The AEI Events Podcast

US administrations regularly criticize allies as falling short of what they should be contributing militarily. Simultaneously, US security strategy is tied to America’s global network of allies and strategic partners. The global security environment has grown more complex, but the US military’s size has remained largely the same. Understanding what America’s allies and partners can bring (or not bring) to the table militarily is more important than ever.

Join AEI to discuss these implications and mark the publication of the second edition of “A Hard Look at Hard Power: Assessing the Defense Capabilities of Key US Allies and Security Partners” (US Army War College Press, 2020), edited by AEI’s Gary J. Schmitt.

The American Enterprise Institute is pleased to announce the inaugural Irving Kristol Lecture and Summit—a fully virtual event that will showcase the vitality of AEI’s scholarship and celebrate the ideals of free enterprise and opportunity for all.

The 2020 Irving Kristol Award recipient, Nicholas Eberstadt, will deliver the keynote lecture, and the summit will feature conversations with AEI scholars and highlight their important contributions to the policy debates. This event will convene the AEI community to recognize Eberstadt’s boundary-pushing scholarship and explore how we can ensure that all people share the benefits of the free enterprise system. 

Watch the full event here.

COVID-19 cases are surging throughout the United States. This threatens public health, economic outcomes, and our children’s futures. Where does the nation stand on these important issues, and what is the outlook for the fall?

Join public health expert Scott Gottlieb, economist Michael Strain, and education scholar Frederick Hess for a discussion of the nation’s outlook going forward. The panel will discuss progress toward a vaccine, testing and contact tracing capabilities, the state of the economy, what should be included in the next economic recovery law, and how schools can safely open in the fall.

This audio first appeared at an AEI event held on July 30, 2020, at AEI’s headquarters in Washington, DC.

Watch the full event here.

Six years ago, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi delivered his first sermon as “Caliph” of the newly minted Islamic State. Today, Islamic State branches are thriving globally despite territorial defeats in Iraq and Syria. The US is negotiating a drawdown in Iraq, withdrawing from Afghanistan, and assessing force levels in Africa. Is the US again declaring victory too soon? And what comes next for the Islamic State?

Please join AEI’s Katherine Zimmerman for a virtual conversation with a panel of experts on the Islamic State, its ideology, and its operations. They will discuss the Islamic State’s strategy, how it interprets its own successes and failures, and lessons the Trump administration should draw from past counterterrorism operations.

This audio first appeared at an AEI webinar held on July 14, 2020.

Watch the full event here.

Event Materials:   – Haroro J. Ingram, Craig Whiteside, and Charlie Winter: The ISIS Reader   – Cole Bunzel: The Islamic State’s Ideology: History of a Rift

The Iowa caucuses are famous for their impacts on the race for each party’s presidential nomination, and, compared to the rest of the country, in rural Iowa, voters’ pocketbooks are disproportionately dependent on farm subsidies and the corn-based ethanol industry. In addition, current agricultural programs, including the recent Trump administration trade war compensation payments, have incentivized farmers to “farm the subsidies instead of the market,” making them increasingly dependent on Washington.

How necessary are those agricultural subsidies for the survival of the agricultural sector? Where do the candidates stand on the issue of subsidies and the role of markets in ensuring the country has a successful agricultural sector? Ahead of Iowa caucuses on February 3, AEI scholars discussed the various agriculture policy proposals from the major presidential candidates.

This audio first appeared at an AEI event held on January 29, 2020, at AEI’s headquarters in Washington, DC.

Watch the full event here.

Event Materials – The future of US agricultural and rural development

As a proud member of NATO and the EU, Estonia exemplifies the Western orientation of the Baltic states and has been a key player in advancing democracy, transatlantic cooperation, and cybersecurity at the state level. However, recent challenges — in the East and the West — risk stifling this cooperation and the post–Cold War global order. Both the transatlantic alliance and the values that unite it are being questioned on all fronts.

Please join AEI for remarks by Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Ratas on how to preserve the transatlantic alliance from these challenges. After his speech, AEI’s Leon Aron will lead a discussion, followed by questions from the audience.

This audio first appeared at an AEI event held on October 30, 2019, at AEI’s headquarters in Washington, DC.

Watch the full event here.

This June, the Women’s Bureau in the US Department of Labor is celebrating 100 years of advancing the well-being of working women. From its inception, a central focus of the agency’s work has been childcare.

Family childcare — provided in homes rather than institutional settings — is the preferred choice of many working women. Running a home-based childcare business has also long been an important avenue for women’s entrepreneurship, especially in low-income communities. Yet since 2005, the licensed family childcare sector has lost almost 100,000 providers, declining by 44 percent.

Please join AEI on the 100th anniversary of the Women’s Bureau for a special webinar on family childcare. What is uniquely valuable about home-based childcare? What is causing its decline? What is needed now to restore this crucial sector — especially in a post-COVID-19 world?

This audio first appeared at an AEI event held on June 12, 2020, at AEI’s headquarters in Washington, DC.

Watch the full event here.

While Russian election interference caught most Americans off guard in 2016, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe were not surprised. From the Czech Republic to the Balkans to Georgia, Moscow has used tactics ranging from coup attempts to the funding of political parties and disinformation campaigns to meddle in domestic politics. What lessons can the US apply from these countries’ experiences to defend its own elections?

Please join AEI’s Ivana Stradner and Frederick W. Kagan for a virtual conversation with a panel of Central and Eastern Europe experts. They will discuss the threats Moscow’s meddling poses to their countries, how their governments have responded to Russian hybrid tactics, and what lessons the US should draw from their experiences.

This audio first appeared at an AEI event held on June 24, 2020, at AEI’s headquarters in Washington, DC.

Watch the full event here.

“We’re all in this together” has become an inspirational rallying cry amid the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent shutdowns. But never before have Americans been so far apart. Children are out of school. Our neighborhood pubs and coffee shops are empty. Main Streets are deserted, and workers do not see their colleagues anymore.

How are communities surviving and adapting while communal gatherings are banned? How are families, which depend so much on community support, faring under the added stress?

Two of the finest scholars on family and community — David Brooks of The New York Times and the Weave Project and Isabel V. Sawhill of the Brookings Institution — join AEI’s Timothy P. Carney to discuss the plight of community and family under the coronavirus pandemic.

This audio first appeared at an AEI event held on June 1, 2020, at AEI’s headquarters in Washington, DC.

Watch the full event here.

Was the COVID-19 virus produced in the US? Was it created by the US Army? So Moscow and Beijing would have you believe.

Russia and China aggressively manipulate perceptions to achieve their own aims. Their increasingly aggressive information campaigns are converging in method and narrative. What can the US and its allies — and the average citizen — do to inoculate against these disinformation viruses?

Related Materials

Testimony: China’s censorship, propaganda, and disinformationDan Blumenthal | American Enterprise Institute | March 5, 2020

Why it’s time for the US to start pushing back against Chinese information operationsLaura Rosenberger and Zack Cooper | The Washington Post | September 10, 2019

Confronting the Russian challenge: A new approach for the USFrederick W. Kagan | American Enterprise Institute | June 19, 2019

This audio first appeared at an AEI event held on May 5, 2020, at AEI’s headquarters in Washington, DC.

Watch the full event here.