This spring, Justin Hawkins and Kate Bermingham, two student fellows in the Alexis de Tocqueville Forum on the Roots of American Democracy, participated in the fourth annual Conference on the American Polity, held this year at Princeton University. The students presented original research papers in philosophy and political theory and participated in panel discussions with other undergraduate presenters from Princeton University, Boston College, and the University of Notre Dame. The conference, held every spring, is a weekend-long series of panel [...]

The recent crises in Japan have captured global attention, prompting wide media coverage and international concern. The earthquake and tsunami have left thousands dead and even more missing, devastating the country and harmfully impacting the families, businesses, and communities within it. Japan is currently struggling with a grave nuclear disaster, endangering even more lives and national security, a matter that national leaders are assessing with the utmost caution and urgency. After severe loss of life and internal disruption, Japan now [...]

Late on May 1st, 2011, Barack Obama announced that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by American troops. “Tonight, I can report to the American people and the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama Bin Laden the leader of Al-Qaeda,” the President said. Bin Laden was hiding in a compound near Abbottabad, Pakistan. Within moments, students began posting the news on Facebook. DC students poured out from Georgetown, George Washington, American, and Johns Hopkins [...]

President Barack Obama announced his own budget proposal on April 13th as a counterpoint to Representative Paul Ryan’s April 5th proposal. Obama’s plan would cut the deficit by 400 billion dollars less than Ryan’s, and outlines spending for the next twelve years as opposed to the next ten. Ryan recommends almost two trillion dollars more in spending cuts than Obama. Although the plans have some similarities, Ryan’s plan more aggressively targets entitlement programs like Medicare and and Medicaid, while Obama’s [...]

On Wednesday, March 30th, President Barack Obama came to Georgetown to speak “in broad strokes” about energy policy. Emphasizing the cost for individuals and families of rising fuel prices, Obama pointed out that three years ago, when the price of gas hit its peak, nothing was accomplished and, since then, nothing has changed. The need for long term energy policy, Obama said, is necessary, admitting that “the same political gridlock” has prevented action from being undertaken during his presidency. To [...]

On March 19, two days after the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 passed, the French Air Force and the British Royal Navy began attacking Libyan ground forces. Resolution 1973 authorized the use of force in protecting civilians in Libya from attack by the Libyan government. Although the United States was initially reticent to get involved, United Nations approval has led the United States to dedicate 24 ships to enforcing the no-fly zone. In addition to dispatching more planes than [...]

On Monday Georgetown’s Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies (CERES) and the Moscow State Institute for International Affairs (MGIMO) co-hosted a series of panels called Russia-Europe-United States: Changing Global and Regional Environment. One panel focused directly on the connection between energy and economic security. Thane Gustafson, a professor of government here at Georgetown, described the “irony of the search for energy security.” Even a country that is well-prepared for emergency response to natural disasters, such as Japan, can [...]