitiveness and the integrity of its financial system What steps have been taken to curtail the power of the deeply entrenched military, bureaucratic, and big business domination Why the National Assembly is neither autonomous nor capable of managing internal conflicts according to the rules of the democratic game How the Korean media moved out from under authoritarian government influence only to become diminished by a new commercialism and sensationalism How a new civic mobilization among the people has deepened democracy and contributed to democratic consolidation in Korea Why the previous government administration failed to prevent the economic crisis despite signs of troubled economic foundations What measures the new government should pursue to resolve the economic crisis and revive this once-prosperous democratic model Institutional Reform and Democratic Consolidation in Korea presents a wide-ranging and balanced account of the political, economic, and cultural factors shaping Korean democracy and of the institutional reforms that are needed to deepen and consolidate this crucial experiment with democracy in East Asia

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Fixing Russia's Banks documents how Russia's financial system is built on what Michael S. Bernstam and Alvin Rabushka call ersatz banks. These inferior imitation banks have served largely as tools of the government to redistribute public funds to favored firms. The highly vaunted achievements of privatization, removal of price controls, and foreign trade liberalization have failed to produce growth because of a lack of private financing. National income has declined nearly 40 percent since 1992, with no recovery in sight.

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Imposters in the Temple, a hard-hitting, eye-opening book about the intellectual and moral decay of American universities and colleges, has been updated and expanded in this new paperback edition from the Hoover Institution Press. Martin Anderson—a former White House policy adviser to Presidents Nixon and Reagan and a member of the academic world for more than three decades—takes U.S. academics to task in this powerful book, which has been hailed for its scope and clarity. Topics include the corrupt practices now rampant in our universities; how professors have abandoned the classroom, turning over much of their teaching responsibilities to unqualified students; and how intellectual standards, in both grading and research, have sunk to new lows. Anderson offers a bold blueprint for restoring the intellectual integrity of American universities, one that would allow them to achieve the greatness they are capable of. He concludes on an optimistic note, pointing out that many of our elite universities have recognized the seriousness of the intellectual declines that took place during the 1970s and 1980s and are beginning, quietly and slowly, to clean their academic houses.

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Thirteen essays by acknowledged economic experts explore the rapid changes in the transition economies of Eastern Europe, with discussions on political and economic freedom, monetary control and privatization, labor markets and social safety nets, and taxation and crime.

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Fix the U. S. Budget! is a firsthand account of the crucial and extraordinary events surrounding the federal budget during the 1980s. Miller's memoir is an original contribution to our understanding of the evolution and significance of events, and he provides firm and persuasive recommendations for fixing the U.S. budget.

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Solzhenitsyn in Exile rises out of the aiding interest in Solzhenitsyn: the political image, the writer, and the man. There are four aspects to this volume: the change in attitude toward Solzhenitsyn in the West after his expulsion from the USSR; literary criticism of his oeuvre since his expulsion from Russia; newly translated memoirs and interviews; and bibliographies of works about Solzhenitsyn and his writings.

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In the papers collected in Education: Assumptions versus History, Dr. Thomas Sowell takes a hard look at the state of education in our schools and universities. His imperative is to test the assumptions underlying contemporary educational policies and innovations against the historical and contemporary evidence.In a well-reasoned and engaging style, Sowell discusses the controversies over affirmative action, race and IQ, tuition tax credits and academic tenure. The experiences of blacks and other ethnic groups in the American educational system are examined closely to identify the factors and patterns behind both success and failure. In writing of the bitter controversy over black intelligence, he asks if there "was really anything to explain? Is there anything peculiar about either the level or the pattern of black IQs? " when compared to other groups. The author addresses university education in several essays, including one that uses the insights of Thorstein Veblen's classic 1918 work, Higher Education in America, to assess the condition of the modern university.

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Many papers included in this volume express skepticism regarding both the diagnosis of the American health system as fundamentally ailing and the prescription of greater public intervention in the financing and delivery of medical services as the remedy and sure path to recovery.

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Chester E. Finn, Jr. outlines the issues that define, animate, and complicate today's contentious pre-kindergarten debate in American education. He examines such topics as: which children really need it; how many aren't getting it; who should provide it and at what expense; what is the right balance between education and child care; and how to know whether it is succeeding.

