2008 New Era Foreign Policy ConferenceThe New Era Foreign Policy Conference is a two-day workshop for Political Science Ph.D. students, post-docs, and foreign policy experts held at the Institute of International Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. This is the third annual conference; the first conference took place in 2006. The goals of the conference are two-fold: first, to bring together and start building a network of Political Science Ph.D. students who are policy-oriented, and interested in U.S. foreign policy and international politics; and second, to invigorate the foreign policy community with fresh ideas and new avenues for future research. Participants are asked to assess the medium-term challenges and opportunities currently facing the United States, to critically examine the macro-level goals that underpin American foreign policy, and to problematize the strategies and policies meant to achieve these goals. This theme of medium-term strategic thinking is based upon the mission statement of the New Era Foreign Policy Project at the Institute of International Studies: American foreign policy should be systematically proactive, seeking to understand significant medium and long-term global changes, and to influence the impact of such trends on U.S. interests and those of the rest of the world. Foreign policy writ large, in this view, is about comprehending major contextual and environmental changes taking place in the world and steering, directing, and influencing the impact of those trends over a reasonable time frame. Rather than the presentation of papers with panels and discussants, the format of the conference is a series of break-out and scenario-planning sessions. Over the past three years, the Political Science Ph.D. students have been joined by policy experts with experience at the National Security Council, the Department of Defense, the RAND Corporation, the Brookings Institution, NPR, the United States Mission to the United Nations, Foreign Policy Magazine, and the Council on Foreign Relations. Please direct any questions regarding the conference to Ely Ratner at ely "at" berkeley.edu.
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