According to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, terrorism is the most important threat the United States and the world face as the 21st century begins. High-level U.S. officials have acknowledged that terrorists are now more likely to be able to obtain and use nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons than ever before.
The International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Treasury Department's Exchange Stabilization Fund are undemocratic institutions unaccountable for their actions. Their current functions have little to do with their original missions. The ESF is used by the executive branch to circumvent Congress in the provision of foreign aid. Its foreign exchange interventions have, in any event, always been wasteful and ineffective at controlling the relative price of the U.S. dollar. The IMF has also been used to provide massive bailouts in the cases of Mexico in 1995 and of Asian countries since 1997. Defenders of the IMF as an international lender of last resort are misinformed since the IMF does not and cannot serve that purpose. Both institutions should be abolished, not reformed, because they are not needed to resolve currency crises and they preclude superior solutions.
Topic:
Economics, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
Roy Grow, Burton Levin, Al Porte, and Robert White
Publication Date:
06-1998
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
American Assembly at Columbia University
Abstract:
"China will choose its own destiny, but we can influence that choice by making the right choice ourselves - working with China where we can, dealing directly with our differences where we must.
Jason Shogren, Robert N. Stavins, Kevin Hassett, and Eileen Claussen
Publication Date:
10-1998
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
When the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change met in Kyoto last December, the participating countries, including the United States, established a protocol for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases by developed countries. The U.S. Senate has not yet decided whether to ratify the agreement.
Topic:
International Relations, Climate Change, Environment, International Cooperation, International Law, and United Nations
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
On January 13, 1998, Stephen Golub, professor of economics at Swarthmore College, led the sixteenth seminar in AEI's series Understanding Economic Inequality. Mr. Golub's presentation sought to dispel fallacious but widespread views concerning the effects of competition from low–wage countries in international trade, including the view that such competition has significantly increased wage inequality in the United States.
James Q. Wilson, James W. Ceaser, David Frum, Everett Carll Ladd, Alan Charles Kors, Christina Hoff Sommers, Virginia Postrel, and Joshua Muravchik
Publication Date:
06-1998
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
The comedian Howie Mandel begins his speeches by clutching this little desk here and shouting: “Hey, if I'd known there was going to be a podium, I wouldn't have worn pants.” It's a well–worn joke, but I feel a certain proprietary claim to it. Howie Mandel is a fellow–Torontonian, and my father, in his first career as a dentist, fixed his teenage teeth.
Harvey C. Mansfield, Robert S. Royal, Hadley Arkes, Charles Taylor, Charles Murray, Richard Epstein, Samuel P. Huntington, and Charles R. Kesler
Publication Date:
06-1998
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Abstract:
For American conservatives, this is a strange period of anticlimax and indecision. Crime rates are down, welfare rolls are shrinking, the federal budget is in surplus, and there are fewer Democratic senators, congressmen, governors, and state legislators than in decades. Even more miraculously, the Soviet Union lies in history's dustbin. Yet despite these glad tidings, conservatives are not rejoicing or even gloating. Nor are they aggressively following up their successes, pressing liberalism on all fronts and striving for a decisive political breakthrough. Like General McClellan outside Richmond, conservatives are proud to have come so far — but, uncertain of the kind of victory they seek and feeling an infinite need for reinforcements, they are afraid to risk going much farther.
Yumiko Nishimura, Naohiro Mitsutake, Michael McCullough, Barry Uphoff, Annie Woo, and Chang-Yao Hsieh
Publication Date:
10-1998
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:
Hysterectomy is the most common non-pregnancy-related major surgery performed on women in the United States. Close to 600,000 women in the United States undergo the procedure each year, with annual costs exceeding $5 billion. By age 60, more than one- third of women in the United States have had a hysterectomy.
Topic:
Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States, Japan, United Kingdom, Europe, Israel, East Asia, and England
Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:
The People's Republic of China is now a major economic and military actor in the international relations of the Asia Pacific region, and thus we cannot afford to ignore China in reviewing the U.S.-Japan alliance. The Chinese economy has been growing rapidly over the past decade and a half, at an annual rate of about 10 percent, and it is expected to sustain a similar pattern of growth for the foreseeable future. Beijing's defense spending has also been increasing every year at a double-digit level for some time. Consequently, China's domestic and foreign policies will from now on significantly influence the course of international relations in this region, and perhaps elsewhere as well.
Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
Abstract:
I'll speak on the question of Chinese military defense modernization and its implications for the Asian security environment. I'll try to keep my remarks at a level where we can talk about broader issues and concepts, and the implications of all this for regional evolution in the security environment, U.S. security interests, U.S.-Japan relations, etc. I want to cover four different areas in my remarks.