Conservative brain trust : the rise, fall, and rise again of the American Enterprise Institute / Howard J. Wiarda.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wiarda, Howard J., 1939-2015.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.

Policy sciences.

Economics--Research--United States.

Economics.

Wiarda, Howard J., 1939-2015.

Wiarda, Howard J.

Wiarda, Howard J., 1939-.

Economics--Research.

United States.

Physical Description:

x, 328 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, MD : Lexington Books, [2009]

Summary:

Conservative Brain Trust traces the history of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) for Public Policy Research. More than that, it is the story of one of Washington's leading think tanks: what it's like to work there, how Washington works, and how AEI influences policy, including policy on the controversial Iraq War.

This book is a wide-ranging review of the Washington think tank world, focused particularly on AEI. It is a social science and political study of the role of think tanks in Washington policy-making and also, in part, a personal memoir of the author's adventures and perceptions in linking academic research and American foreign policy. What emerges is a portrait of AEI as an influential, but also troubled, think tank with access to the highest levels of the U.S. government. Irreverent and analytical, the author recounts his adventures and experiences in the think tank and policy worlds.

Contents:

1 Introduction: "The Call" 1

2 "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington": An Introduction to Washington and AEI 13

3 Into the Swim: A Jaundiced View of the Main Washington Foreign Policy Institutions 29

4 Think Tanks and Foreign Policy 45

5 Latin America on the Agenda: Foreign Policy in a Peripheral Area 63

6 Power and Policy-Making in Washington, D.C.: How Foreign Policy Gets Made 79

7 The Democracy Initiative in American Foreign Policy 93

8 The Kissinger Commission on Central America 109

9 Am I Entitled to Be Called "Honorable"?: Serving the White House at Home and Abroad 137

10 Congress, the President, and Foreign Policy Decision-Making: Conflict and Confrontation 165

11 On the Lecture Circuit: Doing Well by Doing Good 187

12 Washington Adventures and Misadventures: Are We a Banana Republic or What? 209

13 The Looming Crisis of AEI 235

14 AEI in Collapse: A Farewell to D.C. 257

15 AEI Reborn and Reconstituted 279.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780739128831

0739128833

9780739128848

0739128841

9780739133057

0739133055

OCLC:

259715950