Heard at Heritage

A powerful, heartbreaking, and redemptive account of a boy who endured a childhood of poverty and abuse in an American Southwest trailer park named Cloud 9.Abandoned by his father at age two, Rick Sylvester lived with an abusive mother whose struggles as a member of the working poor led her to drugs, alcohol, theft, and prostitution – and eventually attempted suicide. Rick battled depression, anxi...

President Reagan’s often mocked strategy of “peace through strength” won the Cold War. Critical to that success were his nuclear deterrent polices. By both modernizing our strategic nuclear deterrence while also initiating what would become a nearly ninety percent reduction in American and Soviet (now Russian) deployed strategic nuclear warheads – he changed the strategic nuclear landscape. Join u...

Born into a military family, Harris Faulkner revered her father, a decorated career officer who served three tours of duty in Vietnam and raised his children with the values and ideals of the U.S. military. Accompanying him from posting to posting, young Harris experienced firsthand how success in life was rooted in the knowledge, integrity, and leadership that came from her military surroundings....

Islamist terror networks such as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), Boko Haram and al-Shabaab have had consistent success in recruiting local youth. This has helped such groups regenerate their ranks despite a string of military defeats in recent years. An equally troubling modern phenomenon has seen Western children taken by their parents to live under the control of terrorist groups i...

Originally constructed in 1921, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is sacred ground at Arlington National Cemetery. When the first Unknown Soldier was laid to rest in Arlington, General John Pershing, Commander of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I, selected eight of America’s most decorated, battle-hardened veterans to serve as Body Bearers. For the first time in The Unknowns, Patrick O...

When we think of constitutional law, we invariably focus on the U.S. Supreme Court and the federal court system. Yet much of our constitutional law is not made at the federal level. In 51 Imperfect Solutions, U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton argues that American Constitutional Law should account for the role of the state courts and state constitutions, together with the federal courts...

Jonathan Johnson is the President of Medici Ventures, the venture capital subsidiary of online retailer Overstock.com. He played an integral role in getting the retailer known for its furniture stock to accept cryptocurrency, and he leads Medici’s efforts to pioneer growth and innovation in applying the blockchain to financial systems and beyond. Under Johnson's leadership, Medici has invested in...

The Senate Agriculture Committee has slated the week of June 11th for markup of its farm bill. Despite repeated calls for fundamental subsidy reform it appears that the Senate Agriculture Committee bill will be maintaining the status quo. One of the fighters for reform is Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA). For years the Senator has been leading the charge to push for common sense reforms, such as ensu...

The Rise of China is a reality. Its influence – and the opportunity it represents – is being felt from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Southeast Asia, however, is a neighbor. Indonesia, in fact, given Indonesian maritime claims, is right next door. Indonesia has a centuries-long history of dealing with China’s power. How should its government today see the balance between threat and opportunity repre...

Grace Kennan Warnecke’s memoir, Daughter of the Cold War, is about a life lived on the edge of history. Daughter of George F. Kennan, one of the most influential diplomats of the 20th Century, as well as wife of the scion of a newspaper dynasty and mother of the youngest owner of a major league baseball team, she eventually found her way out from under the shadows of others to forge a dynamic care...

The concept of “soft power” evokes for many a benign alternative to the exercise of hard power as nations strive for strategic influence abroad. Among the United States and its democratic allies, soft power involves public diplomacy, people-to-people programs, student exchanges, cultural outreach and broadcasting news to foreign publics. For authoritarian regimes, however, the open exchange of ide...

What are the ramifications of the sudden termination of the planned meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un? What factors led to the cancellation and has the door been permanently closed on a diplomatic solution to the North Korean nuclear problem? Will North Korea abandon its moratorium and resume nuclear and missile tests and escalate tension on the Korean Peni...

Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs A. Wess Mitchell will outline the Trump Administration’s strategy in Europe. He will highlight the important role of the transatlantic partnership in pushing back against resurgent big-power competition in Europe and guarding the peace, order, and prosperity the United States and Europe have nurtured since the end of World War II. Foll...

Men of amazing entrepreneurial genius – like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Ford – built commercial empires larger than the world had ever seen. They produced astronomical returns on investment and were rarely tricked out of their money in business deals. But when they turned to giving that money away, they failed. And as Martin Morse Wooster so clearly reports in this book, many...

This year marks the centennial of Georgia’s independence and the establishment of the First Republic in 1918 and the 10th year since the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008. Please join the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Embassy of Georgia and The Heritage Foundation for the Second Annual U.S.-Georgia Strategic Partnership Conference as renowned experts explore the current state of regional affairs,...

No one understands the Make America Great Again effort with more insight and more experience than former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Gingrich helped President Ronald Reagan “Make America Great Again” in 1980. He authored the Contract with America and spearheaded the 1994 Republican Revolution that brought the House of Representatives under Republican control after 40 years. He knows what i...

When faith-based adoption and foster care providers are forced to choose between their faith and the families they serve, kids are the ones who suffer. Liberal activists have leveraged the power of government to drive out faith-based agencies in Illinois, Massachusetts, California, and Washington DC – a move that displaced thousands of children, placed additional strain on state resources, and red...

Changes in trade policy are dominating conversations in Washington and on Wall Street. From President Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum, to the Administration’s plans to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other trade deals, to the possibility of reviving the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) – Capitol Hill is buzzing about what impact these changes could have on Amer...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivers his first public address on the Trump administration’s Iran strategy. The speech comes less than two weeks after President Donald J. Trump’s May 8 announcement that the U.S. would withdraw from the flawed nuclear deal with Iran, “the world's leading state sponsor of terror.” Following the speech, Heritage President Kay Coles James joins Pompeo on stage for a...

The rise of the administrative state is the most significant political development in American politics over the past century. While our Constitution separates powers into three branches, and requires that the laws are made by elected representatives in the Congress, today most policies are made by unelected officials in agencies where legislative, executive, and judicial powers are combined. This...

The idea of human rights began as a call for individual freedom from tyranny, yet today it is exploited to rationalize oppression and promote collectivism. How did this happen? In The Debasement of Human Rights, Aaron Rhodes reveals how this emancipatory ideal became so adulterated. Rhodes identifies the fundamental flaw in the Universal Declaration of Human of Rights, the basis for many internati...

In 2005, The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation in Milwaukee began a tradition of convening a wide-ranging and substantive symposium on important political and cultural issues facing the country with prominent intellectuals, commentators, activists, and philanthropists. This year, conservative thinkers will gather for a panel-style discussion on “The State of the Constitution” at The Heritage Foun...

All societies have an elite. The question is whether it will serve the republic or itself. John Adams – our second president and one of America’s greatest political theorists – thought the solution to that problem was a well created and managed Senate. The elite should be in power, on stage, and also checked and balanced by the rest of the government. Today, however, the most powerful Americans ar...

The Federal Reserve has released a notice of proposed rulemaking for its bank capital regulatory framework and is requesting public comments. The proposal seeks to integrate the Fed’s regulatory capital rule, its Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review, and its stress test rules. The goal is to simplify the capital regime. Join us for a discussion of the proposal and possible improvements to the...

The dangers and plight of those with severe mental illness typically grab headline attention after tragedies like mass shootings. As time passes, however, attention fades as the public struggles to deal with the complexities of the issue. In 2016, an estimated 10.4 million adults in the United States suffered from severe mental illnesses, and an estimated 1 in 5 in homeless shelters as well as 20...