Search results for ""Hoover Institution Press""

In recent years, the term lawfare has come to describe the use of international law as a political weapon. The Goldstone Report, which was published by the United Nations in September 2009, and the Gaza flotilla controversy, which erupted at the end of May 2010, are examples of it. In both cases, UN officials, distinguished lawyers, and diplomats put forward weak or indefensible legal arguments to condemn actions taken by Israel in self-defense. In this book, Peter Berkowitz exposes these abuses of the international laws of war by bringing into focus the flawed assumptions on which they rest and refuting the defective claims they promulgate.Berkowitz shows that the Goldstone Report engaged in disreputable fact-finding and misapplied the relevant legal tests, even as its mission lacked proper foundations in international law. And he demonstrates that the arguments presented in the Gaza flotilla controversy to condemn Israel's blockade of Gaza as unlawful prove on inspection to be unsound and insubstantial. In both cases, he explains, the result has been to reward terrorists who, in gross violation of the international laws of war, deliberately efface the distinction between civilian and military objects and to punish liberal democracies—in particular Israel and the United States—that expose their soldiers and civilian populations to heightened risk in the quest to wage war lawfully.

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Twenty years ago, John Taylor proposed a simple idea to guide monetary policy. Quickly the idea spread, not only through academia, but also to the trading floors of Wall Street and the Federal Reserve's boardroom in Washington. Now, two decades later, the Taylor rule remains a focal point for discussions of monetary policy around the world. In The Taylor Rule and the Transformation of Monetary Policy, a veritable contributors' "who's who" from the academic and policy communities explain and provide perspectives on John Taylor's revolutionary thinking about monetary policy. From the Great Inflation of the 1970s through the Great Moderation of the 1980s and 1990s to the Great Deviation following the 2001 recession, the contributors analyse Taylor's influences on monetary theory and policy around the world. They explore some of the literature that Taylor inspired and help us understand how the new ways of thinking that he pioneered have influenced actual policy here and abroad.

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'A Muslim has no nationality except his religious beliefs,' said Egyptian Sayyid Qutb, a key figure in the world of political Islam who was executed by the secular regime in his homeland in 1966. For decades, the ideologues of pan-Islam have refused to accept the boundaries and the responsibilities of the order of states. In Trial of a Thousand Years, Charles Hill analyzes the long war of Islamism against the international state system. Hill places the Islamists in their proper historical place, showing that they are but the latest challenge to the requirements that states had placed on themselves since the international system was born in 1648. The author describes the many wars on world order over the modern centuries--the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, World Wars I and II, the cold war--and gives a unique historical perspective to the Islamic challenge of the twenty-first century in Iran, Afghanistan, and beyond. He concludes that America must not give up its values; neither should we retreat by declaring that we will practice them only at home or by telling ourselves that our values are no more worthy than any others selected at random from among the world's many cultures. The first step, he says, is to recognize the problem and then try to develop ways to deal with the exploitation of asymmetries by the enemies of world order.

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Herbert Hoover's "magnum opus"—at last published nearly fifty years after its completion—offers a revisionist reexamination of World War II and its cold war aftermath and a sweeping indictment of the "lost statesmanship" of Franklin Roosevelt. Hoover offers his frank evaluation of Roosevelt's foreign policies before Pearl Harbor and policies during the war, as well as an examination of the war's consequences, including the expansion of the Soviet empire at war's end and the eruption of the cold war against the Communists.

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Stewart A. Baker, a former Homeland Security official, examines the technologies we love—jet travel, computer networks, and biotech—and finds that they are likely to empower new forms of terrorism unless we change our current course a few degrees and overcome resistance to change from business, foreign governments, and privacy advocates. He draws on his Homeland Security experience to show how that was done in the case of jet travel and border security but concludes that heading off disasters in computer networks and biotech will require a hardheaded recognition that privacy must sometimes yield to security, especially as technology changes the risks to both.

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This essay unscrambles gross misconceptions that have made rational debates about tax policies virtually impossible for decades.

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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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In December 1999, more than forty members of government, industry, and academia assembled at the Hoover Institution to discuss this problem and explore possible countermeasures. The Transnational Dimension of Cyber Crime and Terrorism summarizes the conference papers and exchanges, addressing pertinent issues in chapters that include a review of the legal initiatives undertaken around the world to combat cyber crime, an exploration of the threat to civil aviation, analysis of the constitutional, legal, economic, and ethical constraints on use of technology to control cyber crime, a discussion of the ways we can achieve security objectives through international cooperation, and more. Much has been said about the threat posed by worldwide cyber crime, but little has been done to protect against it. A transnational response sufficient to meet this challenge is an immediate and compelling necessity—and this book is a critical first step in that direction.

