Recent News

In the News

Potomac Institute for Policy Studies Senior Fellow David Smith has spoken out in recent weeks against a proposed French-Russian ship deal.  Former Ambassador Smith currently serves as the U.S. Member of the International Security Advisory Board, helping independent states of the former Soviet Union build democracies and establish functional national security establishments.  He is also involved in a major project to assist the Republic of Georgia in reforming its national security institutions.  In a recent article that originally appeared in Foreign Policy Romania, he warns that the pending ship deal could have devastating consequences - and not just for Georgia.  He writes, "Some in Paris—led by the Elysée Palace—want to sell Mistral class ships to Russia, a venture with ominous geopolitical implications that would tear at the fabric of NATO." Click here to read the full article.    

In the News

Carey Balaban, Ph.D., is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh and a Visiting Scholar at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies' Center for Health Policy & Preparedness.  A recent article in Pitt magazine looks at Dr. Balaban's work in a critical area: evaluating how a range of different kinds of environmental vibrations affect human tissue. As Pitt magazine reports: "...more and more service members, and perhaps millions of civilians, are living with blast and vibration injuries."  Click here to read the full article.

In the News

Potomac Institute for Policy Studies CEO Michael Swetnam says the time is right for Bold Ideas 2010, an Institute-wide effort to identify key national security challenges in the decade ahead.  Back in 1999-2000, the Institute's original Bold Ideas project demonstrated remarkable foresight. Institute scholars warned of asymmetric threats in the coming years, when our adversaries would come to rely on unconventional tactics and weapons.  Bold Ideas 2010 provides an opportunity for the Institute to once again stake out territory at the frontiers of strategic thinking.

As Swetnam points out, the world is more complicated today, offering fresh challenges but also fresh opportunities.  We live in a "flattening" world, where communications are nearly instantaneous, and the very nature of national power is changing. "In the past," Swetnam says, "it was big, mighty weapons and armies" that defined a superpower. "Today, it's economics and dollars, and world control. Sometimes it's influence and control of public opinion even more than the influence of dollars. How those things will change society for the good and the bad is something we really need to think about."  Then he says, let's think about how to leverage those changes to benefit society, and let's use today's technology to spread the word worldwide.  Click below for comments by Michael Swetnam on Bold Ideas 2010.            

 

 

   

In the News

The Director of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies' Center for Health Policy and Preparedness, Dr. Donald Donahue, commented recently on the emergence of anthrax in two cases.   Dr. Donahue's observations remind us that unforeseen health threats are always lurking, and preparedness is our best defense.  He writes: "The two separate reports of anthrax exposure and the serious illness that accompanies it are both curious anomalies and weighty warnings.  Industrial hygiene has largely eliminated anthrax as a threat in the developed world.  Yet because we do not face this disease on a routine basis, our ability to prevent and detect is limited.  The same danger lies in an emerging, novel disease or an act of bioterrorism."

Dr. Donahue continues, "Only astute, early detection of SARS allowed the countermeasures that prevented it from becoming a global threat.  To quote Senators Bob Graham and Jim Talent:  'We know from the attempted airplane bombing on Christmas Day that al-Qaeda is a determined enemy.  We also know -- from the discovery and dismantling of biological weapons labs in Afghanistan -- that they are pursuing biological weapons research.'
If the first decade of the new millennium taught anything, it is that the unthinkable is possible.  From 9/11 to anthrax attacks to devastating hurricanes to epic flooding, life-altering events have proven to be waiting in the wings.  A common descriptive term related to the outcomes of both the aborted airline bombing and the less-deadly-than-feared influenza pandemic has been luck.  Luck, unfortunately, is not a reliable plan.  The value of predictive planning is more evident than ever.  Serious consideration of how to the support and protect the most valuable asset of your family, business, or community – the human component – will be invaluable when 'what if' becomes 'when.'"

 

In the News

SUMMARY: Decisions by the nation’s medical leadership and some good fortune are playing integral roles in the containment of the H1N1 pandemic, pending the expected third wave. Vaccine supply and dosage, combined with consumer education by health officials have helped control the spread of the virus and disruption to the economy.
STORY LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/02/health/02flu.html

Read more: U.S. Reaction to Swine Flu: Apt and Lucky

News Releases

Event: The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies’ Center for Environmental Economics and Ethics

Announces Its January Workshop On the “Green Economy”

January 20, 2010
9am-3pm

The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies’ Center for Environmental Economics and Ethics, under the direction of James Tate, Jr., Ph.D., will host a day-long workshop on January 20 entitled “Alternatives to Neoclassical Economics for Business and National Security.”  The program will focus on the highly variable concept of “The New Green Economy” by attempting to clarify and expand conventional thinking on the relationships between economy and ecology.  Biologists, economists, and systems specialists will discuss their work on sustainability, biological diversity, valuation of non-commodity resources and conventional views on the economy.  Discussion among panelists and the audience will be used to clarify ideas and inform participants in preparation for the opening of the National Council for Science and the Environment conference on The New Green Economy in Washington, DC.

Speakers will include Dr. James Tate, Director of the Center for Environmental Economics and Ethics, and Dr. James Giordano, Chair of Academic Programs at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.  Also on the program:  Dr. Brian Czech of Steadystate.org, who will address the relationship between sustainability and biological diversity; R. Warren Flint of Five E’s Unlimited, who will speak on a systems approach to sustainable development; Dr. Richard Margrave of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, who will explore the need for fundamental shifts in economic, social, and political systems; and Joan Michelson of J.B. Michelson and Associates, who will address differing points of view on green economy principles.

The program will be held on January 20, 2010, from 9am – 3 pm, at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, 901 N. Stuart Street, Suite 200, Arlington, VA.  Space is limited, and registration and a workshop fee are required. To register, please go to http://ncseonline.org/conference/greeneconomy/cms.cfm?id=2833.