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With the Obama administration in the White House and an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress, passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) appears likely. But it can and should be stopped if at all possible, given the adverse impact that it will have on the workplace and the overall economy. In The Case against the Employee Free Choice Act, Richard Epstein examines this proposed legislation and why it is a large step backward in labor relations that will work to the detriment of employees, employers, and the public at large.

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Drawn from presentations made at the Hoover Institution's October 2007 conference, this collection of essays examines the practical steps necessary to address the current security challenges of nuclear weapons and to move toward the Reykjavik goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons. The distinguished group of contributors includes former officials of the past six administrations—Republican and Democratic—along with senior scholar and scientific experts on nuclear issues.

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This collection of twenty-five essays written over the past five years by international economic policy expert Charles Wolf Jr. covers a range of worldwide economic, political, security, and diplomatic issues. Wolf looks at the challenges facing the United States at home and around the globe including critical issues regarding China, Japan, Korea, Russia, Iraq, and other key locales. Throughout the book, the author offers his often-controversial viewpoints, such as his assertion that ""unilateralism"" in U.S. national security policy may sometimes be preferable to multilateralism or that the erroneous expectation that Iraq possessed nuclear weapons does not imply that the intelligence leading to this expectation was flawed. Wolf reexamines each essay in the light of later developments with a ""postaudit"" comment to address whether the original argument is still valid and relevant compared with when it was first written.

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Drawn from presentations at the Hoover Institution's conference on the twentieth anniversary of the Reykjavik summit, this collection of essays examines the legacy of that historic meeting between President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. The contributors discuss the new nuclear era and what the lessons of Reykjavik can mean for today's nuclear arms control efforts.

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Western broadcasts had a remarkable impact in the USSR and Eastern Europe during the cold war reaching both mass audiences and key elites. The effectiveness of these broadcasts was clearly attested to by the massive resources the communist regimes spent in trying to counter them.Communicating with the World of Islam draws from the lessons learned in the cold war broadcasting experience to suggest the best ways of organizing U.S. efforts to communicate with Islamic people around the globe.Drawn from discussions at the seminar "Communicating with the Islamic World," sponsored by the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands, this report examines the impact of the Voice of America, Radio Liberty, the BBC, Radio Free Europe, and other broadcasting tools had and suggests how the United States can use these instruments today to counter extremism effectively, promote democracy, and improve understanding of the United States in the Islamic world.It details current broadcasting efforts into Islamic countries and the Muslim communities of Europe and explains each of the critical factors necessary to influence the world of Islam in a positive direction, such as stressing women's content programming, maintaining pressure on the rulers of Qatar over the content and programming of Al Jazeera, and keeping news content candid, tailored to local audiences, and unsparingly accurate.

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In August 2005, Israel withdrew its settlements—some 8,000 Jews—from Gaza. In Israel's Unilateralism, award-winning journalist Robert Zelnick examines Israel's disengagement from Gaza and what it might lead to in the future. He offers a detailed account of the actual pullout, explains the evolution of the thought behind the policy, and analyzes the Palestinian response from both moderates and Hamas. Zelnick looks at the factors that led to the metamorphosis of Ariel Sharon—the indispensable party to this policy—revealing how demographics, the specter of Road Map negotiations, and Sharon's search for a legacy all played a part in his about-face and weighs the impact of the loss of Sharon.The author describes the exceptionally active and important period of politics and diplomacy that resulted from the Gaza pullout, including the collapse of Abu Mazen's efforts to placate Hamas and Sharon's push to form the new centrist Kadima Party. He details the roles of Hamas and the Israeli settlers, showing how each side represented the fundamental grievances of this ongoing conflict And he considers where the disengagement might go in the future under given conditions, underscoring the politically realist-minded assumptions that continue to drive the policy forward.

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A pariah during the Cold War, Radio Liberty was ultimately accepted as a legitimate participant on the Russian media scene by the authorities themselves. How did it happen that Radio Liberty—once the most vilified of Western broadcasters in the Soviet Union—had amassed such a vast audience that it was able to experience its finest hour defending the same democratic forces that it had nurtured over almost four decades of broadcasting?Based on more than 50,000 interviews conducted with Soviet citizens traveling outside the USSR during the period 1972–1990, this book attempts to answer the question from the listeners' perspective: How many listeners were there? Who were they? Why did they listen? How did they listen? What did the broadcasts mean to them? Did they make a difference? The author addresses audience size and listening trends over time, the position Western radio occupied in the Soviet media environment, listeners' demographic traits and attitudes, the evolution of the image of different Western broadcasters, and listeners' programming preferences. Through six brief case studies, he also looks at the role of Western radio in various crisis situations.The book concludes with some observations about the ultimate impact of Western radio and Radio Liberty—what they actually meant to their listeners and how their influence may have inspired or reinforced other tendencies at work in the USSR as it moved toward a freer society.

