Think Tanked

Tweet of the Day: Brookings' Shadi Hamid on Egypt

Ed Rendell to Brookings and NBC/MSNBC

Former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell wasted no time in finding his next spot after handing over the governorship just days ago--and it's at the Brookings Institution as a visiting senior fellow and a contributor to NBC and MSNBC news.

In an interview, Rendell, 67, said he would work there two days a month, primarily conducting seminars and writing op-ed pieces.

Asked how much the Brookings work pays, Rendell said only that the amount "will not be a major part of my overall compensation." The major part, Rendell hopes, would come if he lands a spot on television, as a political talk-show host or commentator on network or cable. To forward that cause, Rendell has retained the services of the William Morris Agency.

And that's all sewn up, too, at NBC and MSNBC.

Tweet of the Day: Brookings Gets Composting!

Noah Shachtman of Brookings & Wired on Cybersecurity

Brookings' Riedel: The Future of Afghanistan & Pakistan

Ask a Think Tank: Brookings' Michael O'Hanlon on Afghanistan

For this Ask a Think Tank, Alex M. from Des Moines, IA asks Brookings Senior Fellow Michael O'Hanlon the following question on Afghanistan:

With a draw down of troops set to begin this summer, why (or how) is Afghanistan strategy still being discussed? Many of the major think tanks put out a significant report in the last few months on Afghanistan strategy and many of them have the ears of key stakeholders. Is this a case of too many cooks in the kitchen and holding up finalizing a strategy on how to move forward?

O'Hanlon responds:

Bruce Riedel and I wrote an article for The Washington Quarterly winter issue (“Plan A-Minus for Afghanistan”) that takes on these questions. The short answer is that in fact very few firm details have actually been decided. But beyond that, we explain the parameters of the debate that might still occur even with some of the plans set for this upcoming summer. President Obama’s plan outlined in his December 2009 West Point speech still has a good chance to succeed in its attempt to defeat (or at least weaken) the insurgency, while building up Afghan institutions. However, the strategy is not guaranteed to succeed given the immense difficulty of the problem and those who are opposed to it are right to debate back-up plans if the primary strategy fails in part or in whole.
 
As for too many cooks, I agree that it can be hard to make sense of all the competing think tank and university reports/papers/op-eds. Nor will I claim that we automatically deserve a hearing here!  But some method for deciding what to read is indeed important, because it's not practical to read everything.

Submit your think tank questions to: info [at] thinktankedblog [dot] com

Brookings Searches for Fellow and Managing Director Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform

The Brookings Institution is looking for a scholar who will take on the role as a Fellow in Economic Studies and as a Managing Director at the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform.

The Economic Studies Program/Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution is accepting nominations for a scholar with a strong background in health policy, health data analytics, and/or health economics. The successful applicant will have demonstrated clinical experience in addition to health policy experience. The successful applicant will serve as a Fellow in Economic Studies and as a Managing Director at the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform.

Applicants for this position must have a Ph.D. and/or M.D. degree, at least two years of post-doctoral research or policy-related experience, with a proven record of publishing. A candidate may blend academic excellence with experience in the public or private sectors. The individual would be expected to do policy-relevant work, including innovative research, writing, advising, and interacting with other scholars at Brookings and the wider policy community.

Salary will depend upon the candidate’s experience and will be comparable to that offered by universities or other research organizations. The position may be limited to a one year appointment.

Learn how to apply and mention you saw the opening on Think Tanked.

Brookings: Defense Budgets and American Power

As a new Congress is tasked with getting the U.S. deficit under control while the Pentagon is in the middle of a critical period in Afghanistan, the Brookings Institution hosted a forum to discuss the relationships between debt, defense and American power. 

From Brookings:

On December 22, the Brookings Institution hosted a discussion of "Defense Budgets and American Power," as well as the prospects for U.S. deficit reduction, the impact of the massive debt on U.S. national security, and the U.S. defense budget and defense policy more broadly. Michael O’Hanlon, also author of Budgeting for Hard Power (Brookings Press, 2009), presented the arguments from his paper, followed by a panel discussion featuring Brookings Senior Fellow Robert Kagan and Brookings Senior Fellow Alice Rivlin, a member of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and co-chair, with former Senator Pete Domenici, of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Debt Reduction Task Force.

Read the unedited transcript at Brookings.

 

Brookings' O'Hanlon Challenges Bush's Decision Points

Brookings Senior Fellow Michael O'Hanlon picks a different spot to argue in George W. Bush's book, Decision Points. It's not 9/11, it's not Iraq or Afghanistan. It's the UN, Milosovic and NATO.

In Politico, O'Hanlon writes:

But in explaining why this U.N. resolution was not needed, Bush states on page 237: “From a legal standpoint, a resolution was unnecessary. Three years earlier, President Clinton and our NATO allies had removed the dictator Slobodan Milosevic from power in Serbia without an explicit U.N. resolution.”

This is completely false.

In fact, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization waged an air war in 1999 designed for the narrow purpose of driving Serbia out of Kosovo. That campaign was ultimately successful, and we negotiated a deal with Milosevic's government that required Serb forces to leave Kosovo and allow a U.N. force to enter.

NATO did not have a U.N. resolution for its air war. But the air war was not designed to drive Milosevic from power — and it did not do so. Moreover, the coalition countries waging war did have formal NATO blessing for their effort, providing at least some partial substitution for the lack of U.N. approval.

Only in 2000, with offensive operations long over, did Milosevic leave power. He was arrested in 2001 by his own countrymen, and later transferred to The Hague for trial. He died there in 2006.

Brookings' Russ Wheeler on Why Obama's Judicial Nominees Lag