The Vision Series

2012-2013 Arlington Schedule
The Auditorium at Founders Hall

Audrey Kurth Cronin
Professor, Public Policy
Monday, October 15, 2012 at 7:15 p.m.

Terrorism will be with us forever but individual terrorist campaigns always end. Why? What lessons can we learn from the endings of campaigns to help us nudge them along in that direction? Drawing from research on hundreds of groups, Kurth Cronin will explain six classic patterns of endings that emerge throughout modern history, including the conditions under which they work, and why Having laid out these patterns for all groups, she will then analyze which are relevant and irrelevant to al-Qaeda. In the wake of bin Laden’s death, the movement seems to have transitioned from the core in Pakistan to a series of affiliates in places like Yemen, Algeria and Somalia, gaining a kind of immortality by relying on its regional franchises. Given what we know about how terrorist campaigns end, can the U.S. effectively end al-Qaeda?

Stephen S. Fuller
University Professor and Schar Faculty Chair; Director, Center for Regional Analysis
Monday, February 18, 2013 at 7:15 p.m.

The Washington metropolitan area economy is facing a sea change--accelerating federal spending that fueled the region’s private sector expansion over the past thirty years, has slowed dramatically and is likely to decline in coming years. History may no longer provide the basis for forecasting the region’s economic future. Identifying competitive drivers for the region’s economy and establishing the critical conditions for success will span a range of challenges: having a sufficient supply of appropriately trained and educated workers; housing the region’s future workforce; and providing the infrastructure and amenities required. Will Washington become a global business center similar to London and Tokyo or will it remain a federally dominated economy expanding and contracting with changes in budget and policy?

Todd Zywicki
George Mason University
Foundation Professor of Law
Monday, April 8, 2013 at 7:15 p.m.

In the wake of the financial crisis many have pined for a supposed golden age of consumer credit, when consumers “lived within their means,” eschewed debt, saved for their purchases, and credit offerings were more consumer-friendly. But history tells a different story. Credit has been a ubiquitous part of the American experience and has always been accompanied by widespread hand-wringing about how others use it. Along with the rise of consumer credit in the post-World War II era and deregulation that empowered competition and consumer choice came the criticisms that underlay the financial crisis. The regulatory reforms proposed in response are simply a rerun of a cycle of regulation and deregulation in American history. This history enables an accurate prediction that this intervention and regulation will repeat the errors of the past, with unfortunate unintended consequences for consumers such as driving the most vulnerable consumers out of the mainstream banking system and forcing greater reliance on alternative lenders.