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The essays in this volume reconsider the case of the basic tenets of the U.S. political tradition, outlined in the Declaration of Independence and expressed in much of the U.S. legal system. The authors answer the innumerable criticisms advanced against the political philosophy of natural individual human rights over the last two centuries.

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The majority of Latin American revolutionaries and guerrillas have now laid down their weapons and opted to participate in that region's democratic processes. What brought about this transformation? When the AK-47s Fall Silent brings together for the first time many of these former Latin revolutionaries from both sides of the conflicts—who tell their own stories, in their own words.

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A distinguished group of international scholars debates the state of change or continuity in North Korea's post--Kim II Sung regime--shedding light on one of the world's most closed societies, its potential to adapt to post--cold war realities, and the prospects for a peaceful and stable Korean peninsula.

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Sowell challenges all the assumptions of contemporary liberalism on issues ranging from the economy to race to education in this collection of controversial essays, and captures his thoughts on politics, race, and common sense with a section at the end for thought-provoking quotes.

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Over the past three decades the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has achieved a degree of economic development that has attracted worldwide attention. Its economy is growing at a pace that will qualify the ROC as a developed country by the turn of the century; in Asia it will be second only to Japan in per capita income. How has the economy been able to expand as rapidly as it has? What governmental policies enable it to sustain an annual growth rate that is at the forefront of the newly industrializing countries? These centrally important questions guide Schive's study of the economic modernization of Taiwan.

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This diary offers an important new perspective on the critical events leading to the end of the Chinese civil war. From September 1945 to April 1946, Chang Kia-ngau kept a daily log in the negotiations between Nationalist China and Soviet Union to recover Manchuria from Soviet military occupation. The diary reveals that the Russians actively sought Nationalist China's cooperation in rehabilitating and operating the huge industrial complex that the Japanese had built in Manchuria during the 1930s and 1940s. The Russians were willing to let Chiang Kai-shek's government take control over Manchuria if the Nationalists would pledge that only Russia would be able to exert foreign influence in Manchuria. Chang Kia-ngau's diary is an eyewitness account of how Manchuria, one of the world's greatest industrial sites, fell to the control of the Chinese Red Army and thus led to the communist victory over Chiang Kai-shek. This book will interest students of cold war rivalry, U.S. foreign policy, Soviet diplomacy, and Chinese history alike.

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Economic analysis of the many roles governments play in contemporary societies.

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The twenty-one essays in this book provide an overview of the contributions of Nobel laureate and Hoover Institution honorary fellow Friedrich A. von Hayek to the fields of economics, political theory, history, and philosophy.

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Expert contributors examine the recent actions of the Federal Reserve and suggest directions for the Fed going forward by drawing on past political, historical, and market principles. They explain how the Fed arrived at its current position, offer ideas on how to exit the situation, and propose new market-based reforms that can help keep the Fed on the road to good monetary policy in the future.

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A renowned educator-psychologist explains how children learn and how family, classroom, and school practices can help them learn more effectively. In addition to drawing on studies of learning outcomes, Herbert Walberg reveals economic research on teacher education and school choice that challenges many popular assumptions. He debunks many of the myths of modern education and outlines the factors that psychologists have found consistently associated with high levels of classroom learning.Walberg reveals why teachers’ classroom practices—not their credentials or experience—are what makes a true difference in student learning. He presents research, showing that young learners thrive when teachers have clear goals, plan effective activities to attain them, and measure student progress. The author also discusses the powerful influence of parents on what students learn within and outside school and how choice programs give parents a stronger role in their children’s education.

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Kori Schake examines key questions about the United States' position of power in the world, including, Why is the United States' power so threatening? Is it sustainable? Does military force still matter? How can we revise current practices to reduce the U.S. cost of managing the system? What accounts for the United States' stunning success in the round of globalization that swept across the international order at the end of the twentieth century? The author also offers suggestions on what issues the next president should focus to build an even stronger foundation of U.S. power.

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In a powerful argument for free market environmentalism, Terry Anderson and Laura Huggins break down liberal and conservative stereotypes of what it means to be an environmentalist. They show that, by forming local coalitions around market principles, stereotypes are replaced by pragmatic solutions that improve environmental quality without necessarily increasing red tape.

