Monthly Archives: August 2008

Conservative Movement Profile: The American Enterprise Institute

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The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) is one of the most influential conservative and neo-conservative think-tanks in Washington D.C. Founded in 1943 and gaining reputation in the 1970’s and 80’s, the Institute emerged to prominence with a clear vision for advancing the principles of free enterprise capitalism, limited government, private enterprise, and individual responsibility.

Once praised by President Ronald Reagan who said “[no think tank] has been more influential than the American Enterprise Institute,” today AEI is led by President Christopher DeMuth as a private, non-partisan, and not-for-profit organization. The Institute’s impressive list of fellows include notable and influential political figures John Bolton, Lynne Cheney, Newt Gingrich, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Frederick W. Kagan, Michael Novak, Paul Wolfowitz, and Leon D. Kass.

AEI is located in Washington, DC with a staff of 190 resident and visiting scholars and fellows, research and administrative assistants, editorial and conference staff and others. The Institute publishes the research of its resident and visiting scholars in short publications, monographs, and books from its AEI Press. Beyond written publications, the Institute also hosts events such as book forums and panel discussions that are open to the public and often daily or week.

Recent events include “Can Consumers Save Medicare,” “From Brown to ‘Bong Hits’: Assesssing Half a Century of Judicial Involvement in Education” and Session Eight of the series “AEI Election Watch 2008.”

Beyond in-house events and speakers, the Institute provides a broad and deep amount of research accessible on their website. Short publications include papers, speeches, co-ops, newsletters, and government testimony on all research topics including government, economics, social welfare, and politics. Also offered are podcasts, webcasts, and video and transcripts of conferences and events.

Students looking for internships should be aware of AEI’s competitive, highly selective, but very rewarding internship program. Rated by the Princeton Review, Random House Guide to Internships, and Vault Guide to Internships as one of the top 100 internships in America, the program places students with renowned scholars, economists, and policy figures to gain experience in areas of policy, research, and publishing.

For more information, please see:

Home: http://www.aei.org/default.asp?filter=all

Events: http://www.aei.org/events/filter.all/events.asp

Short Publications: http://www.aei.org/publications/filter.all/pub_listing.asp

Print & Broadcast Media Tips: The Ten B’s

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Every Monday we will focus on Print & Broadcast Media Tips – beginning this week with The Ten B’s to bear in mind when dealing with the media.

  1. Be Realistic: the press is not your PR machinery! It faces time and space limitations. Before you peddle news to journalists, try to think like a journalist. Does the story have a human interest angle? Is it genuinely relevant to the newspaper’s readers? Or is it parochial and irrelevant?
  2. Be Prepared: make sure you know who the editors and reporters are! You must also only ever give an interview when you are ready – if you need time, ask for the reporter’s deadline, tell him you need to collect information, offer to get back to him at a certain and then make sure you do so. If you upset a journalist, be prepared for the consequences…
  3. Be Accessible: media relations is about human relations. You should never simply say “no comment” as this suggests you are hiding something. Explain why you cannot comment, discuss general policy instead of specifics and/or switch the topic to something you can say.
  4. Be Honest: never lie to a journalist. Ever. If you have bad news, admit it and move on to corrective action. Lying will come back to haunt you. Just as Bill “I-did-not-have-sexual-relations-with-that-woman” Clinton.
  5. Be Quotable: if you are dull journalists will not come back to talk to you again. Make your quotes memorable. Put your issues into plain English in a way that connects with voters. Rather than giving an unmemorable quote because you are in a hurry, delay putting out your message so that it is properly crafted.

The next five of The Ten B’s will be revealed next Monday. Make sure you bookmark this website in the meantime!

Conservative Movement Profile: The Africa Research Institute

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The Africa Research Institute was founded in 2007 under the leadership of Director Mark Ashurst, a journalist with broad experience in Africa. A registered charity based in London, the ARI was founded on a grant from Richard Smith, and industrialist with an interest in the “land of energy and optimism,” he sees in Africa. He continues to lead the ARI as a trustee, along with Howard Flight, a previous Member of Parliament and Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

Noting a lack of understanding of both the continent of Africa and African public policy among Western nations, the trustees adopted a mission committed to finding solutions of “creativity and pragmatism” for African problems, while avoiding the outsider Victorian-era philanthropy that has marked so many charitable approaches. Rather, the Institute strives to find new ways of thinking and create innovative solutions to Africa’s economic issues.

In order to achieve this goal, the Institute actively analyzes and reports on current policy. It recently published a study on Malawi’s voucher based input subsidy program titled “How Fertilizer Subsidies are Working in Malawi” in March of this year. By analyzing areas of improvement and comparing Malawi’s program to international developments, the piece seeks to formulate and recommend stronger and more effective policy be put in place in Malawi.

Website: http://www.africaresearchinstitute.org/.
Address: 43 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9JA