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Since September 11, 2001, the attitudes of Europeans toward the United States have grown increasingly more negative. For many in Europe, the terrorist attack on New York City was seen as evidence of how American behavior elicits hostility—and how it would be up to Americans to repent and change their ways. Yet, as this book argues, the deep cultural roots of European anti-Americanism predate contemporary partisan concerns. In this revealing look at the deep divide that has emerged, Russell Berman explores the various dimensions of contemporary European anti-Americanism.The author shows how, as the process of post-cold war European unification has progressed, anti-Americanism has proven a useful ideology for the definition of a new European identity. He examines this emerging identity and shows how it has led to a position hostile to any "regime change" by the United States—no matter how bad the regime may be. And he details the elements—some cultural, some simply irrational—of this disturbing movement and tells why it is likely to remain a feature of relations between the United States and Europe for the foreseeable future.Anti-Americanism in Western Europe is not just a friendly disagreement, but a widening chasm. This book makes a major contribution to understanding this important ideological challenge.

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In the most anticipated decision of its 2002 term, the Supreme Court ruled that the school voucher program in Cleveland, Ohio, did not violate the Constitution's ban on the "establishment" of religion. In this book, the authors examine the meaning of the Supreme Court decision and consider the new political and policy context it has created.

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This book assesses the changes that have occurred in the twenty years since A Nation at Risk, which urged major reforms in American education, was issued by the National Education Commission. It offers recommendations based on three core principles—accountability, choice, and transparency—that can reinvigorate the system and rekindle America's confidence in public education.

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Twenty years ago, the National Commission on Excellence in Education delivered a shocking report called A Nation at Risk, which awakened millions of Americans to a national crisis in primary and secondary education. But today, while reverberations from that report are still being felt, solid and conclusive reforms in American primary and secondary education remain elusive. Why?In Our Schools and Our Future, the Koret Task Force on K–12 Education looks at the response to the commission's report and analyzes why it produced so much activity and so little improvement. Among their findings, the members of the task force reveal how many bold reform proposals have been implemented in limited and piecemeal fashion. They conclude that fundamental changes are needed in the incentive structure and power relationships of schooling itself and offer recommendations based in three core principles: accountability, choice, and transparency. Accountability, they explain, will mean that everyone in the system will know what results are expected, how they will be measured, and what will happen if results are not attained. Choice will bring freedom, diversity, and innovation. Transparency will yield the information needed to assure both top-down accountability and a viable marketplace of methods and ideas. The results of these three taken together, they assert, will be a reinvigorated yet very different system that will rekindle Americans' confidence in public education.

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Drawing on the thoughts of various philosophers, political thinkers, economists, and lawyers, Terry Anderson and Laura Huggins present a blueprint for the nonexpert-expert on how societies can encourage or discourage freedom and prosperity through their property rights institutions. This Hoover Classic edition of Property Rightsdetails step-by-step what property rights are, what they do, how they evolve, how they can be protected, and how they promote freedom and prosperity.

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Although educators and school boards sometimes resist the idea, accountability is sorely needed in America's schools. Our students are falling behind those in other countries, yet compared to their foreign counterparts, our schools remain subject to little accountability. The U.S. school system lacks the marketplace accountability of schools competing with one another and the further accountability of large-scale examination systems, both of which are associated with high achievement. It is clear that after a quarter century of poor progress in educational productivity, the time has come for high academic standards and accountability.

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This review of the furious national debate over school choice examines the benefits of choice for children, families, and schools—and shows how properly designed choice programs can prevent the harmful outcomes opponents fear.

