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21. Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board Organizational Assessment

Author:
Michael Dominguez
Publication Date:
11-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The National Academy of Public Administration
Abstract:
Given the current strategic aim of the Department of Defense (DOD) to aggressively update the nation’s nuclear arsenal through DOE-operated defense nuclear facilities, and the aging infrastructure in the DOE’s nuclear complex, the Panel unequivocally concludes that the DNFSB’s safety oversight mission is as important today as it has ever been in its thirty-year history. The Panel, however, finds evidence confirming that the Board has recently underperformed in its essential mission.
Topic:
Defense Policy, Nuclear Weapons, Military Strategy, and Military Affairs
Political Geography:
United States and North America

22. China Maritime Report No. 3: China’s Distant-Ocean Survey Activities: Implications for U.S. National Security

Author:
Ryan D. Martinson and Peter A. Dutton
Publication Date:
11-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
China Maritime Studies Institute, U.S. Naval War College
Abstract:
Today, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is investing in marine scientific research on a massive scale. This investment supports an oceanographic research agenda that is increasingly global in scope. One key indicator of this trend is the expanding operations of China’s oceanographic research fleet. On any given day, 5-10 Chinese “scientific research vessels” (科学考查船) may be found operating beyond Chinese jurisdictional waters, in strategically-important areas of the Indo-Pacific. Overshadowed by the dramatic growth in China’s naval footprint, their presence largely goes unnoticed. Yet the activities of these ships and the scientists and engineers they embark have major implications for U.S. national security. This report explores some of these implications. It seeks to answer basic questions about the out-of-area—or “distant-ocean” (远洋)—operations of China’s oceanographic research fleet. Who is organizing and conducting these operations? Where are they taking place? What do they entail? What are the national drivers animating investment in these activities?
Topic:
Military Strategy, Military Affairs, Geopolitics, Navy, Oceans and Seas, Seapower, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and People's Republic of China (PRC)
Political Geography:
United States, China, and Asia

23. Echelon Defense: The Role of Sea Power in Chinese Maritime Dispute Strategy

Author:
Ryan D. Martinson
Publication Date:
02-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
China Maritime Studies Institute, U.S. Naval War College
Abstract:
On April 10, 2012, two Chinese law-enforcement cutters on joint patrol in the South China Sea received orders to proceed immediately to Scarborough Shoal, a disputed cluster of rocks 140 nautical miles west of Subic Bay, the Philippines. Earlier that day, a Chinese fisherman aboard one of several boats moored in the lagoon had transmitted an alarming message to authorities in his home port in Hainan: “Philippine Navy ship number 15 heading this way.” Ship number 15 was BRP Gregorio del Pilar, an elderly former U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) cutter now serving as a frigate in the Philippine navy. Not long after the first message arrived in Hainan, sailors operating from the ship entered the lagoon and approached the Chinese boats. At this point, the fisherman sent a final message: “They’re boarding.”
Topic:
Military Strategy, Military Affairs, Geopolitics, Navy, Oceans and Seas, Seapower, and Port
Political Geography:
United States, China, and Asia

24. America First: The Past and Future of an Idea

Author:
Melvyn P. Leffler and William Hitchcock
Publication Date:
09-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR)
Abstract:
Like many historians, I was stunned a couple of years ago when Donald Trump started campaigning on the platform of America First. For me, America First was associated with the insularity, isolationism, unilateralism, nativism, anti-Semitism, and appeasement policies that President Franklin D. Roosevelt struggled to overcome in 1940 and 1941. Why, I asked myself, would anyone want to associate himself with that discredited movement, a movement that seemed eviscerated after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941? Did Trump understand or know about that movement?
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, History, and Diplomatic History
Political Geography:
United States

25. When Islamophobia Turns Violent: The 2016 U.S Presidential Elections

Publication Date:
11-2018
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Bridge Initiative, Georgetown University
Abstract:
This report highlights trends and patterns surrounding Islamophobia since the start of the 2016 U.S. presidential election cycle. It does so in the broader context of hatred, violence and social hostilities confronting Muslims as a minority faith group in contemporary America and with a particular focus on acts and threats of violence. Since 2015, the Bridge Initiative has been chronicling Islamophobic political rhetoric by each presidential candidate irrespective of his or her party affiliation while finding Republican candidates to be the worst offenders to date. In this publication, however, we aim to contextualize such statements nationally and internationally while also exploring potentially violent effects. To that end, we examined two distinct but overlapping time periods: January 2015 through December 2015 (entire duration of 2015) and March 2015 through March 2016 (2016 presidential election season).
Topic:
Political Violence, Islam, Public Opinion, Elections, Islamophobia, Violence, and Voting
Political Geography:
United States

