The Century Foundation Welcomes Foreign Policy Expert Michael Cohen as a New Fellow

Jan 20, 2012

Authors: Christy Hicks

Publisher(s): The Century Foundation

January 20, 2012—The Century Foundation welcomes Michael Cohen, a foreign policy analyst and author, as a new fellow.  Cohen writes about U.S. foreign policy, national security and foreign assistance. He is the author of Live from the Campaign Trail: The Greatest Presidential Campaign Speeches of the 20th Century and How They Shaped Modern America (Walker Books, 2008), as well as a columnist for Foreign Policy, where he writes a regular feature on politics and national security. Cohen’s research has focused on the growing role and influence of non-state actors, reforming the foreign assistance bureaucracy (with a particular focus on democracy promotion), and improving aid coordination between private and public actors.

Cohen discusses his current research agenda in a new Policycast on The Century Foundation website, www.tcf.org.  You can listen to the podcast here.

“Michael’s assessments of U.S. military policy are widely respected, and his criticisms of America’s approach to the Afghanistan war have proven to be prescient,” said Janice Nittoli, president of The Century Foundation.  “We are so excited to provide a new platform for Michael to assess our current approaches to important foreign policy matters and to further explore, develop, and promote new ideas and strategies for America’s role in an ever-changing world.”

He has previously been a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and the American Security Project. He served as chief speechwriter for U.S. Representative to the United Nations Bill Richardson, Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat, and Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT). He has worked at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and was a senior vice president at Robinson, Lerer and Montgomery. He has also worked on political campaigns, both in the United States and overseas. He has been a frequent commentator on politics and international affairs, and his work has been featured in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.

Cohen is one of five newly appointed Century Foundation fellows, all of whom are widely recognized as insightful generators of distinctive and provocative public policy ideas. Together they will advance TCF’s mission of providing bold, thought-provoking responses to unequal opportunity in America and the challenges to the United States of the diffusion of global power. The other new fellows are Daniel Alpert, the founding managing partner of Westwood Capital, LLC, who writes perceptively about the causes of the economic woes facing America and the rest of the world while recommending ambitious policy responses; Amy B. Dean, whose Century Foundation book, A New, New Deal: How Regional Activism Will Reshape the American Labor Movement, and other work highlights innovative alternatives to traditional unions that have arisen throughout the country and how these local institutions realize economic change; Suzanne Mettler, a Cornell University political scientist who analyzes the problems of policymaking through tax expenditures, sources of the public’s alienation from government through examination of health care reform, and the implications for democracy of higher education policy and stagnating access to college; and Mark Thoma, a University of Oregon economist whose widely read blog, Economist’s View, synthesizes current economic research for non-experts and highlights ideas for strengthening American social insurance and employment opportunities.

“Our new fellows share the rare ability to connect dots about the ways in which U.S. policy has gone astray and how it can be repaired in politically plausible ways over the course of the next decade,” said Greg Anrig, vice president of policy and programs. “In each case, their insights are distinctive and not widely known by the general public, but their arguments are persuasive and have the potential to transform policy debates in the United States.”

The Century Foundation is a progressive nonpartisan think tank. Originally known as the Twentieth Century Fund, it was founded in 1919 and initially endowed by Edward Filene, a leading Republican businessman and champion of fair workplaces and employee ownership strategies, all with an eye to ensuring that economic opportunity is available to all. Today, TCF issues analyses and convenes and promotes the best thinkers and thinking across a range of public policy questions.  Its work today focuses on issues of equity and opportunity in the United States, and how American values can be best sustained and advanced in a world of more diffuse power.

For more information on The Century Foundation and its work, please visit www.tcf.org. You can keep up with the latest news from Century by signing up for our mailing list, following us on Twitter @tcfdotorg and joining our Facebook page.  For media inquiries, contact Christy Hicks at hicks@tcf.org or (212) 452-7723.