President David Abshire talks to Politico about how President Obama can and must tap broader powers of the presidency by looking at the tactics of his predecessors to be successful.
In a Politics Daily article (found here) titled "Should We Rethink Afghanistan War Strategy?" by Luke X. Martin, CSPC is credited with its involvement in the Iraq Study Group. Martin writes:
In March 2006, Wolf helped create the Iraq Study Group, a panel of 10 defense and policy experts from both sides of the aisle who examined the war effort. The group was co-sponsored by the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Center for the Study of the Presidency in Washington, as well as the Baker Public Policy Institute at Rice University in Houston.
CSPC President David M. Abshire is also quoted in the article:
But David Abshire, president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency, a non-partisan policy and education organization, notes that the time Obama has to prove his strategy is already running out.
"People on the right, left and center are now talking against the war," said Abshire, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO. Critics of the war want to see things change now, not in a couple of years.
An opinion piece by CSPC's Dan Mahaffee titled "China's Rise & American Power in East Asia" appears in today's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
The article reviews China's departure from its recent and historical approach to foreign affairs towards a more active, high-profile position of leadership in the world. In noting that this policy shift comes at a time of relative weakness and uncertainty for the United States at both the domestic and international levels, he prescribes three steps the United States may take prevent a new Cold War and check the threat of a rising China.
Yesterday, CSPC President David M. Abshire appeared in an Associated Press article (found here) by Robert Burns titled "US stresses aid to Pakistan, eyeing improved image." Below is an excerpt from the article:
David Abshire, a retired U.S. ambassador who is president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, said in an interview that Obama's Afghanistan-Pakistan policy needs help.
"I don't think we have a firm anchor at the end of our policy," Abshire said, adding that Obama's decision last December to send an extra 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan has wide support, but many are uncertain what steps following the troop surge will be needed."
CSPC's latest report "Prosperity or Decline? Breaking Washington's Deadlock to Save America's Future" was recently featured in Government Executive Magazine. Comparing the CSPC report with an essay by Arthur C. Brooks, the president of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Timothy Clarke's article (found here) states:
Brooks' argument against government expansionism is echoed in less ideological form in the final report of the CPSC's Strengthening America's Future Initiative, issued in April. It too posits a key turning point and seeks to lay out ideas for "regaining our strategic and financial freedom of action, unity at home and standing abroad." CPSC President David Abshire, former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer, leading defense industrialist and Pentagon official Norman Augustine, and former Comptroller General David M. Walker led the initiative's steering committee. Walker is now president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, which funded the study.
It raises the alarm about the looming fiscal crisis. Interest on the nation's debt soon could be the largest item in the federal budget, buying us nothing of value, the study notes. And it steps up the argument a notch, suggesting we soon might face a situation analogous to the time when, as one of its leading creditors, we forced the British government to abandon a plan to regain control of the Suez Canal. In "an American Suez," China and other major purchasers of U.S. debt might similarly face what British leader Harold MacMillan called "the last gasp of a declining power."
While focusing principally on the fiscal challenge, the CPSC report recommends government undertakes comprehensive political and programmatic reform - in electoral practices; congressional committee restructuring; civil service training; new policies to enhance educational achievement and proficiency in math, science and engineering; energy consumption; infrastructure improvement; immigration policies; and more.
CSPC President David M. Abshire was recently published in the Spring 2010 issue of the Council of American Ambassadors' The Ambassadors Review. Dr. Abshire's piece, titled "The Presidency: A Need for Greatness Again," urges President Obama to take a strong position of leadership in building coalitions across party lines and to promote bipartisan efforts to encourage America's pursuit of excellence without the excessive political distortion of policy.
Dr. Abshire's piece can be found for download here.
....President Woodrow Wilson announced before a full session of Congress that the United States was breaking all diplomatic ties with Germany. The decision was made after Germany reintroduced a policy of unlimited submarine warfare...
...which meant that American vessels shipping arms and other supplies to Britain would be in danger. The announcement was dramatic because it signaled a turning point in U.S. foreign policy that had long been one of non-interventionism. Wilson stressed that "we do not desire any hostile conflict with the German Government,” but warned that war could follow if Germany did indeed sink any American ships without warning. Germany proceeded with their announced policy, however, and on the same day sunk the American cargo ship Housatonic near the coast of Britain. The relationship between the nations quickly deteriorated and war loomed in the horizon. A few months later after Germany’s attempt to lure Mexico into declaring war on the United States and the sinking of six other American merchant vessels, the Congress declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917. The severing of diplomatic ties with GWilson Addressing Congressermany signified a major turning point in American history as the United States took on a more active role in world politics. While Wilson’s plans to continue America’s global role after the war collapsed and isolationism made a brief comeback in the interwar years, Wilson’s speech before Congress was a prelude to a more active foreign policy of the 20th century.
...President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered his Presidential Address to Congress—a speech that would come to be known as the “Infamy Speech.” The day after Japanese pilots bombed the US naval fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, the President asserted, “No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory. I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.” One hour later, Congress formally declared war on Japan, bringing the United States into World War II.
CSPC President Dr. David Abshire is quoted in the Pittsburgh-Tribune Review about the evolving nature of national security threats in a post 9/ll era.
An opinion piece by CSPC's Dan Mahaffee titled "China's Rise & American Power in East Asia" appears in today's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
....President Woodrow Wilson announced before a full session of Congress that the United States was breaking all diplomatic ties with Germany. The decision was made after Germany reintroduced a policy of unlimited submarine warfare...
