On Being a Republican in Massachusetts: Notes of a Party Chairman

In the 1970s the Democratic and Republican national and state parties initiated efforts at party renewal in order to reverse their declining institutional power. Between 1980 and 1987 the Massachusetts Republican Party undertook a renewal effort modeled after that of the Republican National Committee under William Brock. This model emphasized the provision to candidates and to the grassroots party organization of campaign sendees such as literature design, polling, direct mail fund-raising, telephone banks, and campaign schools. The Massachusetts Republican Party concentrated these services to candidates for the state legislature, achieving the largest net gain in seats since 1962. Campaign technology as a party renewal strategy has inherent limits, which may now have been reached; further progress may require changes in the ideology and image of the state party

Reaching More for Less: Modernizing US International Food Aid Programs

The Food for Peace program has saved millions of lives around the world for more than a half century and has been perhaps the most powerful and visible symbol of American generosity to those in need. The question is not whether the program has been successful in saving lives, but whether it can be improved to make it more effective, more efficient, and faster, so that more lives can be saved? The author, Director of the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs and a former USAID administrator, makes the case that the program should have more flexibility to procure emergency food relief locally and regionally

Establishing the North American Disease Defense Shield (NADDS) at the Panama-Colombia Border

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the devastating impact infectious diseases can have on human health, social orders, economies, and political systems. Throughout human history, pandemics have remade governments and economies. The extensive reach of infectious disease, combined with global vulnerability to rapidly spread due to globalization, makes it vital that the U.S. learns lessons from COVID-19 and previous pandemics in order to reduce the damage that can be caused by future outbreaks.The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the devastating impact infectious diseases can have on human health, social orders, economies, and political systems. Throughout human history, pandemics have remade governments and economies. The extensive reach of infectious disease, combined with global vulnerability to rapidly spread due to globalization, makes it vital that the U.S. learns lessons from COVID-19 and previous pandemics in order to reduce the damage that can be caused by future outbreaks

Putin’s New Russia: Fragile State or Revisionist Power?

As seen in South Central Review Vol. 35, No. I Spring 2018, published by John Hopkins University Press. The evidence presented in these essays suggests Russia is a declining power, but a well-armed one. A declining, revisionist power, can be as dangerous and destabilizing as a rising power, particularly if it has a large land army, cyber warfare capability, equipped with new advanced conventional weapons, and a nuclear arsenal. For several years now, the Kremlin has boasted publicly that it can incinerate western European countries with its nuclear arsenal, rhetoric which appears to be more inflammatory than during the Cold War. Despite Putin’s short-term tactical victories against a weakened and distracted western alliance, the long-term prospects are not good for Russia, given its internal fragility. Its public services, military power, and economic system rest on an unstable foundation of volatile oil, gas, and mineral revenues, a propaganda machine that grossly distorts external reality for the Russian people, a demographic time-bomb, corrupted institutions which lack legitimacy and resilience, and a corrupt governing elite of Oligarchs who make up Putin’s inner circle

The Growing Threat of Pandemics: Enhancing Domestic and International Biosecurity

A Scowcroft Institute White Paper addressing epidemic response and preparedness.The threat posed by pandemics grows alongside increased globalization and technological innovation. Distant cultures can now be connected in a day’s time, and international trade links global health and economic prosperity. In this report, the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University details nine priority areas and accompanying action items that will help to address current pandemic response problems.The Bush School of Government and Public Service Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs Texas A&M Universit

Pandemic Preparedness and Response in the Age of Technology

The Fourth Annual White Paper from the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at The Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M UniversityEffective pandemic preparedness and response depend on the quality as well as the speed of obtaining relevant information, especially from remote and hard to reach areas of the world, where most known and unknown disease outbreaks occur and originate. Equally important is the local/national ability to collate, analyze, and interpret the information in a form valuable for taking appropriate preventive action and response. For web-based surveillance systems to be more effective, it is important that the capacity to collate, analyze, interpret, and disseminate the information in a form that results in appropriate preventive action and response in the countries where these diseases originate. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the ability to obtain information from different sources and dissemination of such information globally. Despite the availability of information on the development of the pandemic from a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), many countries were unprepared when the pandemic finally reached their borders. It is not enough for countries to efficiently analyze disease surveillance data, they must actively prepare to prevent the entry of a disease into their territory and, at the same time, prepare plans and identify and initiate containment measures that need to be taken to prevent the establishment of the disease in the country

Global leadership at the crossroads: Are we prepared for the next pandemic?