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A team of expert contributors analyze the near- and long-term implications of efforts by both the Obama and Bush administrations to fix the current financial crisis. They examine a range of issues affected by the proposed reforms, including health care, ""going green,"" the Employee Free Choice Act, an openFew doubt the seriousness of the recent crisis afflicting the financial systems of the United States and the world, and still fewer claim that nothing needs to be fixed. But many of the reforms proposed by both the Bush and Obama administrations have triggered risks—risks that have direct, short-term impact but that have been seriously underexplored. In Reacting to the Spending Spree, a team of expert contributors examines the implications of these reforms and how they might affect a number of issues.Terry Anderson and Gary Libecap argue, for instance, that the administration has not been candid with the American public about the costs of the "green" initiatives or about the likelihood of their ability to improve the environment and that these initiatives are likely to encourage protectionism, reduce international trade, and hence slow the recovery of the U.S. and world economies. James Huffman asserts that the "mad flurry" of infrastructure funding has simply led to a rush for the money, with no rational system for ensuring that the stated goals are achieved. And Richard Epstein examines the two major health-care policy initiatives and claims that both are too costly, as no government can successfully devise rules to constrain demand while seeking to drive to zero the health-care costs of recipients.Kevin Hassett offers his views on upcoming tax reforms, raising the key question: Will they be a simple extension of the more-popular preexisting policies or reforms that are guided by the academic consensus? The answer, he says, will depend on our new president's economic philosophy. In addition, Charles W. Calomiris looks at bank regulatory reform, F. Scott Kieff and Henry E. Smith analyze the important but often-overlooked debate on patent reform, and Jagdish Bhagwati offers his views on the challenges of embracing an open world economy.Ultimately, Reacting to the Spending Spree shows that it is important for the government to very soon pick one set of institutions, boldly similar or different from those our society has long used, and then stick to whatever it selects-for the costs of the vast uncertainties caused by ongoing change outweigh whatever benefits may come from tinkering further.Terry Anderson is the John and Jean De Nault Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the executive director of PERC—the Property and Environment Research Center—a think tank in Bozeman, Montana, that focuses on market solutions to environmental problems.Contributors: Jagdish Bhagwati, Charles W. Calomiris, Richard A. Epstein, Stephen H. Haber, Kevin Hassett, James Huffman, F. Scott Kieff, Gary D. Libecap, and Henry E. Smith world economy, and more.

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The half century covered by Raoul Bossy's diaries and memoirs was one of major upheaval in the world, particularly in Eastern Europe. A keen and witty observer, Bossy faithfully recorded the reactions of informed people to the then unfolding international events. His recollections begin in 1918, when Bossy entered the Romanian diplomatic service as a lowly attaché and began his climb through the ranks: cabinet chief of the minister of foreign affairs to political director of the prime minister's office to secretary-general of the Romanian regency. By the early 1940s he achieved what was at that time the most important posting for a Romanian diplomat—envoy to Berlin.

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This book explores a wide range of critical areas in education, examines the basic nature of our education problems, provides a clear understanding of underperformance, and proposes reasonable and effective strategies for success.

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Currency Unions reviews the traditional case for flexible exchange rates and "countercyclical"—that is, expansionary during recessions and contractionary in booms—monetary policy, and shows how flexible exchange rate regimes can better insulate the economy from such real disturbances as terms-of-trade shocks. The book also looks at the pitfalls of flexible exchange rates—and why fixed rates, particularly full dollarization—might be a more sensible choice for some emerging-market countries. The contributors also detail the factors that determine the optimal sizes of currency unions, explain how currency union greatly expands the volume of international trade among its members, and examine the recent implementation of dollarization in Ecuador.

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A century ago, the Soviet Union faced a catastrophic famine, brought on by the disruptions of the First World War and the Russian Revolution, draconian Soviet economic policies, and a severe drought. As millions of people faced starvation and hunger-related disease, the Russian writer Maxim Gorky issued an appeal for help, asking "all honest European and American people for prompt aid to the Russian people. Give bread and medicine." One person was uniquely situated to answer the call: Herbert Hoover, chair of the American Relief Administration (ARA), who had achieved worldwide fame as the organizer and administrator of large-scale humanitarian relief operations during and following World War I.American relief helped millions survive the famine of 1921–23. While the role of food aid has been well documented, Bread + Medicine focuses on the lesser-known story of America's medical intervention, including a large-scale vaccination drive, and treatment of famine-related diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and typhus and hunger-related deficiency diseases, especially among children. The ARA's medical relief program proved essential to the overall success of its mission. Bread + Medicine, richly illustrated with photographs, posters, and documents from the Hoover Archives, tells that story in vivid detail.