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Dennis Bark offers an in-depth examination of the deteriorating relationship between America and Europe: our differences and similarities, the reasons behind our conflicts, and the future of our alliance. He shows that, by learning what our essential difference teaches us about ourselves and drawing on our shared affinities, we might repair our fading relationship.

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HOW CAN WE BEGIN TO CONTROL THE RISING COSTS OF HEALTH CARE?When calculated on a per capita basis, the United States has the costliest health care system in the world. The debate rages on over how to cope with the rising costs of medical care, with proposed solutions ranging from a single-payer system with broad government control to loosely defined market-driven plans. Power to the Patient: Selected Health Care Issues and Policy Solutions looks at three key elements of health care costs - third-party payment, the realities of growth in medical spending, and the medical liability system - and offers thoughtful, realistic suggestions to help stem the tide of rising expenses for everyone.Scott W. Atlas proposes changing the nature of health care insurance so that patients make direct payments to their health care providers. The critical focus, he says, should be on empowering the patient by putting consumers in charge of their money and letting them make cost-conscious decisions about spending health care dollars.Daniel P. Kessler reviews the current debate over the medical liability system, examining three areas of proposed reforms: limits on liability, 'patients' bill of rights' proposals, and alternative reforms such as medical practice guidelines, dispute resolutions, and no-fault insurance.Mark V. Pauly looks at the reasons why real medical spending has increased and concludes that it is virtually impossible to lower costs without lowering quality of care.

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The modern laws of war that emerged in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were developed with a particular concept of war in mind—one that does not apply to the conflict with our current adversaries. With the September 11 attacks the United States found itself engaged in a new kind of war, with new dilemmas that needed new rules. Terrorism, the Laws of War, and the Constitution examines three significant enemy combatant cases—Padilla, Hamdi, and Rasul—that represent the leading edge of U.S. efforts to devise legal rules, consistent with American constitutional principles, for waging the global war on terror.The volume's distinguished contributors analyze the crucial questions these cases raise about the balance between national security and civil liberties in wartime, discuss critical separation of powers issues, and call upon the courts, the political branches, and the country to reexamine the complicated connections between the Constitution and international law. Spanning the spectrum of informed legal opinion, the essays gathered here show that debating the enemy combatant cases is indispensable to meeting the legal challenges to come in the long war that lies ahead. Although they may disagree as to the details, the contributors are in full agreement that fortifying the rule of law at home is both a demand of justice and a national security imperative.Contributors: Mark Tushnet, Patricia M. Wald, Seth P. Waxman, Ruth Wedgwood, Benjamin Wittes, John Yoo

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Politics and science make strange bedfellows. In politics, perceptions are reality and facts are negotiable. The competing interests, conflicting objectives, and trade-offs of political negotiations often lend themselves to bending the truth and selectively interpreting facts to shape outcomes. In science, facts are reality. This collection examines the conflicts that arise when politics and science converge.In Politicizing Science: The Alchemy of Policymaking, eleven leading scientists describe the politicization—through misapplication or overemphasis of results that favor a political decision or through outright manipulation—of scientific findings and deliberations to advance policy agendas. They show how the consequences of politicization are inflicted on the public, including the diversion of money and research efforts from worthwhile scientific endeavors, the costs of unnecessary regulations, and the losses of useful products—while increased power and prestige flow to those who manipulate science.The authors of three essays describe government diversions of scientific research and the interpretation of scientific findings away from where the evidence leads and toward directions deemed politically desirable. Three more contributions analyze the expensive and extensive efforts devoted to altering images of risk in order to establish linkages in the public's mind between deleterious human health effects and various areas of scientific research. Two essays examine the workings and results of consensus advisory panels and conclude that their recommendations are often based on far-from-certain science and driven by social and political dynamics that substitute group cohesion in favor of independent, critical thinking. Authors of two essays describe the unfortunate results of application of the "precautionary principle," which generally requires proof of no risk before a new product is introduced or an existing product can be continued in use. A concluding essay describes the personal costs of opposing the politicization of science.

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The authors call on the need to combine education with capitalism. Drawing on insights and findings from history, psychology, sociology, political science, and economics, they show how, if our schools were moved from the public sector to the private sector, they could once again do a superior job providing K–12 education.

