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5691. Katrina and the Environment

Author:
Steven F. Hayward
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
The New Orleans flood is shaping up to take its place alongside the Cuyahoga River fire and the Santa Barbara and Exxon Valdez oil spills as one of the major environmental catastrophes of modern times. The issue of hurricanes and climate change—a linkage not established in current climate science—distracts from the most significant environmental lessons of the Katrina disaster. The rebuilding of New Orleans offers an opportunity to begin reversing the long-term Gulf Coast erosion that contributed to the magnitude of the disaster.
Topic:
Development, Environment, Human Welfare, and Politics

5692. A Cross of Green? Reflections on Eco-Theology

Author:
Steven F. Hayward
Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Growing evangelical interest in environmental issues has made news headlines in recent months. This Outlook reflects on the inherent difficulties of this dialogue and speculates on what environmentalists and evangelical Christians can learn from each other.
Topic:
Environment, Politics, and Religion
Political Geography:
United States

5693. Air Quality: Much Worse on Paper Than in Reality

Author:
Joel Schwartz
Publication Date:
06-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Journalists and environmentalists erroneously claim more than half the country has "some of the worst air pollution," when in fact the worst areas of California stand head and shoulders above all others. The nation sorely needs an honest assessment of air pollution, which would be aided by greater skepticism from journalists about air pollution claims.
Topic:
Civil Society and Environment
Political Geography:
United States and California

5694. Resurrecting Clear Skies

Author:
Ted Gayer
Publication Date:
04-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
After failing to make it out of Senate committee in March, the future of the president's Clear Skies bill is uncertain. While the bill contains some flaws, most of its opponents criticized the virtues of Clear Skies, thus making it more difficult to fix the real problems and to strike a compromise. There is still some hope that the bill will pass later this congressional session. In lieu of Clear Skies, the Environmental Protection Agency recently promulgated two administrative rules to tighten regulations on power plant air pollution. These rules are certain to be litigated and thus delayed. With Clear Skies, we get a greater guarantee that the air quality goals will be met, and we get greater regulatory certainty that leads to lower costs.
Topic:
Development, Environment, Government, and Politics

5695. Climate Change Science: Time for "Team B"?

Author:
Steven F. Hayward
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is currently working on its fourth assessment report. Despite the IPCC's noble intent to generate a scientific consensus, a number of factors have compromised the research and drafting process, assuring that its next assessment report will be just as controversial as previous reports in 1995 and 2001. Efforts to reform this large bureaucratic effort are unlikely to succeed. Perhaps the time has come to consider competition as the means of checking the IPCC's monopoly and generating more reliable climate science.
Topic:
Environment, Government, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States

5696. The Big Four Alliance: The New Bush Strategy

Author:
Thomas Donnelly
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Over the past six months, the Bush administration has upgraded its budding “strategic partnerships” with Japan and India. Along with the steady “special relationship” with Great Britain, what is beginning to emerge is a global coalition system—it is too soon to call it a true alliance—for the post–Cold War world. Much work remains to be done to translate the expressions of similar political interests and values into usable military strength. Still, the prospects for expanding the number of genuine “stakeholders” in the Pax Americana are quite bright.
Topic:
International Relations and NATO
Political Geography:
Britain, United States, and America

5697. The New Bolsheviks: Understanding Al Qaeda

Author:
Frederick W. Kagan
Publication Date:
11-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Victory in war, and particularly in counterinsurgency wars, requires knowing one's enemy. This simple truth, first stated by Sun Tsu more than two millennia ago, is no less important in the war on terrorism today. It has become almost common wisdom, however, that America today faces an enemy of a new kind, using unprecedented techniques and pursuing incomprehensible goals. But this enemy is not novel. Once the peculiar rhetoric is stripped away, the enemy America faces is a familiar one indeed. The revolutionary vision that undergirds al Qaeda's ideology, the strategy it is pursuing, and the strategic debates occurring within that organization are similar to those of Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism at various periods. What's more, the methods that led to the defeat of that ideology can be adapted and successfully used against this religious revival of it.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Terrorism, and War
Political Geography:
America

5698. Post-Election Strategy in Afghanistan

Author:
Vance Serchuk
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
On September 18, 2005, Afghanistan held its first democratic parliamentary and provincial elections in more than thirty-five years. The vote marks the successful completion of the transitional political process outlined by the 2001 Bonn Accords, the internationally brokered framework that has guided Afghanistan since the ouster of the Taliban. The United States and its allies in Kabul can rightly celebrate the passage of this milestone and the remarkable progress that has been achieved over the past four years. At the same time, the end of Bonn is also a natural time to raise questions about the Bush administration's long-term road map for Afghanistan. Two problems with the current American strategy—too much faith in NATO and too little investment in indigenous Afghan institutions—deserve particular attention.
Topic:
NATO, Democratization, and Government
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, America, Middle East, Taliban, and Kabul

5699. After London: Reassessing Africa's Role in the War on Terror

Author:
Kurt Shillinger
Publication Date:
09-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
Whether our current war is “on terrorism” or “against violent extremism,” it is unquestionably global. While centered in the greater Middle East, the fighting occurs from North America to Southeast Asia. One of the key theaters in this struggle is Africa—not just the Arab lands of North Africa, but much of the rest of the continent. No U.S. strategy for this war that fails to reckon with Africa's role can be truly successful. The Bush administration and its allies are coming to realize this but have yet to address the full implications of the problem.
Topic:
Terrorism
Political Geography:
Africa, United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East, Arabia, North Africa, North America, and Southeast Asia

5700. The War against Reserves

Author:
Frederick W. Kagan
Publication Date:
08-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
U.S. defense policy today rests heavily on two basic assumptions: that the American armed forces will make perfect decisions and take perfect actions, and that the enemy will never surprise us or offer us unexpected opportunities to exploit. These assumptions can be seen in the elimination of reserve forces from all echelons of the military structure and the heavy burden that the current war has placed on the Army Reserves and National Guard. The result of these decisions has been to leave the United States with little ability to react to unforeseen difficulties, either in Iraq or Afghanistan or elsewhere. If this policy continues, it will place American national security in grave jeopardy for years to come.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, Government, and War
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, United States, Iraq, and America