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Sidney Drell (1926-2016) left a legacy worthy of many lifetimes. Physicist, professor, national security expert, amateur musician, behind-the-scenes diplomat, and champion for peace and human rights, he was also friend and mentor. Dozens of interviews with those whose lives he touched reveal Drell as a man of brilliance, curiosity, and passions, whose devotion to the arts, family, and community equaled his love for physics.Teaching at Stanford University and working at its linear particle accelerator, Drell made significant scientific contributions. Not content to leave science in the lab or classroom, Drell brought his intellectual heft to public service, advising the US government on issues relating to science, advocating for Russian dissident Andrei Sakharov, and urging nuclear disarmament. Scaling the heights of achievement with a down-to-earth sensibility, Drell met his destiny empowered and validated by a prodigious mind, generous spirit, and tact in fostering goodwill for the benefit of all.

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The Battalion Artist explores the three years, three months, and three days of Nat Bellantoni's life on the Pacific front in World War II. He had known since childhood that he wanted to be-that he in fact was-an artist. When he packed his seabag and took leave of his family and his sweetheart to go to war, he knew that the best way to manage the narrative of his life and to cope with the ups and downs of his feelings was to create images-visual records that spoke of what he felt, as well as what he saw. In this stunning book filled with authentic World War II images-many in full color-we see and feel the intensity of wartime life through the eyes of a talented young artist who was also a US Navy Seabee. Natale Bellantoni, a young art student from Boston, sailed across the Pacific in 1943-45 and returned home with a sea chest of art and photographs documenting his experiences in New Caledonia, New Guinea, the Admiralty Islands, and Okinawa. His subject matter was his daily life: endless weeks at sea, harbors and ships, men at work, airstrips, the local countryside, and the view of enemy planes overhead at night from his fox hole. Now collected in a lavishly illustrated volume, his watercolors, sketches, and photographs offer a window onto one of the most significant moments in American history. The Battalion Artist explores the World War II experiences of Nat Bellantoni, but it reflects the story of an entire generation.

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We Shot the War: Overseas Weekly in Vietnam examines the legacy of one of the most popular and eccentric newspapers to cover the Vietnam War. With its mix of hard-hitting military exposés, pinups, and comic strips, Overseas Weekly earned a reputation as a muckraking truth teller. Time magazine called it “the least popular publication at the Pentagon.” From 1966 to 1972, the paper’s reporters and photographers tackled controversial topics, including courts-martial, racial discrimination, drug use, and opposition to command. And they published some of the most intimate portraits of American GIs and Vietnamese civilians, taken with the specific purpose of documenting the daily life of individuals caught in the world’s most grueling and disputed conflict. Through striking photographs and personal essays, We Shot the War brings viewers behind the viewfinders of photojournalists who covered the conflict and introduces readers to two extraordinary women: founder Marion von Rospach and Saigon office bureau chief Ann Bryan. Together, they fought for the right of women to report in combat zones and argued against media censorship.

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In Revolution and Aftermath: Forging a New Strategy toward Iran, Eric Edelman and Ray Takeyh examine one of the most underappreciated forces that has shaped modern US foreign policy: American-Iranian relations. They argue that America’s flawed reading of Iran’s domestic politics has hamstrung decades of US diplomacy, resulting in humiliations and setbacks ranging from the 1979–81 hostage crisis to Barack Obama’s concession-laden nuclear weapons deal. What presidents and diplomats have repeatedly failed to grasp, they write, is that “the Islamic Republic is a revolutionary state whose entire identity is invested in its hostility toward the West.” To illuminate a path forward for American-Iranian relations, the authors address some of the most persistent myths about Iran, its ruling elite, and its people. Finally, they highlight lessons leaders can learn from America’s many missteps since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

