The Prospects for Democratization in the Middle East

On the evening of Tuesday, April 19, the Spring 2011 Glenn Fellows were among members of the audience for a policy forum co-sponsored by the John Glenn School of Public Affairs and the DC chapter of the OSU Alumni Club. Glenn School faculty member Trevor Brown moderated a discussion about recent events in the Middle East and North Africa and the prospects for democratic reform in a region of the world known for its autocratic regimes. The other members of the panel were Scott Mastic, an OSU alumnus currently serving as Middle East and North Africa Director at the International Republican Institute, and David Newton, a retired foreign service officer who served as the first U.S. Ambassador to Iraq after the resumption of diplomatic relations with Saddam Hussein's regime in the late 1980s. The event was part of an on-going collaboration between the Glenn School and the DC Alumni Club.

April 23 update: See Yasmine El Rashidi's piece, "The Battle for Egypt's Future," in the April 25, 2011, issue of The New York Review of Books.

Keynes Lives

The current issue of The New York Review of Books has an article by Robert Skidelsky and Felix Martin arguing for creation of something akin to the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the United States. The current essay builds on (or, if you prefer, "is based off of") an article by Felix Rohatyn and Everett Ehrlich and published in the NYROB last November (see footnote 3 in the Skidelsky-Martin piece for the full citation).

A National Blessing

"A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing" --Alexander Hamilton

Last Friday's last-minute deal to avert a government shutdown has been dissected by critics of the left and right, and from all other conceivable angles. One thing worth keeping in mind is that the next episode of partisan confrontation is likely to take place over the need to raise the legal debt limit. Yes, the ceiling would have to be raised even if either of the two main Republican proposals--that introduced by Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, and that of the Republican Study Committee and associated with Rep. Scott Garrett of New Jersey--were to be adopted as is. The only difference is whether we want to live with unbalanced budgets until 2040 (Ryan's plan) or 2020 (Garrett's plan).

In today's Post, columnist Robert J. Samuelson argues that this is a sympton indicating that our government is "suicidal." He has a point.

April 14 update: I've seen lots of worthwhile commentary since President Obama's speech yesterday, but I particularly liked Fareed Zakaria's op-ed column in today's Post.

Over the winter of 1995-1996, a budgetary impasse between the Clinton Administration and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich resulted in the furloughing of federal workers and a partial shutdown of the federal government. When people howled over the closing of a special Vermeer show at the National Gallery of Art, private funds were found to keep the exhibition open, though the rest of the museum remained shuttered. Media coverage of the saga did much to turn the shutdown into a public relations fiasco for the Republican Speaker.

How times change! Or don't. This coming weekend the Spring 2011 class of Glenn Fellows is likely to have an up-close-and-personal look at another government shutdown. The fellows should keep an eye on media coverage, which is likely to depend upon whether the source in question is located inside or outside the Capital Beltway.