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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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In this thought-provoking volume, scholars offer evidence, insights, and ideas on key policy questions affecting education—such as national exams, accountability, performance, and other vital issues, while detailing the importance of education to both the individual and society as a whole.

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In its unprecedented position as sole world superpower, the United States must judiciously consider what course to take in foreign affairs. Foreign Policy for America's Twenty-first Century: Alternative Perspectives presents six carefully crafted and bold approaches to this problem from some of the nation's foremost foreign policy experts. Chosen not for their unanimity but for their conflicting visions, these essays are written in accessible prose without esoteric language or scholarly jargon. Such issues as grand strategy, globalization, isolationism, and free trade are discussed in the context of a post-cold war world and a new century.

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Analyzing and ultimately placing in context Paul Hanna's vast contributions, this book provides a richly textured narrative of his life and his major role in twentieth-century American education and the development of modern American education.

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Marking the 75th anniversary of the first meeting of the Mont Pèlerin Society, in 1947, this volume presents for the first time the original transcripts from this landmark event. The society was created by Friedrich Hayek as a forum for leading economists and intellectuals to discuss and debate classical liberal values in the face of a rapidly changing world and political trends toward socialism. Bruce Caldwell, a major scholar of Hayek, provides an informative introduction and explanatory notes to the source documents, drawn from the Hoover Institution Library & Archives, where they have been available to scholars. Now accessible to all, the transcripts reveal what was said on a wide range of topics, including free markets, monetary reform, wage policy, taxation, agricultural policy, the future of Germany, Christianity and liberalism, and more. They provide insights into the thinking of men such as Hayek, Milton Friedman, Aaron Director, Frank Knight, Walter Eucken, Karl Popper, and other leading figures in the classical liberalism movement, illuminating not only their ideas but also their distinctive personalities. A photo section shows rarely seen images from the meeting.

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Japan's Meiji Restoration brought swift changes through Japanese adoption of Western-style modernization and imperial expansion. Fanning the Flames brings together a range of scholarly essays and collected materials from the Hoover Institution Library & Archives detailing how Japanese propaganda played an active role in fostering national identity and mobilizing grassroots participation in the country's transformation and wartime activities, starting with the First Sino-Japanese War to the end of World War II.

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As a response to the Great Depression and an expression of executive power, President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal is widely understood as a turning point in American history. In How Public Policy Became War, David Davenport and Gordon Lloyd go even further, calling the New Deal "America's French Revolution," refashioning American government and public policy in ways that have grown to epic proportions today. Roosevelt's decisions of 1933 were truly revolutionary. They reset the balance of power away from Congress and the states toward a strong executive branch. They shifted the federal government away from the Founders' vision of deliberation and moderation toward war and action. Succeeding presidents seized on the language of war to exert their will and extend their power into matters previously thought to be the province of Congress or state and local governments. Having learned that a sense of crisis is helpful in moving forward a domestic agenda, modern-day presidents have declared war on everything from poverty and drugs to crime and terror. Exploring the consequences of these ill-defined (and never-ending) wars, How Public Policy Became War calls for a re-examination of this destructive approach to governance and a return to the deliberative vision of the Founders. "If we are constantly at war," the authors write, "America becomes a nation under siege.

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The conflict between Soviet Communists and Boris Pasternak over the publication of Doctor Zhivago did not end when he won the Nobel Prize, or even when the author died. Paolo Mancosu tells how Pasternak’s expulsion from the Soviet Writers’ Union left him in financial difficulty. Milan publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli and Sergio d’Angelo, who had brought the typescript of Doctor Zhivago to Feltrinelli, were among those who arranged a smuggling operation to help him.After Pasternak’s death, Olga Ivinskaya, his companion, literary assistant, and the inspiration for Zhivago’s Lara, also received some of the Zhivago royalties. After the KGB intercepted Pasternak’s will on her behalf, the Soviets arrested and sentenced her and her daughter, Irina Emelianova, to eight years and three years of labor camp, respectively. The ensuing international outrage inspired a secret campaign in the West to win their freedom.Mancosu’s new book—the first to explore the post-Nobel history of Pasternak and Ivinskaya—provides extraordinary detail on these events, in a thrilling account that involves KGB interceptions, fabricated documents, smugglers, and much more. While a general reader will respond to the dramatic human story, specialists will be rewarded with a rich assemblage of new archival material, especially letters of Pasternak, Ivinskaya, Feltrinelli, and d’Angelo from the Hoover Institution Library and Archives and the Feltrinelli Archives in Milan.

