How can the United States best integrate its diplomatic, military, and economic power to advance its national security interests?
In December, the Tobin Project brought together academics, policymakers, and think-tank researchers from various disciplines for a three-day conference focused on pressing, unanswered questions arising out of current policy debates and ongoing research at the Tobin Project.
The Tobin Project is pleased to announce that the MacArthur Foundation has renewed its support for Tobin Project programs with a generous, multi-year grant.
This fall, the Tobin Project released a new volume, titled The Prudent Use of Power in American National Security Strategy. Co-edited by Stephen Van Evera (MIT, Political Science) and Sidharth Shah (The Tobin Project), this compendium of ten essays from leading scholars in the field examines the utility of non-military power in U.S.
In recent years, our country has weathered shared disasters of great magnitude, calling into question the resilience of a range of societal institutions, from our financial system to our oil rigs. These events suggest that proper regulation is both necessary and, in too many cases, in need of significant improvement. Yet, as policymakers aim to prevent future crises, contemporary scholarship has not offered adequate insight into where regulation can be effective and how to strengthen weak or captured agencies.
In 2007, the wealthiest 1% of families controlled more than 23% of income in the U.S. for the first time since 1928.
Energized by the rich dialogue she witnessed at Tobin’s spring inequality conference, Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) offered to co-host a roundtable discussion between policymakers and scholars in Washington, D.C. The meeting brought together key administration officials and Congressional leaders with Tobin-affiliated scholars to explore the potential consequences of dramatic economic inequality in the United States.
Shortly after the September release of their acclaimed book, Winner-Take-All Politics, Jacob Hacker (Yale University, Political Science) and Paul Pierson (University of California-Berkeley, Political Science) headlined a panel discussion in Cambridge co-sponsored by the Tobin Project and the Harvard Kennedy School.
What are the ingredients integral to a healthy democracy? In September, the Tobin Project invited eight top scholars with expansive and overlapping perspectives to consider the fundamental institutions and processes that constitute a sustainable and vibrant democracy. The group paid particular attention to the role of civil society and education in democratic societies.
In the spring of 2010, the Tobin Project issued a call for fellowship aplications from students doing work that addresses the intersection between democratic institutions and economic markets. Fellowships were awarded to fourteen students, whose projects ranged from "Policymaking at the U.S. Federal Reserve" to "Farming Families, Farm Policy, and the Business of Southern Agriculture, 1940-1980." Many of the felloship recipients came together in September for the first fall meeting of the Democracy & Markets forum.
In August, a New York Times article highlighted the potential link between income inequality and financial crises, drawing on the work of David Moss (Harvard Business School), Margaret Blair (Vanderbilt University Law School), and Richard Freeman (Harvard University, Economics), whose research in this area was developed at Tobin's