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Since the end of the Great Recession in 2009 the central banks of the advanced countries have taken unprecedented actions to reflate and stimulate their economies. There have been significant differences in the timing and pace of these actions. These independent monetary policy actions have had significant spillover effects on the economies and monetary policy strategies of other advanced countries. In addition the monetary policy actions and interventions of the advanced countries have had a significant impact on the emerging market economies leading to the charge of 'currency wars.' The perceived negative consequences of spillovers from the actions of national central banks has led to calls for international monetary policy coordination. The arguments for coordination based on game theory are the same today as back in the 1980s, which led to accords which required that participant countries follow policies to improve global welfare at the expense of domestic fundamentals. This led to disastrous consequences. An alternative approach to the international spillovers of national monetary policy actions is to view them as deviations from rules based monetary policy. In this view a return to rules based monetary policy and a rolling back of the "" global great deviation"" by each country's central bank would lead to a beneficial policy outcome without the need for explicit policy coordination. In this book we report the results from a recent conference which brought together academics, market participants, and policy makers to focus on these issues. The consensus of much of the conference was on the need for a classic rules based reform of the international monetary system.

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In Keeping the Lights On at America's Nuclear Power Plants, Jeremy Carl and David Fedor discuss the decline of American nuclear power in light of major economic, technological and political challenges. They show how high costs, low public support, and popular clean energy trends threaten America's near- and long-term nuclear viability. American nuclear power plants are closing at a historically unprecedented pace, and there's little evidence of public or political will to stop the bleeding. Recognizing the nuclear industry's flaws, the authors argue that nuclear energy is widely misunderstood. They discuss the nuclear industry's failure to capture the public's attention and imagination, and survey the new national conversation about America's renewable energy future -- a conversation that does not include nuclear. For all these challenges, the authors argue that permanently opting out of the nuclear enterprise would be a mistake. Making the case for continued nuclear investment, they show how ""keeping the lights on"" at America's nuclear plants can bolster American technology leadership, security, and commitment to curbing carbon emissions. They offer a menu of policy options designed to spur meaningful action at state and federal levels, to change the industry's status quo, and to reintroduce nuclear to America's energy conversation.

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George P. Shultz recounts a lifetime of experiences in government, business, and academia and describes how those experiences have shaped the way he thinks about the world. In his plainspoken manner, he provides the reader with keys to understanding how he helped bring the nuclear disarmament movement into the mainstream of American policy discussions, why he urges his Republican Party colleagues to adopt measures to address climate change as an insurance policy for the future, why leaders must learn to govern over diversity, and more. Far more than a simple biography, Learning from Experience makes a unique contribution to political, social, and economic thought, offering the author's reflections on experiences that have influenced his worldview. Ranging far beyond the realm of diplomacy, Shultz's account illuminates America's race relations, defines a down-to-earth economic philosophy built on free markets and fair treatment of labor, and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of presidential leadership as observed during his government service, including four cabinet posts, in the Eisenhower, Nixon, and Reagan administrations.

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In Hammer, Sickle, and Soil, Jonathan Daly tells the harrowing story of Stalin’s transformation of millions of family farms throughout the USSR into 250,000 collective farms during the period from 1929 to 1933. History’s biggest experiment in social engineering at the time and the first example of the complete conquest of the bulk of a population by its rulers, the policy was above all intended to bring to Russia Marx’s promised bright future of socialism. In the process, however, it caused widespread peasant unrest, massive relocations, and ultimately led to millions dying in the famine of 1932–33. Drawing on scholarly studies and primary-source collections published since the opening of the Soviet archives three decades ago, now, for the first time, this volume offers an accessible and accurate narrative for the general reader. The book is illustrated with propaganda posters from the period that graphically portray the drama and trauma of the revolution in Soviet agriculture under Stalin. In chilling detail the author describes how the havoc and destruction wrought in the countryside sowed the seeds of destruction of the entire Soviet experiment.

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Today, American ""rugged individualism"" is in a fight for its life on two battlegrounds: in the policy realm and in the intellectual world of ideas that may lead to new policies. In this book, the authors look at the political context in which rugged individualism flourishes or declines and offer a balanced assessment of its future prospects. They outline its path from its founding—marked by the Declaration of Independence—to today, focusing on different periods in our history when rugged individualism was thriving or was under attack. The authors ultimately look with some optimism toward new frontiers of the twenty-first century that may nourish rugged individualism. They assert that we cannot tip the delicate balance between equality and liberty so heavily in favor of equality that there is no liberty left for individual Americans to enjoy. In considering reasons to be pessimistic as well as reasons to be optimistic about it, they also suggest where supporters of rugged individualism might focus greater encouragement and resources.

