Author's Posts
Opinion: Faith in democracy is vital
August 18th, 20230 Americans are pessimistic about our democracy, according to a recent poll. It’s a worrisome finding. Of course, it’s easy to watch the news and conclude our government isn’t working. But we must not get to the point where we think we can’t solve our problems in a democratic fashion. That’s a danger line. The poll, by The...
Russian uprising caught everyone by surprise, remains a mystery
July 5th, 20230 Recent events in Russia have been surprising, even shocking. When the private army employed by Russia’s Wagner Group left Ukraine and moved toward Moscow last month, it caught everyone by surprise. We’re used to thinking of Russian leader Vladimir Putin as a dictator who has complete control of his country. Maybe he does, but the...
Immigration policy should serve America’s interests
May 24th, 20230 All eyes have been on the U.S.-Mexico border in recent weeks as politicians and pundits assess the impact of changing rules for who can enter the United States. But the fixation on the border can distract from a bigger problem: America’s immigration system hasn’t kept up with the times. We need an immigration policy that advances...
India’s rise brings challenges, opportunity
May 11th, 20230 India is surpassing China to become the world’s most populous nation, according to data from the United Nations. This is a significant development with more than symbolic importance. India, with its huge, diverse population and its growing economy, is poised to play a leading role in global affairs. It’s also a key U.S. ally, but...
U.S. House dysfunction is cause for alarm
January 22nd, 20230 Like many Americans, I watched with dismay this month as the House of Representatives struggled through 15 votes over four days to select a new speaker. The sense of dysfunction was remarkable. Anyone watching might well have wondered about our ability to govern ourselves. For a week, there was no speaker to call the House to order....
Brazil’s politics mirror our own
November 9th, 20220 By Lee H. Hamilton Watching Brazil’s presidential election from the U.S. has been like looking into a funhouse mirror. The image looks a lot like us, for better or for worse. According to official results, challenger Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ousted the incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, and will take office Jan. 1. But the margin was...
We can do more to fight poverty
March 2nd, 20220 American policymakers have a very full plate. They’ve got to grapple with health care, education, the environment, economic growth and more. The list goes on and on. Along with these priorities, I have argued for some time that the policy community needs to do more to address poverty. How much time and resources should we devote to...
We must learn from the attack on the U.S. Capitol
January 20th, 20210 With a new administration taking office, it is tempting to put the disturbing events of Jan. 6 behind us. But we should not dismiss – or fail to learn from – what happened when the president of the United States incited his followers to storm the Capitol and try to overturn a lawfully decided election. The event was a dark moment...
America’s pandemic response: A national and global failure
November 25th, 20200 The COVID-19 pandemic has produced staggering levels of suffering and loss. It has caused more than 250,000 deaths in the United States while devastating the national economy. In addition, our failure to respond effectively has damaged America’s standing in the world. Every day, it seems, we set new records for infections and...
Hope is elusive in troubled Middle East
November 5th, 20200 Where is the hope for the Middle East? No matter how hard we try, it is hard to find grounds for optimism about the future of this troubled region. The Middle East has been a focus of American foreign policy for decades. The time, talent and resources that the United States has spent on challenges in the Middle East are staggering,...
America’s standing in the world
October 15th, 20200 Call it American exceptionalism or not, the American people have always embraced the idea that we live in an exceptional country. We are grateful to be Americans. We take a lot of pride in our country, as we should. Pride and patriotism are among America’s greatest strengths. Having said that, we need to be clear-eyed about our...
Nuclear weapons remain an existential threat
September 3rd, 20200 Seventy-five years ago, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, bringing an end to World War II and sounding a warning about the devastating power of nuclear weapons. Remarkably, we have managed to avoid using these weapons in warfare again. But nuclear arms still present an existential threat and it is...
Five defining features of American foreign policy
August 20th, 20200 American foreign policy goes back to the late 1700s, when Benjamin Franklin lobbied France to support the colonies in their fight for independence from the British. Over 200-plus years, our foreign policy evolved essential features that helped make the United States the world’s indispensable nation. Robert Zoellick, a former World...
Rising China is here to stay
July 22nd, 20200 This is an election year, so we can expect a fresh round of China-bashing. American politicians love to use China as a punching bag; it never stops, really, but the trend accelerates when candidates are running for office. Some punches deserve to be thrown: China does a lot of things we don’t like. It challenges American interests,...
Talented and dedicated citizens are reason for hope in a divided nation
June 21st, 20200 Discouraging news surrounds us. It’s hard to hide from. It’s in the newspapers, on television and radio, and on the Internet. Our nation is divided and our politics are polarized. We are torn apart by disagreements over immigration and by racial divisions. A pandemic has killed more than 100,000 Americans and hobbled the economy.......
Why representative democracy matters
June 6th, 20200 Over the last few years, the health of American democracy has come under great scrutiny. Polling routinely shows that Americans are concerned that democratic institutions aren’t working as well as they ought to. Inevitably, this brings up the question of whether we can mend our problems or if the system of representative democracy...
Opinion: Reasons for hope in a dark time
April 30th, 20200 We are living in a difficult time. Our country and its communities are deeply polarized; many Americans distrust one another as well as the government and other institutions. The novel coronavirus has deepened our problems in a way none of us imagined. The number of Americans who have contracted COVID-19 has surpassed a million. Tens...
How Congress has changed
April 22nd, 20200 If you feel like Congress has become less productive, less functional and more partisan… you’re right. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how it’s changed over the years since I served there in the ‘60s to the ‘90s, and several issues help explain why it often struggles to get things done. Heightened partisanship may...
Fixing the system is up to all of us
January 15th, 20200 You no doubt remember the old line attributed to Ben Franklin when he was asked what kind of government the Constitutional Convention had created: “A republic, if you can keep it!” Well, I’ve noticed an interesting thing in recent years: It’s got bi-partisan appeal. Last fall, for instance, within a few weeks of each other,......
How do we keep our democracy healthy?
November 20th, 20190 Representative democracy is based on a simple premise. It’s that ordinary citizens can make satisfactory judgments on complex public policy and political issues — or at least grasp them well enough to decide who should be dealing with them. But the significance of that premise isn’t simple at all. It means that our country’s...
There’s cause for both concern and optimism when it comes to democracy
September 3rd, 20190 Sometimes, you wonder if the world is doomed to descend into autocracy. Certainly, that’s what the coverage of the past few years suggests. We read about the nations that are already there, like China and Russia, of course, and Saudi Arabia and Iran. Or about countries like Hungary, Turkey and Poland that are nominally......
Democracy won’t die if we don’t let it
August 23rd, 20190 Democracy’s premise is that ordinary citizens can make solid decisions on complex issues. But this basic principle and the structure of laws and practices erected over the centuries to safeguard it are being questioned as rarely before. It’s not just that political leaders in various Western democracies seem to have little regard...
Let’s not just focus on elections, but on how we elect
July 22nd, 20190 A few years ago, I was at a polling place here in Indiana where a long line of people stood waiting to vote. A woman recognized me and called me over. “Why is it,” she asked, “that you politicians make it so hard and inconvenient to vote?” I thought of this the other day when I read the news reports about presidents Trump and......