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What caused the Financial Crisis of 2008? While government mandates and private sector mistakes did contribute to the crisis and can be blamed at least in part for what happened, this book takes a different approach. Russ Roberts argues that the true underlying cause of the mess was the past bailouts of large financial institutions that allowed these institutions to gamble carelessly because they were effectively using other people's money.The author warns that despite the passage of Dodd-Frank, it is widely believed that we have done nothing to eliminate 'Too Big to Fail.' That perception allows the largest financial institutions to continue to gamble with taxpayer money.

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In Invisible Slaves, W. Kurt Hauser discusses slavery around the world, with research and firsthand stories that reframe slavery as a modern-day crisis, not a historical phenomenon or third-world issue. Identifying four types of slavery—chattel slavery, debt bondage, forced labor, and sex slavery—he examines the efforts and failures of governments to address them. He explores the political, economic, geographic, and cultural factors that shape slavery today, illustrating the tragic human toll with individual stories. Country by country, the author illuminates the harsh realities of modern-day slavery. He explores slavery’s effects on victims, including violence, isolation, humiliation, and the master-slave relationship, and discusses the methods traffickers use to lure the vulnerable, especially children, into slavery. He assesses nations based on their levels of slavery and efforts to combat the problem, citing the rankings of the United States’ Trafficking Victims Protection Act. He concludes with an appeal to governments and ordinary citizens alike to meet this humanitarian crisis with awareness and action.

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The turmoil which has been rattling the Middle East in recent years has confronted Israel with fresh challenges and opportunities and requires it to rethink the three levels of its strategy and security policies: National security Strategy (sometimes referred to as Grand Strategy), National Security Policy and National Military Strategy. The book points to the years 1979–1981 as the years of transition from conventional military challenges faced by Israel to the novel challenges of terrorism, missiles and rockets, sub-state guerrilla organizations on its borders and the prospect of nuclear weapons in hostile hands. Some of these challenges have been exacerbated by the unraveling of neighboring Arab states. The book's review of the evolution of Israeli policies through almost seven decades of war and conflicts shows the absence of a full-fledged grand strategy, the structural weakness of national security policy formulation by successive governments at the cabinet level and the dominant role of the IDF. This state of affairs helps explain why and how Israel has responded to the recent turmoil in a piecemeal fashion rather than formulate a comprehensive policy that would enhance its ability to respond to the new challenges and take advantage of the new opportunities.

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The American ability to inspire—which we call exceptionalism—is not automatic. It takes continued efforts to be realized in a changing world. In this book, scholars at the Hoover Institution—professors, thinkers, and practitioners of global renown in their respective fields—offer a series of accessible policy ideas for civic, economic, and security architecture that would shore up the long-term foundations of American strengths. Blueprint for America takes a beyond-the-Beltway look at the basic policies that should be prioritized by the next president and Congress. Economists Michael Boskin, John Cogan, John Cochrane, and John Taylor address questions of entitlement reform, deficits, monetary reform, national debt, and regulatory and tax reform. Scott Atlas draws on his experience in the practice of medicine to tackle the Affordable Care Act and propose incentive-based health care reforms. Cochrane returns to reframe the hot-button political discourses on immigration and international trade. Eric Hanushek addresses the current performance--and reform--of K–12 education. Retired admiral James Ellis, retired general Jim Mattis, and Kori Schake offer their visions of how to restore America's national security through proactive and realistic agenda setting. Ellis follows with a rethink of energy security strategy in an era of abundance and James Goodby expounds on the country's practice of diplomacy in a time of turbulent transition. George Shultz draws from his experiences in government, industry, and academia to lead off each section with a range of clear-eyed observations on spending, human resources, foreign policy, and, in conclusion, the art of governance. The spirit of Blueprint for America is positive and grounded in first principles, offering ideas, diagnoses, solutions, and road maps for the long view.

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Drawing from a 2014 Hoover Institution Conference on Inequality in honor of Gary Becker, a group of distinguished contributors explore various measures of inequality in America and address the issue of whether or not it is increasing. In looking at this question and examining policy implications, the authors draw on research on human capital and intergenerational mobility. The authors suggest that the emphasis on inequality and redistribution, while not wrong, is nevertheless misplaced, for it may lead us to adopt policies that will disrupt the progress we have made while doing nothing to promote the kind of growth that is essential to national progress.