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Throughout the world today there are obvious trouble spots that have the potential to explode into serious conflicts at any time in the immediate or distant future. This study examines what history suggests about the future possibilities and characteristics of war and the place that thinking about conflict deserves in the formation of American strategy in coming decades. The author offers a historical perspective to show that armed conflict between organized political groups has been mankind’s constant companion and that America must remain prepared to use its military power to deal with an unstable, uncertain, and fractious world. Williamson Murray shows that while there are aspects of human conflict that will not change no matter what advances in technology or computing power may occur, the character of war appears to be changing at an increasingly rapid pace with scientific advances providing new and more complex weapons, means of production, communications, and sensors, and myriad other inventions, all capable of altering the character of the battle space in unexpected fashions. He explains why the past is crucial to understanding many of the possibilities that lie in wait, as well as for any examination of the course of American strategy and military performance in the future—and warns that the moral and human results of the failure of American politicians and military leaders to recognize the implications of the past are already apparent.

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Providing an often-overlooked historical perspective, Gordon Lloyd and David Davenport show how the New Deal of the 1930s established the framework for today’s U.S. domestic policy and the ongoing debate between progressives and conservatives. They examine the pivotal issues of the dispute, laying out the progressive-conservative arguments between Hoover and Roosevelt in the 1930s and illustrating how those issues remain current in public policy today. The authors detail how Hoover, alarmed by the excesses of the New Deal, pointed to the ideas that would constitute modern U.S. conservatism and how three pillars—liberty, limited government, and constitutionalism—formed his case against the New Deal and, in turn, became the underlying philosophy of conservatism today. Illustrating how the debates between Franklin Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover were conducted much like the campaign rhetoric of liberals and conservatives in 2012, Lloyd and Davenport assert that conservatives must, to be a viable part of the national conversation, “go back to come back”—because our history contains signposts for the way forward.

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Social conservatives and libertarians: Is a meeting of the minds possible?Feuding among US conservatives for the title True Conservative is nothing new. Underlying the feud has been a failure to grasp that conservatism in America forms a family of principles that require accommodation: to each other, to the exigencies of the moment, and to the changing habits and opinions of the American people. In Constitutional Conservatism, Peter Berkowitz identifies the political principles social conservatives and libertarians share, or should share, and sketches the common ground on which they can and should join forces.Drawing on the writings of Edmund Burke, The Federalist, and the high points of post-War II American conservatism, Berkowitz argues that the top political priority for social conservatives and libertarians should be to rally around the principles of liberty crystallized in the US Constitution and pursue reform in light of them. He shows that this task depends on the cultivation of the virtue of political moderation, which at its peak consists in the balancing of rival but worthy principles. He concludes that constitutional conservatism, well understood, provides a sturdy framework for developing a distinctive political agenda to which both social conservatives and libertarian conservatives can in good conscience subscribe.

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Former Nixon and Reagan cabinet member George Shultz offers his views on how to govern more effectively, get our economy back on track, take advantage of new opportunities in the energy field, combat the use of addictive drugs, apply a strategic overview to diplomacy, and identify necessary steps to achieve a world without nuclear weapons. If we can successfully handle each of these issues, Shultz explains, we in the United States and people in the rest of the world will have the prospect of a better future.

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The threat posed by Iran to international peace and security is approaching a crisis. After compiling a thirty-year record as the world’s most active supporter of terrorism, Iran seems determined to develop nuclear weapons. In Taking on Iran, Abraham D. Sofaer argues that US policy toward Iran cannot be restricted to a strategy based on the two costly and potentially ineffective options of attacking Iran’s nuclear programme or containing a nuclear-armed Iran. Economic sanctions and ineffective diplomacy have failed to convince Iran to abandon its nuclear arms ambitions. Sofaer explains that the United States should add to the pressure on Iran, going beyond economic sanctions and responding forcefully to Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) aggression, increasing the likelihood that Iran will negotiate in earnest and enabling the United States to engage Iran in the disciplined manner required for success. The author outlines thirty years of IRGC aggression and the corresponding thirty years of US weakness by both Republican and Democratic administrations. Drawing from experience in dealing with the Soviet Union during the Reagan administration, he demonstrates that combining strength and diplomacy is the option most likely to convince Iran to comply with international law without either the war necessary to end Iran’s nuclear programme or the danger in attempting to contain Iran after it acquires nuclear weapons.

