Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies

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2010 CCPS Events

On Tuesday, November 16th, Professor Thurber took part in a webinar co-sponsored with Pfizer and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. Video of the panel may be viewed from our home page. Learn More

On Wednesday, November 3rd at noon, CCPS will host a post election forum in the Kay Spiritual Life Center. Learn More

On Tuesday, October 12th at 7pm, Professor Thurber addressed the millennial generation's impact on elections as part of the Roosevelt Institute's lecture series. Learn More

On the evening of September 21st, Gary Noesner, the founding Chief of the FBI Crisis Negotiation Unit came to American University to discuss his new book Stalling for Time: My Life as an FBI Hostage Negotiator. Learn More

Deliberation, Obstruction or Dysfunction?

The Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies of American University and the Center for American Progress Location held a forum titled "Deliberation, Obstruction or Dysfunction? Evaluating the Modern U.S. Senate and its Contribution to American Governance" Friday, March 12.

The event was covered by C-Span and their video is posted on their website. The Center for American Progress has also posted video and a full discussion of the forum here.

The featured speaker was Senator Tom Udall (D-NM). Read more about Senator Udall's thoughts on filibuster reform here.

Other panelists included Thomas E. Mann; Senior Fellow, Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution Scott Lilly; Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress. Scott Lilly's report is posted here.  

Prof. James A. Thurber; Director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University moderated the forum. His opening comments are posted here.

Scott Lilly's opening statement is posted here.

Eisenhower and Congress: Lessons for the 21st Century

Fred I. Greenstein and Walter Oleszek.

Fred I. Greenstein, Professor Emeritus at Princeton University talks with Walter Oleszek, senior specialist in American national government at the Congressional Research Service and professor in the School of Public Affairs.

On Friday, Feb 19, the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies hosted a series of panels featuring some of the top experts on the Eisenhower Presidency. The panels were co-sponsored by The Eisenhower Foundation, American University’s School of International Service, the Eisenhower Presidential Library, and the Eisenhower Institute’s Ann Whitman Domestic Studies Program Committee and the Thomas A. Pappas Program Committee.

Panelists include Fred I. Greenstein, Roger H. Davidson, Richard S. Conley, Stephen Wayne, Jordan Tama, and the keynote address was delivered by Stephen Hess.

The Agenda is available for download here and the speakers' biographies are posted here.The panelists recent works are also available:

Standing Neustadt on His Head: The Leadership Style of Dwight D. Eisenhower by Fred Greenstein

Eisenhower and Depressed-Areas Legislation 1955-1961 by Roger H. Davidson

Signing On and Sounding Off:  Signing Statements in the Eisenhower Presidency, 1953-60 by Richard S. Conley

What Congress Looked Like From Inside the Eisenhower White House by Stephen Hess

The Eisenhower Administration: The Bridge from the Personal to the Institutionalized Presidency by Stephen Wayne

Eisenhower, Congress, and Foreign Policy by Jordan Tama

For more information on the panel, please see our news release posted here.

 Conference on American Government, Politics and Policy

Conference on American Government, Politics and Policy at the American University of Sharjah

CCPS Director Prof. James Thurber and his wife, Claudia Hartley Thurber, Esq., Consultant in Occupational Safety and Health Policy, former Counsel for Health Standards, Occupational and Health Administration took part in a conference at The American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates on Monday, Jan. 25.

The conference, titled "American Government, Politics and Policy," was organized by CCPS and the Office of Development and Alumni Affairs and Department of International Studies at AUS. 

Prof. Thurber's talk was titled "President Obama, Congress and the Battle with Interest Groups and Lobbyists" and Claudia Thurber discussed "The Politics of Regulation in the Obama Administration."

Below are links to the program and some of the prepared remarks and presentations of the speakers.

Agenda

President Obama, Congress and the Battle with Interest Groups and Lobbyists by James Thurber

Power Point presentation

Power Point for The Politics of Regulation in the Obama Administration by Claudia Thurber

Managing Expectations, Exploiting Opportunities and Living with Constraints: Congressional Leadership in President Obama’s First Year by Barbara Sinclair, UCLA

The Impact of Personality on Performance: Barack Obama in the Presidency by By Stephen J. Wayne, Georgetown University

CCPS hosts ambassadors luncheon

The Center for Congressional and Presidential studies hosted the first in a series of Ambassador round table lunches at American University on January 12, 2010 The ambassadors of Iceland, France, Nepal, and Ecuador were in attendance, as were staff members from the embassies of Mexico, Ukraine, and South Africa. The topic of the discussion was on President Barack Obama, Congress, and international interests. The discussion was led by CCPS Director Prof. James A. Thurber.