Past Grants

Joseph Fewsmith will research and write a book examining the dynamics of Chinese leadership politics under Xi Jinping. He will analyze primary source materials to determine whether China’s political system has become institutionalized or whether it remains dominated by personal and factional struggles for power within the Chinese Communist Party.

Assad Almohammad will examine how the bureaucratic and ideological workings of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria will shape its future evolution. He will conduct field research in Iraq and organize a workshop among experts. The project’s findings will appear in a report and a series of papers.

Anna Borshchevskaya will research and write a book exploring how Middle Eastern and North African countries view the emerging competition among great powers in the region. She will analyze the political terrain on which the great power competition will be waged, specifically seeking to understand how U.S. allies and partners will respond to Russia’s and China’s forays into the region.

Martin Baily and Benjamin Harris will research and write a book examining how retirement policies could be reformed to increase the retirement security of individuals while also enhancing economic growth by spurring savings needed for investment. They will examine a variety of policy options, including how to expand participation in employer-sponsored savings plans, how to revise regulations regarding annuities to make them more attractive to individuals, and how to alter tax and benefit policies to remove disincentives to employment facing older Americans.

Till von Wachter will assess whether and how the unemployment insurance system could be reformed in ways that encourage employment while still supporting dislocated workers. He will undertake a series of analyses using data on more than 33 million unemployment insurance claims made in California between 2000 and 2017. The analyses will estimate the impact of extensions in unemployment insurance eligibility and increases in benefit levels during the Great Recession on employment patterns and local economic conditions. He will also assess how the system’s financing mechanisms shaped the decisions of firms to lay off employees. The project’s findings will appear in a series of papers and a policy brief summarizing the results.

Todd Harrison and Kaitlyn Johnson will assess how the United States can best protect its space-based military assets from attack. They will undertake research and organize a series of workshops. The project’s findings will appear in a report.

Joe McReynolds will lead an effort to examine China’s thinking on how to integrate cyberwarfare into the country’s overall military strategy. He will assemble a team of experts to analyze primary and secondary Chinese source materials on cyberwarfare and its use in China’s evolving military strategy and posture. The project’s findings will appear in an edited volume and a series of briefings.

Erin Baggott Carter will research and write a book examining how the United States and China seek to influence each other’s domestic politics. She will assess the success of lobbying efforts by the Chinese government on United States politics and consider the effectiveness of United States efforts to pressure China through trade restrictions and publicizing human rights abuses.

Tim Kane will develop a measure of material well-being that captures the improvements in American living standards better than existing income-based measures do. He will field a survey to estimate how much people value goods and services, such as health care, access to clean air and water, and entertainment, that are difficult to capture in measures of economic output or personal income. He will reflect on how widespread access to such goods and services should change views about economic progress and distribution of economic gains. The project’s findings will appear in a series of papers and a publicly available database.

Sarah Halpern-Meekin and Laura Tach will examine the decline in employment rates among adult men and explore the implications of those trends for family life. They will undertake interviews with men who do not have formal employment in order to better understand why they are not working, how they support themselves and their families, how being outside of the formal labor market has affected their decisions to marry and have children, and what it would take to get them to reenter formal employment. The project’s findings will appear in a report, a policy brief, and a series of articles.