The Strategerist

When David McCormick ran for Senator of Pennsylvania last year, he brought with him the lessons he had learned as an Army Ranger, as a private sector CEO, and on the international policy stage in the Bush Administration -- and shares those lessons with us.

David also reminds us that we have to have be able to have fervent debate and disagreement as a Nation, while remembering that whoever sits on the other side isn’t our enemy, but simply someone with different ideas from us. We bounce around policy areas and ideas that he discusses in his new book, Superpower in Peril.

Related

• Superpower in Peril by David McCormick
• Freedom and Democracy at the Bush Center

Stephen J. Hadley, assistant to the president for National Security Affairs, joins White House communications director Kevin Sullivan in taking us behind the scenes of the Bush/Obama presidential transition and inside presidential briefings. Hadley discusses the compiled the declassified foreign policy memos in Hand-Off: The Foreign Policy George W. Bush Passed to Barack Obama.

• Hand-Off: The Foreign Policy George W. Bush Passed to Barack Obama
• Engage at the Bush Center, presented by NexPoint: Stephen Hadley joins Insiders on How the Intelligence Community Protects Our Democracy

Executive Director of the Bush Institute David J. Kramer is one of the world’s foremost experts on the region. We catch up with him to get his take on the largest war in Europe since World War II, on Vladimir Putin, and why it’s so important for the United States to continue to support the Ukrainian people.

Related

• Bush Institute Policy Recommendation -- Supporting Ukraine: Why It Is Vital to U.S. National Security Interest
• All Bush Institute 2023 Policy Briefs

While the children of the survivors of the Holocaust might not have experienced it in the same was as their parents, they’re uniquely able to see a world that is simultaneously capable of unspeakable evil yet also kindness and respect.  Hadassah Lieberman was born in Prague, the daughter of Holocaust survivors who immigrated to the U.S. when she was a young girl.  She shares the perspectives she’s learned through her life as a successful businessswoman, the wife of a U.S. Senator, and immigrant.

Mrs. Lieberman also reflects  on the 2000 presidential campaign and disputed election, when Al Gore and her husband Joe Lieberman were on the opposite ticket as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. 

Related

• Hadassah Lieberman: An American Story on Amazon

Ukrainian musical artist Ruslana came to prominence in 2004 as an active voice supporting democracy during the Orange Revolution.

Today, she is once again using her voice and artistic soul as she fights in every way she can for her country that has been brutally attacked by Russia.  An attack that has upended the lives of millions of Ukrainians — and left many wondering if their friends and family are alive. 

Ruslana wrote the song used in the introduction for the people of Ukraine. It is titled “I’m Alive” and is available on YouTube.

• I'm Alive by Ruslana

In the years after the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, women made tremendous gains in the country. In particular, they were able to be educated and become leaders in fields like engineering, as Somaya Faruqi and Roya Mahboob did.  The Afghan Girls Robotics Team, founded by Roya and captained by Somaya, even stepped up during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic to make low-cost ventilators out of car parts to help fill a desperate need in their country.

Roya and Somaya were able to escape Afghanistan before the Taliban returned to power and once again took rights away from women in the country. This Human Rights Day, we celebrate the brave women who show the world their courage, heart, and brilliant minds despite the obstacles placed in their way.

Related

• Digital Citizen Fund
• Afghan Dreamers robotics team on Twitter
• Roya Mahboob on Twitter
• Somaya Faruqi on Twitter

Roya Mahboob is also a Presidential Leadership Scholar -- learn more about the program.

PEPFAR, the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, has been credited with saving millions of lives in Africa. But as the new head of PEPFAR, Ambassador Dr. John Nkengasong, explains, the impact of PEPFAR extends even further beyond those who received lifesaving treatment.

Related

• The Bush Institute's Oral History of PEPFAR
• PEPFAR at the U.S. State Department

Education is the foundation of the American dream and the pathway to economic mobility. And higher education is the culmination of that dream. For many families, that dream comes at enormous cost and sacrifice. We go behind-the-scenes of a Bush Institute policy discussion as four of our experts tackle college affordability, public policy, and the topic that's the subject of water-cooler talk everywhere: college debt forgiveness.

Featuring:

• Holly Kuzmich, Executive Director of the Bush Institute
• Anne Wicks, Ann Kimball Johnson Director of Education and Opportunity
• Cullum Clark, Director at the Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative
• Justine Taylor-Raymond, Deputy Director, Education

America is a diverse country.  Diverse in many senses of the word -- from race, to regionality, to religion, to political views, and all points in between.  Yuval Levin, director of social, cultural, and constitutional studies at AEI, explains that from the inception of our government to today, this diversity has been both the fundamental challenge to solve as well as its fundamental strength.

Related

• Freedom and Democracy at the Bush Institute