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THE 2009 PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION

The new President must clearly establish himself in the White House. He must set the tone for his Administration, a tone that reaches across the political aisle. In addition, he must set a tone for American foreign policy and begin the process of communicating with world leaders and heads of state.

Many problems lay ahead for the new Administration. Some relate to personnel, especially the new Cabinet and White House staff; some relate to issues that need to be addressed immediately, the economy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and those problems that need to be addressed in the longer run, energy independence, national health care, and immigration.

The Administration will also have to negotiate the labyrinth of hurdles that have impeded personnel selection in the past. At the same time, and without everyone on board, it will have to hit the ground running, using the political capital gained from the election to implement its policy agenda.

This timely workshop will focus on these tasks and issues in an effort to enumerate the options which the President has, the priorities he must establish, and the relationships he must develop to succeed in his first term.

SPEAKERS & TOPICS*

• The Transition to Date: Principal Decisions of the President-Elect
  Stephen Wayne, Program Moderator. Professor of Government, Georgetown University; Author ofPresidential Leadership; The Legislative Presidency; and The Road to the White House 2008
• What Needs to be Done and How Quickly
  Martha Kumar, Director of the Presidency Research Group’s White House Transition Project
• The First 100 Days of First-Term Presidents: From Eisenhower to the Present
  Terry Sullivan, Professor, University of North Carolina; Author of “Presidential Work During the First Hundred Days,” a Report of the White House Transition Project
• Establishing the President’s Leadership Credentials
  David M. Abshire, President, Center for the Study of the Presidency; Author of A Call to Greatness: Challenging Our Next President
• The Broken Appointment Process and How to Fix It
  James Pfiffner, Professor, George Mason University; Author of The Strategic Presidency: Hitting the Ground Running
• The Politics of This Presidential Transition
  Eleanor Clift, National Political Correspondent, Newsweek
• The New Congress: Composition, Organization, and Political Orientation
  Jim Thurber, Professor, American University; Director, Center on Congress and the Presidency
• National Security Strategy and the Defense Budget
  Lawrence J. Korb, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; Former Director, National Security Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; Former Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Reagan
• New Initiatives in the Middle East
  Hisham Melhem, Washington-based Correspondent for the Al-Qabas International (London) and As-Safir Daily (Beirut)
• Press Coverage of the 2008 National Election and the Transition
  Sid Davis, Former Vice-President and Washington Bureau Chief, NBC News; Former Program Director, Voice of America
• The New President and Congress: The Challenges Ahead
  Kenneth Duberstein,  Former Chief of Staff under President Reagan; Chairman and CEO, The Duberstein Group; Former Deputy Under-Secretary of Labor under President Ford
• Judicial Appointments:  The Panorama of Players
  Jeffrey Rosen, Legal Affairs Editor, The New Republic; Author of The Most Democratic Branch:  How the Courts Serve America
• The New President and the New Cabinet:  Implications for Federal Managers
  Alexis Simendinger, National Correspondent, National Journal; Commentator, Washington Week in Review, CNN, National Public Radio
• Dealing with Russia: The Likely Approach of the New Administration
  Yuri Maltsev, Soviet Defector and Economic Historian; Former Senior Researcher, Institute of Economics, Academy of Sciences of the USSR; Professor, Carthage College, Wisconsin
• Dealing with China: The Likely Approach of the New Administration
  Ambassador James R. Lilley, Former U.S. Ambassador to China and Korea; Author, China’s Military Faces the Future
• U.S. Latin American Policy: The Likely Approach of the New Administration
  Ambassador David C. Jordan, Former Ambassador to Peru; Professor of Politics, University of Virginia
• Dealing with the Old and New Europe: The Likely Approach of the New Administration  James Sofka, Faculty, Federal Executive Institute; Former Dean, Echols Scholar Program for European International Relations, University of Virginia 

*NOTE: Roster highlights speakers from previous Presidential Transition Seminars and is meant to offer interested participants an illustration of the type of sessions they will be experiencing in this workshop.  Approximately 15 presentations will be made.  Listed speakers have been invited or have presented at previous Alan L. Freed Associates Public Policy Seminars.  Topics may change to address events of interest at the time of the program.

 

PROGRAM MODERATORS

A highly qualified Program Moderator will facilitate dialogue between the speakers and participants over the course of the three-day seminar. View moderator biographies.

 

FEE

$1,445 per person

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The Seminars will be held at the Capitol Hill Club, 300 First Street, SE, Washington, DC. Continental breakfast and registration will start at 8:00 a.m. The seminar will begin at 8:30a.m. and conclude at approximately 4:00p.m. each day. A luncheon workshop with speaker is included each day. An on-site coordinator will be provided to attend to workshop logistics.

No video, power point or audio-visual aids are utilized in the presentations. These programs are informal and strictly "off-the-record."