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| 1-a. The Middle East and Jihadism What should America’s response be to an increasingly aggressive Islam – that clearly sees itself as a new international dominator, from within Western societies as well as from its position in the Middle East? 1-b. China and East Asia As China muscles up economically and demographically, how will this affect the international status quo? 1-c. India and South Asia As India muscles up economically and demographically, how will this affect the international status quo? 1-d. Western Europe What is the international future of a Western Europe which once dominated the world and brought our globe its first international political/cultural system ever – but is now on the receiving rather than the sending end of the dynamic cultural, economic and demographic forces moving through this international system? 1-e. Russia and Eastern Europe What is the future of a once-superpower Russia – especially now that the non-Russian lands it once dominated have moved into or at least toward the orbit of Western Europe? 1-f. Latin America What is likely to be the larger international role of a Latin America which is growing demographically by leaps and bounds and slowly getting its economic act together? 1-g. Sub-Saharan Africa What is the future of a continent which, though full of natural resources, is crushed by run-away population growth, supremely corrupt and cruel dictatorships, and intense tribal hatreds which have turned that continent into a human disaster? |
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| 2-a. International trade and financial policy. What can America do at this point to get itself out of its deep indebtedness to China – and its terrible vulnerability to a shift in financial strategies on the part of Beijing that could bankrupt America? How can we encourage and protect global investment and trade of the sort that brings greater prosperity to all the world? 2-b. The spread of nuclear arms. What new nuclear strategies must be developed in the face of the possibility of the spread of nuclear arms to warrior groups for which at present we know of no useful deterrent? 2-c. New military strategies. Who is developing an army 1) able to fight enemies with no uniforms and no known national authority behind their actions and 2) able to serve more as a force protecting or policing a stable international status quo? |
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| 3-a. Government budgeting. What can be done to bring government spending and government income into balance? 3-b. Demographics and immigration policy. What can a nation of immigrants who forged a strong cultural union of different peoples on the basis of a single Anglo culture do to continue to draw new blood into our society – without letting immigration turn itself into a massive invasion of alien cultures? 3-c. Energy policy and the environment. What can be done to restore the nation’s economy to relative energy self-sufficiency which we possessed on our way to superpower status in the mkid 20th century – but have since gradually let slip to a point where we can be easily blackmailed by a threat to disrupt the flow of foreign energy so necessary to the American economy. 3-d. The citizen army - or some other form of national service. What can be done to restore the idea of national military service as its citizens’ obligation to the nation that nurtures it – rather than total reliance on a mercenary army of paid professionals (perhaps appropriate for officers – but certainly not for the ranks and files of a truly national army)? |
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| 4-a. Restoration of the federal republic. What can we do to reverse the drift of the republic toward a Washington, D.C. based centralism that has left state and local authority enfeebled – so that the principle of checks and balances is restored as America’s long-standing guarantee against the growth of political absolutism. 4-b. National family and education strategy. What can be done to revive the family as the primary moral and cultural teacher of America’s future generations, the local schools as a vibrant follow-up in our “grass-roots” system of education, and higher education as a portal to excellence for any American seeking further education, regardless of personal or family wealth? 4-c. National health and wellness policy. What can be done to make health care and elder care fully available to Americans without the danger of bankrupting personal or family fortunes in the process – or on the other hand of discouraging talented Americans from entering the health professions? 4-d. The national media and popular culture. What can be done to bring greater cultural consensus to a nation deeply split into warring cultural subcommunities? What can be done to restore the sense of “good taste” to our popular culture? How in a free and open society can we get our media elite to cultivate a greater sense of responsibility for the values they consciously or unconsciously mold into our national culture. |
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| 5-a. Moral-spiritual foundations of American society. What can be done to bridge the gap between America’s traditional sense of Christian spirituality and its equally traditional sense of practical / pragmatic / or secular logic? What can be done to restore a sense of Puritan or Yankee virtue to our doings as a nation? How can we bring the idea of "a nation under God" to some kind of reality – one that unifies rather than divides Americans? 5-b. National leadership. Which of America’s leaders possess such a national vocational vision and are easily and artfully able to communicate that vision to the rest of the nation? |
Miles
H. Hodges