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When presidents name justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, they may be making significant decisions in terms of the lasting and direct impact on the American people and their freedoms. Yet although for those reasons the appointment of Supreme Court justices and other federal judges should be a central factor in choosing a president, judicial selection usually plays an invisible role in presidential campaigns. In this book, Clint Bolick sheds lights on why every American has a vital and direct interest in the appointment and confirmation of federal judges—which raises greatly the stakes in electing those individuals who have the power and responsibility to appoint and confirm them. Looking at Supreme Court decisions of the past two hundred years as well as current decisions on the most contentious issues of the day, Bolick explains why judicial nominations are more ideologically driven than ever before and why recent presidents have proved more successful than their predecessors in appointing judges who reflect their judicial philosophies. Two-Fer clearly shows why the shaping of the judiciary is often the most important decision a president will make—and why her or his nominations will have tangible consequences for generations to come.

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Nationally syndicated columnist and prolific author Walter E. Williams recalls some of the highlights and turning points of his life. From his lower middle class beginnings in a mixed but predominantly black neighborhood in West Philadelphia to his department chair at George Mason University, Williams tells an “only in America” story of a life of achievement.Williams describes the influences of his early years—such as the teachers who demanded his best efforts and made no excuses for him—and tells how his two years in the army became an important part of his maturation process, in spite of the racism he encountered. He recounts his early time getting established in Los Angeles—getting his B.A., going on to grad school at UCLA, and beginning his teaching career. And he tells how his subsequent move to the Urban Institute in Washington opened his eyes to how decisions are really made in D.C. When he recounts ultimately accepting his professorship appointment at George Mason University, the author marvels that “I never thought I’d be working there thirty years later.” And throughout the book, Willams refers to the immeasurable contribution of his wife of 48 years, who shared his vision through hard work and love.

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The promise of democracy for Muslims offers something historically unparalleled. But how powerful is the idea of democracy in the Middle East? Could the region actually be at the beginning of a democratic wave, or is a “democratic recession” under way in Islamic lands? In The Wave, Middle East expert Reuel Marc Gerecht argues that the Middle East may actually be at the beginning of a momentous democratic wave whose convulsions could become the region’s defining theme during Obama’s presidency. He describes the powerful Middle Eastern democratic movements coming from both the secular left and the religious right and asserts that America must reassess democracy’s supposed lack of a future in the region.The author explains the importance of those countries that hold the keys to the success or failure of democracy in the region, most notably Egypt, Turkey, Iran, and the United States. He tells why mainstream Islamist groups today see elections, not revolution, as a means for society to maintain akhlaq: the mores that define good Muslims. And he shows why any legitimate form of government in the contemporary Arab Middle East must be seen to be complementary to the Prophet Muhammad’s legacy and the Holy Law. If democracy is to succeed in Arab lands, he concludes, it will be because devout Arabs have decided that their faith and representative government can meld.

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Drawn from the Hoover Institution’s Shultz-Stephenson Task Force on Energy Policy January 2010 conference, this book discusses critical energy issues including, energy and synthetic biology, cap and trade and carbon tax policies, energy efficiency, international energy relationships, and other key topics. The contributors present a range of ideas and recommendations that might improve the performance of the United States in responding to the energy challenge.

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Ten years after 9/11, the least reformed part of America's intelligence system is not the CIA or FBI but the US Congress. In Eyes on Spies, Amy Zegart examines the weaknesses of U.S. intelligence oversight and why those deficiencies have persisted, despite the unprecedented importance of intelligence in today's environment. She argues that many of the biggest oversight problems lie with Congress—the institution, not the parties or personalities—showing how Congress has collectively and persistently tied its own hands in overseeing intelligence.Supporting sound logic with extensive data, the author offers a comparative analysis of oversight activities of intelligence with other policy areas to show that Congress is not overseeing nearly as much in intelligence as in other policy domains. Electoral incentives, she reveals, explain why. Zegart also identifies two key institutional weaknesses: one, the rules, procedures, and practices that have hindered the development of legislative expertise in intelligence and, two, committee jurisdictions and policies that have fragmented Congress's budgetary power over executive branch intelligence agencies. She concludes that, unfortunately, electoral incentives on the outside and the zero-sum nature of committee power on the inside provide powerful reasons for Congress to continue hobbling its own oversight capabilities.

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