The Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law has announced it will become the new base of operations for the Next Generation Project: U. S. Global Policy and the Future of International Institutions, an ambitious, nonpartisan, multiyear initiative started by The American Assembly at Columbia University.
Admiral Bobby R. Inman, USN (Ret.), Strauss Center Governing Board member and Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs interim dean, chaired the Next Generation Project’s senior advisory council.
“The Next Generation Project was a great success for The American Assembly,” said Inman. “It will have even greater impact in its relationship with The University of Texas and the Strauss Center.”
Francis J. Gavin is director of the Strauss Center and was project director for the Next Generation Project.
“The Next Generation Project will be an unparalleled resource for Texas as it integrates into a rapidly changing global landscape,” said Gavin. “With this effort, we hope to bring the world to Texas and Texas to the world.”
The Next Generation Project was initiated in 2005 under the leadership of Richard Fisher, chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, who at that time was chairman of The American Assembly. The project was based on the premise that U. S. foreign policy lacked focus and that the institutions established during the Cold War era were no longer meeting the global challenges of the new century.
The project identified emerging leaders around the nation from every sector, including business, media, law and other private sector industries, as well as members of academia, non-governmental organizations, international institutions and all levels of government, to be part of an influential network of nearly 300 Next Generation Fellows.
The Fellows participated in regional three-day assemblies across the nation. These assemblies produced new insights and fresh thinking about how the United States can generate and implement more effective, forward-looking global policies. Many of the Fellows, as well as Next Generation Project speakers and special advisers, hold influential positions in the private sector, government and nonprofits. A list of the Next Generation Project Fellows, along with reports of recommendations from each assembly, can be found online.
The Next Generation Project will transfer to the Strauss Center from The American Assembly through a series of three, one-day assemblies held in Washington, D.C. The meetings will cover a range of topics, including the Obama administration’s performance in U. S. global policy, combating terrorism and its role in American foreign policy, and the status of reform in large-scale international institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as well as the national security system. These meetings will take place at Meridian International Center. The Center for New American Security Fellows will also participate in the meetings.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower founded The American Assembly, which is affiliated with Columbia University, in 1950 as one of this country’s first nonpartisan, national public affairs forums.
The Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law is a nonpartisan research center at The University of Texas at Austin dedicated to promoting policy-relevant scholarship on the problems and opportunities created by our increasingly globalized and interconnected world.
