Policy 360

Remember when the online talk show "Between Two Ferns" scored a visit to the White House? Host Zach Galifianakis chatted with President Obama about health care, among other things. The episode went viral, of course. It's the type of social media effort Macon Phillips applauds. In 2008, Phillips was the Obama campaign's digital guru. Once Obama won the election, Phillips became the man behind many of the digital innovations at the White House (change.gov and WhiteHouse.gov for example). Recently, Phillips talked with Dean of the Sanford School Kelly Brownell. Phillips is now using his digital talents with the State Department to revamp America's "digital diplomacy."

Gene Dodaro leads the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Part of his job is to provide policymakers with foresight about emerging challenges. 

Gene Dodaro is the Comptroller General of the United States. His agency works to ferret out waste, duplication, and fraud in government and they’ve realized savings in the billions of dollars. How do they do it? Dodaro sits down with Sanford's dean Kelly Brownell to discuss his work. "I am amazed at the lack .. of some fundamental management principles that need to be put in place in government," he says. "As a government we do not do a very good job of planning ahead. I'm always reminded of Winston Churchill's quote about the United States where he says 'The Americans will always do the right thing, but after they've tried everything else.'"

What was accomplished in Paris? Sanford's dean Kelly Brownell talks with faculty member Billy Pizer. Pizer is a faculty fellow with the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, a nonpartisan institute at Duke that focuses on finding solutions to some of the nation's most pressing environmental challenges. He also served a three-year stint as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Environment and Energy in the Treasury Department. Pizer says the structure of the agreement is one that he's excited about, particularly because it considers how hard countries are trying to make change. "I'm optimistic that once we have the right incentives and the commitments in place, we'll actually do a lot more things that people couldn't even imagine," Pizer says.

A new report explores the challenge and promise of using community policing strategies to prevent violent extremism. The author of the report is David Schanzer, Director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security. As a part of the report, Schanzer's team talked with chiefs of police nationwide, including a survey, interviews and site visits. He also conducted focus groups with Muslim Americans to better understand the community's feelings about how Muslim Americans are treated by law enforcement. "I'm excited about the report because I think it's one of the first things that tries to merge the views of law enforcement and the views of the community that they are interacting with," said Schanzer. He speaks with Sanford's dean, Kelly Brownell.

There's increasing concern about violent acts from religious extremists around the world and particular concern about such acts being carried out on U.S. soil. David Schanzer, Dir. of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security says many people see terrorists as angry individuals engaged in barbarous conduct. Schanzer argues such acts are really all about politics, not bloodlust. "If we want to solve this kind of violence, we have to understand that," he says. Schanzer speaks with Kelly Brownell.