Heritage Events Podcast

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. Following his speech, Assistant Secretary Mitchell will be joined by Heritage Vice President James Carafano for a further discussion of these vital issues.

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, focusing on the geopolitical interest of the United States and Georgia. The Conference will provide a unique opportunity for U.S. decision-makers, private sector leaders, experts, scholars, and journalists to focus on trends and challenges and to explore bilateral and multilateral opportunities from a regional and international perspective.

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 other persons of somewhat smaller wealth have also had their charitable plans go awry. Wealthy and prestigious colleges have treated donors shamefully. Donors’ staff and assistants have betrayed the vision of the men and women who gave them the money they now abuse. Even family members have utterly disregarded what their ancestors wanted. Billions upon billions of dollars earned in the American marketplace are now in the hands of philanthropic elites who use that wealth to attack the very system that generated it. Wooster provides a detailed history of leading American philanthropic horror stories, accounts of luckier families who have achieved better results, and, most importantly, practical advice on how to achieve that which you wish with your giving.

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 reduced the options available to families seeking to foster or adopt. Now activist groups are targeting faith-based agencies in Michigan, Texas, and Pennsylvania. If they succeed, children will bear the cost, as states will be left with fewer partners to address the influx of children into the child welfare system due to the opioid epidemic. Our country needs as many agencies as possible to meet the needs of America’s children. Please join us for a conversation on this important topic.

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 American businesses and consumers. Join us as the Washington Examiner leads a breakfast event “Examining Trade” on May 23 featuring Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who leads the Trump Administration’s trade investigations and reports. Additionally, key lawmakers Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE), who chairs the Senate Banking subcommittee focusing on international trade, will participate in one-on-one keynote interviews.

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 it is like to fight the Washington swamp and challenge the establishment – he has done it his entire career. Now, the author of the #1 New York Times best seller Understanding Trump is back to illustrate how our nation’s 45th President is leading our country’s great comeback. From the fight of over the Southern Border Wall, to the Republican tax cuts, to the swamp’s unending efforts to undermine and oppose the President, Trump’s America lays out the truth about the Trump presidency – the truth the mainstream media won’t tell you. In this book, Gingrich — who has been called the President’s chief explainer – presents a clear picture of this historic presidency and the tremendous, positive impact it is having on our nation and the world. Gingrich unmasks the various branches of the anti-Trump coalition that are trying to stop America’s great comeback. He reveals the flaws in their ideological assaults on the President and offers a battle plan for those in Trump’s America to help the President defeat these attacks. Throughout Trump’s America, Gingrich distills decades of experience fighting Washington with a lifetime of studying history to help every American understand how we can all keep working to make America great. Newt Gingrich is a former Speaker of the House of Representatives and 2012 presidential candidate. He is a Fox News contributor and the author of 36 books, including 15 New York Times best sellers. Through Gingrich Productions, he has also produced and hosted documentary films. Recent films include The First American and Nine Days that Changed the World.

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 brief discussion.

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 threatens constitutionalism and the rule of law. In Bureaucracy in America, Joseph Postell examines the history of administrative power in America and argues that modern administrative law has failed to protect the principles of American constitutionalism as effectively as earlier approaches to regulation and administration.

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 international treaties and institutions. It mixes freedom rights rooted in natural law – authentic human rights – with “economic and social rights,” or claims to material support from governments, which are intrinsically political. As a result, the idea of human rights has lost its essential meaning and moral power. The international community and civil society groups now see human rights as being defined by legislation, not by transcendent principles. Freedoms are traded off for the promise of economic benefits, and the notion of collective rights is used to justify restrictions on basic liberties. Few serious observers would deny that the concept has lost clarity. Rhodes provides a comprehensive analysis of the problem, joining philosophy and history with insights from his own extensive work in the field. Aaron Rhodes is an international human rights advocate. He was Executive Director of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights for fourteen years and is President of the Forum for Religious Freedom–Europe. He received a B.A. from Reed College and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

The Heritage Foundation is marking the completion of the redevelopment of 236 Mass Ave. NE with a dedication ceremony to open the E.W. Richardson Building. The 36,000 square foot building, owned by Massachusetts Avenue Properties, LLC, an affiliate of Heritage, will be home to the Richardson Building Intern Housing program, visiting fellows and VIP guests, and three ground floor retail tenants.

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 Foundation.

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 are not men like Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John C. Calhoun, they are, on the contrary, men and women outside the political process who seek influence or power without accountability. The result is tearing us apart. The challenge we face today is the one Adams recognized and described: how to bring our elites into the political system, and, at the same time, to ensure that they can only serve their ambition by serving the people.

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 Fed’s regulatory capital framework.

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 percent of those in jail or prison also were classified as having a severe mental illness. It is vitally important to understand, not only the medical condition and the legal challenges involved, but also to determine what policies can be helpful or hurtful. Join us as a panel of experts explores these issues and offers their perspectives on how best to help those facing the challenges of severe mental illness.

Hong Kong is an issue of growing concern in Washington. The State Department’s most recent human rights report singles out the “central PRC government’s encroachment on the SAR’s autonomy” among the most significant human rights issues in Hong Kong. It also identifies “government actions that had a chilling effect on political protest and the exercise of free speech.” Are these two problems related, why should it matter to the United States, and what can policy makers in Washington do? What exactly is the state of politics in Hong Kong today and the relationship between Hong Kong and the mainland? Please join us for an address by 2007 pan-democrat candidate for Chief Executive Alan Leong and a discussion to follow that will seek to answer these questions and more.