Government secrecy is becoming an increasingly popular field of inquiry in academic circles, with several upcoming conferences and journals devoted to the subject.
The journal “Research in Social Problems and Public Policy,” edited by Susan L. Maret, has issued a call for papers on “the problem of government secrecy,” including theoretical and comparative treatments.
The Collaboration on Government Secrecy at American University’s Washington College of Law will address “Transparency in the Obama Administration: A First-Year Assessment” on January 20, 2010. A webcast of a program last month on “The State of the State Secrets Privilege” is now available here.
A two-day workshop on “Open Government: Defining, Designing, and Sustaining Transparency” will be held at Princeton University on January 21-22, 2010.
The journal “Social Research” will host a conference on “Limiting Knowledge in a Democracy” (in which I will participate) at the New School in New York City on February 24-26, 2010.
A lack of sustained federal funding, deteriorating research infrastructure and networks, restrictive immigration policies, and waning international collaboration are driving this erosion into a full-scale “American Brain Drain.”
With 2000 nuclear weapons on alert, far more powerful than the first bomb tested in the Jornada Del Muerto during the Trinity Test 80 years ago, our world has been fundamentally altered.
As the United States continues nuclear modernization on all legs of its nuclear triad through the creation of new variants of warheads, missiles, and delivery platforms, examining the effects of nuclear weapons production on the public is ever more pressing.
“The first rule of government transformation is: there are a lot of rules. And there should be-ish. But we don’t need to wait for permission to rewrite them. Let’s go fix and build some things and show how it’s done.”