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Ronald Reagan's Cold War strategy, well established in his first year in office, did not change: to make absolutely sure in the minds of the Soviets that they too would be destroyed in a nuclear war—even as Reagan sought an alternative through strategic defense to make nuclear missiles obsolete and thus eliminate the possibility of an all-out nuclear war. This book offers new perspectives on Ronald Reagan’s primary accomplishment as president: persuading the Soviets to reduce their nuclear arsenals and end the Cold War. It details how he achieved this success and in the process explains why Americans consider Reagan one of our greatest presidents.The authors examine the decisions Reagan made during his presidency that made his success possible and review Reagan's critical negotiations with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, ending with the 1988 Moscow summit that effectively ended the Cold War. They present Gorbachev’s thoughts on Reagan as a great man and a great president twenty years after he left office. Ultimately, they reveal the depth of Reagan’s vision of a world safe from nuclear weapons, painting a clear portrait of a Cold Warrior who saw the possibility of moving beyond that war.

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The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was bold and controversial from the start. When first conceived, it was far from obvious that it would be possible given the circumstances of the times. Drawing from a December 2013 Hoover Institution conference on NAFTA at 20, this book brings together distinguished academics who have studied the effects of NAFTA with high-level policy makers to present a comprehensive view of the North American Free Trade Agreement. It looks at the conception, creation, outcomes so far, and the future of NAFTA from the perspective of economists, historians, and the aforementioned policy makers in the words of those who actually participated in the negotiations and research. In the context of the fundamental economic and political transformation of North America, they discuss the trade, real wage, and welfare gains that NAFTA has produced for the United States, Mexico, and Canada, along with a review of the major energy markets within and among the three countries. They include lessons from NAFTA for the future, both for NAFTA itself and for other trade agreements, and stress the importance of political leadership and providing information on the benefits of trade liberalization to voters and potentially ill-informed politicians who hear most loudly from the opponents.

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Looking beneath the surface of strategy, policy, and daily operations, this book uses the analogy of weaving to review the United States' historical responsibility for maintaining international peace and security.Author Charles Hill shows why the United States must marshal all possible elements in the Middle East, and supporters from without, to defeat the enemies of order in the region—and why the U.S. must weave an actively engaged, omnidirectional involvement to support and interact with whatever faction, regime, sect, leader, or state that seeks to gain legitimacy as a good citizen in the established international system.

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Facing the risks and potentially deadly consequences of nuclear weapons and nuclear power Nuclear energy can provide great benefits to society; in the form of nuclear weapons, however, it can cause death and destruction on an unparalleled scale. The challenge is how to deal with the catastrophic risk of the nuclear enterprise so as to preserve its positive elements and make economic sense. In this book, an expert group of contributors attempts to answer two key questions facing the nuclear enterprise: (1) What can and should be done to improve operations and public understanding of the risks and consequences of major incidents? (2) How can informed scientists, economists, and journalists interact more effectively in understanding and reporting to the public on the most important issues affecting risks, consequences, and costs? Drawn from a conference held at Stanford University's Hoover Institution on October 3-4, 2011, the papers presented in The Nuclear Enterprise were prepared by specialists on various aspects of this challenging topic, including technical safety, management operations, regulatory measures, and the importance of accurate communication by the media. It is their hope that the findings of the conference will contribute to discussion and then actions to better contain and eliminate growing global dangers.

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In this collection of bold and wide-ranging essays, Fouad Ajami offers his views on the Middle East, commenting on the state of affairs in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Egypt and more. He brings into focus the current struggles of the region through detailed historical standpoints and a highly personal perspective. The author discusses such landmark past events as the Algerian civil war, the state of the Arab world shortly after 9/11, and the pan-Arab awakening that began in 2011, as well as current events such as the Syrian rebellion and the repercussions of its brutal response from Bashar al-Assad. In addition, he sheds new light on some of the significant players in the Arab world, past and present, from Naguib Mahfouz, the Nobel laureate of the Arabs, to Ziad Jarrah—the terrorist who is thought to have been at the controls of the plane forced down by its heroic passengers in Shanksville, Pennsylvania on 9/11.

