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White House Workshop
George H. W. Bush Administration- Archive Edition
January 31-February 3, 1989
White House Workshop:
A Seminar of The Modern Presidency
Held at The Capitol Hill Club.
The Presidency has become the dominant institution in the American political system. The President is the prime initiator and coordinator of U.S. national policy and the foremost mobilizer of public support for these initiatives.
Just over a week before the White House Workshop, the new President will have been inaugurated. Who will be the key members of the new Administration? What strategies, tactics and policies will the new Administration pursue? What will be the initial priorities? Which decisions will be faced and which decisions will be avoided? Will relationships between Congress, the Executive Branch, and the Judiciary be altered?
The policy issues facing the new President are complex. The pressures steadily build and competing forces clash. Will the new Administration be able to focus the American public on key issues - or will a myriad of special interests make setting coherent priorities an impossibility? Will eight years of growth, low unemployment, reasonable interest rates and low inflation be negated by a continued imbalance in foreign trade and budget deficits? Will we be entering an era of prosperity or an era of slow growth? How will U.S. economic policies affect our ability to address such national concerns as daycare, healthcare, pensions, AIDS, and drugs? What will our strategic policies likely be toward such diverse countries as South Africa, Nicaragua, Panama and towards the unstable regimes of the Middle East? Combine these with other international issues such as world health, famine, immigration, currency stabilization and free trade, and we begin to realize the difficult decisions facing the new Administration.
In the last 18 months, we have had the Iran/Contra hearings, a one-day 500-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Reagan-Gorbachev Summits in Washington and in Moscow, an INF Treaty, and the beginnings of a Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. All of these pending issues and inevitable, unforeseen problems make it certain that the U.S. and the new President face tough public policy choices that have immense consequences for senior managers and executives of the Department of the Army in the years ahead.
This White House Workshop will explore these and other contemporary issues through candid discussions with key observers and participants in the Washington political arena. The program will provide a unique insight into the heart of presidential decision-making at this crucial juncture in our nation's history.
White House Workshop Speakers & Topics
Evolution of the Presidency: Stephen Wayne, Professor, George Washington University, Author of The Road to the White House and Presidential Leadership; Project Director for the Presidential Transition Study, National Academy of Public Administration.
Gorbachev and the Prospects for Soviet-American Relations: Melvin Goodman, Soviet Specialist and CIA Civilian Faculty, National Defense University, National War College.
The Role of the National Security Council: Geoffrey Kemp, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Former Special Assistant to President Reagan for Near East and South Asian Affairs.
The New Administration and the Middle East: Bernard Reich, Professor of Political Science, George Washington University; Board of Governors, Middle East Institute.
Making Domestic Policy in the White House: Stuart Eizenstat, Former Assistant to President Jimmy Carter for Domestic Affairs and Policy.
Public Opinion and the Presidency: Karlyn Keene, Managing Editor, Public Opinion magazine; Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute.
Advising the President on Political Issues: Edward Rollins, Former Assistant to President Ronald Reagan; National Director, 1984 Reagan-Bush Re-election effort.
The Modern Presidency: An Historical Overview: Sid Davis, Program Director, Voice of America; Former Washington Correspondent, NBC News.
National Security and the New Budget: Ethics and Leadership on the Potomac: Lawrence J. Korb, Director, Center for Public Policy Education; Brookings Institution; Former Assistant Secretary of Defense.
Presidential Decision-Making: Roger Porter, Professor, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; Former Deputy Assistant to President Ronald Reagan for Policy Development.
The Media and Modern Campaigns: Jay Bryant, Communications Consultant and Chairman, RSM, Inc.; Former Communications Director, National Republican Congressional Committee.
Reflections on the Reagan Presidency: Tom DeFrank, White House Correspondent; Deputy Chief - Washington Bureau, Newsweek magazine.
Electoral Politics and the War on Drugs: Thomas Szasz, M.D.; Professor of Psychiatry, State University of New York; Author of The Myth of Mental Illness and Ceremonial Chemistry.
U.S. Foreign Policy: Choices for the New Administration: Robert S. Wood, Director, Strategic Studies Group; Dean, Center for Naval Warfare Studies, U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island.
A Liberal Assessment of the Reagan Administration: Richard Cohen, Columnist, The Washington Post
A Conservative Assessment of the Reagan Administration: Burton Pines, Vice President of Research, Heritage Foundation
Running for the Presidency: Personal Reflections: Senator George McGovern, Former Senator from South Dakota and Democratic Presidential Candidate.
A Look Back at the 1988 Presidential Campaign: Margaret Warner, White House Correspondent, Newsweek magazine; Panelist, Bush-Dukakis Debate