"In this report, the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at The Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M University outlines eight priority areas and their accompanying recommended action items to address vulnerabilities in the current pandemic preparedness and response system. Collectively, they represent issues the international community should address in order to establish pandemic preparedness and response capabilities." -- p. 5

Community Resilience, Centralized Leadership & Multi-Sectoral Collaboration

Since the end of the 1918 pandemic the world has faced three more influenza pandemics, the most recent being the 2009 H1N1 pandemic which infected 2 billion people in 6 months. Additionally, we face an ever increasing frequency of emerging infectious diseases with pandemic potential. These diseases could kill millions, cost billions, and have other significant economic, social, national security, and political consequences. If the United States and international system do not make progress towards closing the gaps addressed in this and previous Scowcroft white papers, countries will remain vulnerable to a devastating outbreak.One hundred years ago the 1918 influenza pandemic swept the globe, killing between 50-90 million people. The loss of life was so great that cities throughout the United States struggled to keep up with burials; it is estimated that 195,000 Americans died in October 1918 alone (CDC, 2018). During the height of the outbreak, Chicago reported 1,200 people dying per day and Philadelphia had so many dead bodies they weren’t able to bury them in a timely manner, with some awaiting burial for over a week (CDC, 2018). In 2006, the last remaining survivor of the 1918 outbreak was asked about his memories of the pandemic and he recalled that people would become ill in the morning and be dead by nighttime stating, “That’s how quickly it happened. They disappeared from the face of the earth” (Associated Press, 2006). Since the end of the 1918 pandemic the world has faced three more influenza pandemics, the most recent being the 2009 H1N1 pandemic which infected 2 billion people in 6 months. Additionally, we face an ever increasing frequency of emerging infectious diseases with pandemic potential. These diseases could kill millions, cost billions, and have other significant economic, social, national security, and political consequences. Technological developments of the last hundred years have brought incredible international advancements and have created a more dependent and interconnected global economy, but these same advances that promote economic prosperity, also create new and unique challenges for pandemic preparedness and response. In an increasingly interconnected world the threat of pandemics continues to grow. It is not a matter of if there will be a major pandemic, but when. The Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs is committed to elevating the importance of pandemic preparedness and biosecurity as a national security priority, and to bringing attention to the challenges and gaps, as well as the opportunities to improve our response systems so that when the next pandemic strikes, the catastrophic impacts can be mitigated or reduced. In this white paper, we address four gaps and provide accompanying recommendations that we believe must be addressed in order to increase our pandemic preparedness and biosecurity. These gaps and topic areas include: 1) Establishing greater community resilience; 2) Strengthening coordination and leadership at the federal level in the United States; 3) Changing the university and funding reward systems to encourage greater interdisciplinary research, education, and service; and 4) Elevating the importance and incentives for private sector involvement in pandemic preparedness and response, as well as their involvement in overall biosecurity. In addition to the topic areas, which are present in each annual policy white paper, we have included short inserts by experts in the fields of pandemic preparedness and biosecurity. Lastly, for the first time we have included a pandemic report card. This examines progress made, if any, on the recommendations presented in the 2018 Scowcroft Institute White Paper. The purpose of this new addition is to provide an added element of accountability for those at the national and international level tasked with pandemic preparedness and response. If the United States and international system do not make progress towards closing the gaps addressed in this and previous Scowcroft white papers, countries will remain vulnerable to a devastating outbreak