26. Designing Our Secure Future: Inaugural Convening, Ottawa, Canada

Publication Date:
01-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Our Secure Future
Abstract:
Our Secure Future (OSF) believes that women’s full participation in society makes the crucial difference in achieving more effective governance and lasting peace. OSF aims to strengthen the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) movement by amplifying women’s voices, strengthening the global network of women peacebuilders, and promoting committed action by multiple stakeholders to turn policy into practice. Founded in 2016 with a mission to strengthen the Women, Peace and Security movement to enable effective policy-related decision-making for a more just and peaceful world, we set out to understand how best to achieve our vision of achieving a more peaceful future transformed by women’s full participation. After a series of consultations with multiple stakeholders in the WPS field during the summer and fall of 2016, we found that the issues of developing a shared vision for the Women, Peace and Security agenda and collaborating on common narratives were recurrently named as being critical to making progress in this field. The overwhelming feedback pointed to the nee
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Gender Issues, Women, and WPS
Political Geography:
United States and Global Focus

27. Paying for Prescription Drugs Around the World: Why Is the U.S. an Outlier?

Author:
Shawn Bishop, David Squires, and Dana O. Sarnak
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Commonwealth Fund
Abstract:
arious factors contribute to high per capita drug spending in the U.S. While drug utilization appears to be similar in the U.S. and the nine other countries considered, the prices at which drugs are sold in the U.S. are substantially higher. These price differences appear to at least partly explain current and historical disparities in spending on pharmaceutical drugs. U.S. consumers face particularly high out-of-pocket costs, both because the U.S. has a large uninsured population and because cost-sharing requirements for those with coverage are more burdensome than in other countries. Most Americans support reducing pharmaceutical costs. International experience demonstrates that policies like universal health coverage, insurance benefit design that restricts out-of-pocket spending, and certain price control strategies, like centralized price negotiations, can be effective.
Topic:
Health, Health Care Policy, and Drugs
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, and Global Focus

28. Designing a High-Performing Health Care System for Patients with Complex Needs: Ten Recommendations for Policymakers

Publication Date:
09-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Commonwealth Fund
Abstract:
Health care costs are heavily concentrated among people with multiple health problems. Often, these are older adults living with frailty, advanced illness, or other complex conditions. In 2014, the New York–based Commonwealth Fund, a private, independent foundation, established the International Experts Working Group on Patients with Complex Needs through a grant to the London School of Economics and Political Science. The group’s purpose was to outline the prerequisites of a high-performing health care system for “high-need, high-cost” patients and to identify promising international innovations in health care delivery for meeting needs of these patients. Drawing on international experience, quantitative and qualitative evidence, and its members’ collective expertise in policy and program design, implementation, and evaluation, the international working group sought to articulate the principles that underpin high performance for this complex population in health systems around the world.
Topic:
Health and Health Care Policy
Political Geography:
United States and Global Focus

29. Mirror, Mirror 2017: International Comparison Reflects Flaws and Opportunities fo

Author:
Michelle M. Doty, Arnav Shah, David Squires, Dana O. Sarnak, and Eric C. Schneider
Publication Date:
07-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Commonwealth Fund
Abstract:
The U.S. ranked last on performance overall, and ranked last or near last on the Access, Administrative Efficiency, Equity, and Health Care Outcomes domains. The top-ranked countries overall were the U.K., Australia, and the Netherlands. Based on a broad range of indicators, the U.S. health system is an outlier, spending far more but falling short of the performance achieved by other high-income countries. The results suggest the U.S. health care system should look at other countries’ approaches if it wants to achieve an affordable high-performing health care system that serves all Americans.
Topic:
Health and Health Care Policy
Political Geography:
United States and Global Focus

30. International Profiles of Health Care Systems

Author:
Elias Mossialos, Ana Djordjevic, Robin Osborn, and Dana O. Sarnak
Publication Date:
05-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Commonwealth Fund
Abstract:
This publication presents overviews of the health care systems of Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, England, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United States. Each overview covers health insurance, public and private financing, health system organization and governance, health care quality and coordination, disparities, efficiency and integration, use of information technology and evidence-based practice, cost containment, and recent reforms and innovations. In addition, summary tables provide data on a number of key health system characteristics and performance indicators, including overall health care spending, hospital spending and utilization, health care access, patient safety, care coordination, chronic care management, disease prevention, capacity for quality improvement, and public views.
Topic:
Health and Health Care Policy
Political Geography:
United States and Global Focus