Issue No. 1, Winter 2020 Enterprise Report Restoring Liberty, Opportunity, and Enterprise in America A New Year and New Opportunities By AEI President Robert Doar A new year offers the opportunity to set priorities. Our highest priorities at AEI come from our institutional commitment to freedom: We believe in free people, free markets, and limited government. We promote the rule of law, economic opportunity for all, and institutions of civil society that make our freedom possible. And we stand for a strong American role in the world. These priorities guide how we want our scholarship to move the public debate; they relate to our philosophical predisposition. And they are well-known. Lately, I have been thinking about two other priorities that are less discussed but vitally important to the Institute and our scholars’ work. These two priorities are not so much about where we want our country to be headed but rather how we want to do our research—the intellectual environment AEI must foster so that our scholars can do their best and most effective work. That intellectual environment must be grounded in two simple values: independence of thought and the competition of ideas. So long as they remain consistent with our overarching philosophy and maintain high standards of quality, our scholars engage in their work free of control from anyone, including management. Within their areas of expertise, our scholars study, write, and say what they want to study, write, and say. We recruit great thinkers and writers with established records, and we give them the freedom to apply their skills however they see fit. There is no one voice at AEI—no heavy-handed review to check for ideological or partisan orthodoxy. All our scholars have, in effect, a publish button on their keyboards. This is a rare thing. It has allowed great minds such as Jeane Kirkpatrick, Irving Kristol, Robert Bork, Charles Murray, Leon Kass, Michael Barone, Nicholas Eberstadt, Lynne Cheney, Alan Viard, Arthur Brooks, and countless others past and present to do groundbreaking work, often (and at their best) challenging orthodoxies in the academy, in our culture and politics, and on the left and right—Democrat and Republican. That freedom is why scholars want to come to AEI and why they love working here. It is Robert Doar also why our scholars sometimes disagree with each other—why we may find ourselves on AEI President and different sides of a particular debate, representing contrasting views in the op-ed pages, Morgridge Scholar at a congressional hearing, or on our own AEI stage. Such competition of views is made possible by AEI’s commitment to intellectual “There is no one voice at independence. And that commitment certainly extends to our approach to fundraising. AEI—no heavy-handed We do not accept government money, and we never accept donations that are conditioned review to check for on predetermined research conclusions or recommendations. We always turn down ideological or partisan donations that come with strings attached. orthodoxy. All our Since 2011, 57 percent of our contributions have come from individuals, 29 percent from scholars have, in effect, a foundations, and 14 percent from corporations. No one donor accounts for more than a publish button small fraction of our revenue. Our scholars’ work is never, in the parlance of Washington, on their keyboards.” “transactional.” To be sure, some of our scholars have professional pursuits beyond their AEI work, and they undertake a variety of activities, from teaching at universities to serving as advisers and consultants to other organizations, both private and not-for-profit. On the whole, these activities enhance our research community. Our scholars are not isolated in an ivory tower; they are engaged in the policy community and the world in a meaningful way that makes their work more relevant and productive. When there is a question about a conflict of interest—when a scholar’s professional pursuits outside of AEI might threaten the integrity of his or her work—we address the conflict head-on through disclosure. In the marketplace of ideas, readers ought to make their own judgments about whether a scholar’s disclosed activities prejudice his or her argument. In some cases, when a conflict is such that our scholar’s work is unduly influenced by an outside interest, disclosure is not sufficient. When that happens, we will part ways because independence is vital to our work’s credibility. By being vigilant about our commitment to freedom and independence, we enhance our scholars’ ability to improve our country through the wisdom of their ideas and the strength of their empirical research. As a result, we will be more successful in advancing our central mission: promoting economic and political freedoms that are nurtured by a healthy civil society and protected by a strong American presence in the world. One final point: AEI’s commitment to independence of thought and the competition of ideas is especially important now as various ideological orthodoxies capture so much of our national discussion. As the main partisan