Recent Dædalus Issues

The Global Security and International Affairs program area draws on the expertise of policy-makers, practitioners, and scholars to foster knowledge and inform innovative and more substantial policies that address crucial issues affecting the global community. Projects underway in this area engage with pressing strategic, development, and moral questions that underpin relations among people, communities, and states worldwide. Each initiative embraces a broad conception of security as the interaction among human, national, and global security imperatives. Project recommendations move beyond the idea of security as the absence of war toward higher aspirations of collective peace, development, and justice.

Danielle Allen writes about how Facebook is weakening our democratic institutions and what can be done to rebuild them. For solutions, she draws on recommendations in the Our Common Purpose report issued by the Academy Commission she cochaired.

Global challenges, like the COVID-19 pandemic, underscore the value of international coordination and collaboration. In the case of pandemics, this need comes into play not only in managing and mitigating the spread of the disease, but also in the development of treatment therapies and vaccines. Indeed, the first COVID-19 vaccine approved by the U.S. Federal Drug Administration in December 2020 arose from an international collaboration between U.S. and German-based biotech companies, each led by immigrants from Greece and Turkey, respectively.

Academy report includes a roadmap for storing spent nuclear fuel

An evening program at the Congressional Visitors Center in Washington, D.C., featured Commission Cochairs John W. Rowe and Richard H. Brodhead; Commission members David Brooks, Karl W. Eikenberry, Pauline Yu, and John Lithgow; Senators Lamar Alexander and Mark Warner; and Congressmen Tom Petri and David Price.

When the Federal Reserve celebrated its centennial in December 2013, it bore only passing resemblance to the institution created by Democrats, Progressives, and Populists just a century before.

Announcing the 2015-16 Visiting Scholars at the American Academy.

Black World War II veterans were denied the housing and education benefits of the 1944 G.I. Bill. An article in The New Republic endorses and explores legislation and a recommendation in the report from the Commission on Reimagining Our Economy, championed by Commission member Cornell Brooks, to extend those benefits to the direct descendants of those G.I.'s.

Marian Wright Edelman, a trailblazing attorney and civil rights leader, received the Academy’s Award for Excellence in Public Policy and Public Affairs, which recognizes individuals for their distinction, independence, effectiveness, and work on behalf of the common good.

A timely Academy briefing about Iran for congressional staff. Topics discussed included Iran's nuclear program, regime protests, and regional instability.

The Legacy Recognition Program, an important part of the Academy’s overall effort to address and reconcile our history regarding racism and inequality, highlights the contributions of scholars, researchers, writers, artists, business leaders, community leaders, and others whose accomplishments have been overlooked or undervalued due to their race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation.

Militaries, like civilian industries, have a profound capacity to pollute the air, land, and water. What are the estimates of military impact on the environment? And what are some ways to reduce it? The Academy convened a range of experts to consider impacts and options.

The bipartisan Building Civic Bridges Act was reintroduced for consideration during the 119th Congress. The legislation, which aims to heal political polarization within communities, was initially introduced for consideration during the 117th Congress and was inspired in part by recommendations in the Academy’s Our Common Purpose report.

John Lithgow reflects on the mission of the Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences, which was asked to examine the state of the humanities and the social sciences in our country at this historical moment, to evaluate their importance, and to make recommendations for the future.

Science during crisis has distinctive requirements. A rich literature and extensive practical experience in preparing for crises exist, but strategic deployment of scientific expertise and application of scientific information during crisis events must be improved and enhanced.

Alexander Graham Bell visited the Academy and demonstrated his invention of the telephone before members twice during 1876 in May and October...

Scott Sagan discusses the nuclear necessity principle and Academy project on ethics, technology, and war with Randall Pinkston of Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.

On June 19–20, 2019, the Academy convened an Exploratory Meeting in Boston, MA, on “Water in Our Future.” The participants included water program officials, water policy experts, research scientists, and scholars in the humanities and sciences from the United States and around the world. The meeting was organized to help identify key questions related to water security and to inform how a potential Academy project might make a contribution in this area.