2006 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. The first annual conference took place on March 6-7, 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: That 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. In 2006, the Political Science Ph.D. students were joined by policy experts from the National Security Council, the United States Mission to the United Nations, the RAND Corporation, the Council on Foreign Relations, and Foreign Policy Magazine. Applications for the 2007 conference are now available. The application deadline is November 30, 2006. Please direct any questions regarding the conference to Ely Ratner at ely "at" berkeley.edu. |