camps seem to be retreating to separate corners and waging a vicious tribal war, we at AEI remain committed to the power of ideas and civil discourse because that path leads our country toward what Winston Churchill called the “broad sunlit uplands” of a free and flourishing nation. New Books from AEI Scholars Offer Optimism for American Renewal New Volume Making Citizens: The AEI scholars Yuval Levin and Michael Strain recently released books that Purpose of America’s offer valuable insights into the political, Education System economic, and cultural moment in which we are living today. Both books Several AEI scholars contributed to offer reasons for optimism and concrete a book released in February titled steps for national renewal. How to Educate an American: The Conservative Vision for Tomorrow’s Schools (Templeton Press, 2020). Coedited by Michael Petrilli (Fordham Michael Strain’s new book, The University) and Chester Finn (Hoover American Dream Is Not Dead (but Institution), the volume includes Populism Could Kill It) (Templeton original essays from AEI scholars Press, 2020), contests the popular Michael Barone, Arthur Brooks, narrative that the American dream is Nicholas Eberstadt, Jonah Goldberg, no longer attainable by the majority Yuval Levin, Ramesh Ponnuru, Ian Rowe, of Americans. The book presents the and Naomi Schaefer Riley, as well as Yuval Levin’s book is titled A Time to overwhelming—and underreported— Robert P. George (Princeton University), Build: From Family and Community to data that undermine claims from the Bill Bennett (former secretary of Congress and the Campus, How populist left and right about the education), and Peter Wehner Recommitting to Our Institutions Can demise of the American dream, (Ethics & Public Policy Center). Revive the American Dream (Basic making the case that today’s Addressing various issues including Books, 2020). Levin argues that a economy is in fact delivering for family structure, the mission of high transformation of our expectations of American workers and is still largely school, and education’s role in institutions has played a key part in characterized by upward economic labor force participation, each powering our age of acrimony and mobility. The book attempts to shift contributor converges on the belief shaking the foundations of our common the narrative from victimhood and that the purpose of primary and culture. We have moved from seeing grievance to personal responsibility secondary education is to mold our institutions as formative to thinking and economic opportunity. Essays the individual into an integral and of them as performative—from molds from Henry Olsen (Ethics & Public productive US citizen. The volume that shape our character to platforms that Policy Center) and E. J. Dionne offers recommendations to refresh enable us to be seen. By understanding (Washington Post) respond to the vision of quality K–12 education what our institutions do for us, how they Strain’s argument and set the stage for today’s America and equip are failing us, and how we might be for an ongoing conversation on the next generation to preserve failing them too, Levin hopes to chart a these issues. America’s heritage. path toward an American renewal. Charles Murray on Gender, Race, and Class In January, Charles Murray released his latest book, Human Diversity: The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class (Twelve, 2020). The book examines advances in genetics and neuroscience that threaten to overthrow many of the existing intellectual orthodoxies in social science surrounding issues of gender, race, and class. Human Diversity draws on the most authoritative scientific findings without sensationalism and celebrates human differences and our common humanity. Murray’s other landmark books include the New York Times bestseller Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010 (Crown Forum, 2012), By the People: Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission (Crown Forum, 2015), and In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State (AEI Press, 2006). 3 Foreign and Defense Policy AEI Scholars on Iran In January, the Middle East was rocked by the killing of Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia chief Abu Mehdi al-Muhandis by the United States in Baghdad. The killings of Soleimani and Muhandis stirred up considerable controversy, with debate on issues such as the risk of escalating conflict with Iran, the process to authorize the strike, and how it would affect the US presence in Iraq. In response to these events, AEI scholars including Hal Brands, Frederick Kagan, n Danielle Pletka testified before the Danielle Pletka, Ken Pollack, Michael Rubin, and Marc Thiessen published more House Committee on Foreign Affairs than a dozen op-eds in top news outlets, spoke with dozens of reporters, Subcommittee on the Middle East, appeared on numerous broadcast news outlets, and produced podcasts and North Africa, and International videos offering a deep dive into the context surrounding the latest developments Terrorism on the outcomes and in Iran.