Catching up with the Ideas Industry conference

Sometimes there’s a positive side to being a little slow to post.  Today I can tell you about a conference that took place on October 8th and 9th, but also provide some follow-up.

Professor Daniel Drezner has put together several “Ideas Industry” conferences in the past year or so, the most recent being the one this month.  Here’s the description:

As the 2016 presidential race heats up, foreign policy looks like it will play a prominent role in the campaign.  Even at this embryonic stage, the presidential candidates have weighed in on a myriad number of foreign affairs topics, including the nuclear deal with Iran, the war against the Islamic State, the proper U.S. approach towards immigration, and Sino-American relations.  The salience of foreign affairs has waxed and waned in post-Cold War presidential campaigns.  Based on the campaign rhetoric and polling to date, however, 2016 will be a year when it matters.

Saying that foreign affairs will be a campaign issue gives rise to some important questions, however.  How do candidates develop their foreign policy worldview?  What is the relationship between foreign policy expertise and the candidate and campaign staff?  Do campaign pledges on foreign affairs matter if a candidate wins?  And how does all of the campaign rhetoric on foreign policy look to the rest of the world?  We will tackle these questions with a conference of journalists, scholars, pollsters, policy practitioners, and international observers — part of a larger, multiyear, overarching project on the ideas industry in American foreign policy.

And here’s the schedule of topics and speakers:

Welcome and Introduction — Daniel W. Drezner, The Fletcher School

What does the public care about in 2016?
Liz Mair, Mair Strategies, chair
Richard Eichenberg, Tufts University
Dina Smeltz, Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Lynn Vavreck, UCLA
Bruce Stokes, Pew Research Center

What role do foreign policy advisors play in campaign politics?
Susan Glasser, Politico, chair
Alex Wong, Office of Senator Tom Cotton
Marie Harf, U.S. Department of State
Rosa Brooks, Georgetown University
Kori Schake, Hoover Institution

The view from the 2016 campaigns
Karen Tumulty, Washington Post, chair
Laura Rosenberger, Hillary for America
Doug Stafford, Rand Paul for President
Brian Hook, Lattitude LLC
Mike Gallagher, Walker for America

The view from the rest of the world
Ian Johnstone, The Fletcher School, chair
Yehuda Yaakov, Israeli Consul General
Lana Zak, ABC News
Suzanne Maloney, Brookings Institution
Karoun Demirjian, Washington Post

Do campaign pledges even matter on foreign policy?
Jeffrey Taliaferro, Tufts University, chair
Jamelle Bouie, Slate
Elizabeth Saunders, George Washington University
Douglas Foyle, Wesleyan University
Gautam Mukunda, Harvard University

Want to catch up on the conference discussions?  First, you can read Professor Drezner’s Washington Post column reflecting on conference take-aways.  Second, you can review the Twitter chatter.  And, last, you can watch recordings of the panels, starting with Professor Drezner’s introduction.

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