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The events of the last several years on Wall Street make a compelling case for comprehensive, fundamental reform in the oversight of financial firms. In Bankruptcy Not Bailout, a group of expert contributors show why, if a new addition to the bankruptcy laws—Chapter 14—were implemented along with other genuine reforms, the changes could strengthen the US financial system and provide the impetus the US economy needs to thrive once again. The authors reveal the weaknesses in Dodd-Frank Title II, showing how the current law creates an elaborate, and potentially cumbersome, bureaucratic procedure for triggering seizure of a financial company—and tell why Chapter 14 could greatly improve that process, creating greater financial stability and reducing the likelihood of bailouts. They lay the groundwork for a return to a clearer, more rules-based oversight regime that relies more on real capital and true market forces and urge adoption of a Chapter 14 even were Dodd-Frank left untouched. CONTRIBUTORS: Andrew Crockett, Darrell Duffie, Thomas H. Jackson, William F. Kroener III, Kenneth E. Scott, David A. Skeel, Kimberly Anne Summe, John B. Taylor, Kevin M. Warsh

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The pressing need to improve achievement in American schools is widely recognized. In Tests, Testing, and Genuine School Reform, Herbert J. Walberg draws on scientific studies of tests and their uses to inform citizens, educators, and policy makers about well-established principles of testing, current problems, and promising evidence-based solutions. He explains the central considerations in developing and evaluating good tests and tells how tests can best be used, covering such topics as using tests for student incentives, paying teachers for performance, and using tests in efforts to attain new state and national standards.To minimize mistaken policies and practices, the book also describes testing technology to enable readers to evaluate and make better use of tests. And because valid tests cannot be developed without clear, specific standards, one chapter is devoted to discussing standards and how they should determine the plans and development of tests and testing. In view of the continuing technical and political problems of tests and testing, the last chapter argues that, for accountability, to improve tests and testing, and to prevent fraud, the development, administration, scoring, and reporting test results should be conducted independent of traditional school authorities.

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With the departure of imperial powers—and on its own for the first time in almost two centuries—the Middle East must now resolve its political, economic, cultural, and societal problems in order to advance its civilization. In this volume, historian Bernard Lewis discusses the future of the region in this new era: will its nations face cooperation and progress or a vicious cycle of poverty and ignorance? The author examines the most critical issues in detail. Oil may be the Middle East's most important export, but technology will eventually make it obsolete, he warns, leaving those who depend on oil revenues with a bleak future. Water will become a contentious issue between nations. The role of Turkey, Israel, and women in the region are the most potentially transformative factors. If freedom fails and terror triumphs, says Lewis, the peoples of Islam will be the first and greatest victims.

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We tend to view the character of an administration through the persona of its president, especially that of Barack Obama, with his unique baggage of race, personality, political style, and campaign message of hope and renewal. In this critical look at the realities that have shaped the first stage of Obama’s presidency, Morton Keller provides a progress report that rests less on the day-to-day perspective of pundits and politicians and more on the longer perspective of history. His history-focused examination looks at the president’s developing style of governing, with particular attention to his signature policies of the stimulus, financial, and health care reforms, and analyzes the Obama presidency in light of historical analogues, contemporary political life, and the nature of key government institutions such as Congress and the bureaucracy.Comparing our presidents with their predecessors is one way to understand more fully the character and quality of their performance. Keller compares the current president to predecessors such as Woodrow Wilson, FDR, LBJ, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, and concludes that, as yet, there is no clear consensus on the character or content of Obama’s presidential leadership or where he fits in the prevailing typology/classification of America’s chief executives. Taking into account the general standing of the president, his program, and his party; the sources of public discontent; and the appeal (or lack thereof) of the opposition, Keller concludes by speculating on the future prospects of Obama’s administration in the realms of policy and politics.

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America’s insurance system for single-employer pension plans, operated by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), is under serious financial strain. In Pension Wise: Confronting Employer Pension Underfunding—And Sparing Taxpayers the Next Bailout, Charles Blahous—one of the nation’s foremost retirement security experts—explains the origins and dangers of current underfunding in our single-employer defined-benefit pension system and offers principles to underlie a solution.Blahous details both the technical reasons behind pension plan underfunding and the political considerations that prioritize the near-term financial demands of employers and pension beneficiaries over the long-term fiscal health of the pension insurance system. The author also presents the fundamental value judgments concerning who should bear the cost of filling the PBGC shortfall and to what extent the risk of financing pension benefits should continue to be shifted away from plan sponsors, either to other employers or to taxpayers at large. Although acknowledging that there are no obviously correct answers, he suggests a range of reforms to improve the pension insurance system’s operation and to resolve its projected shortfall.

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