In the News

James Barnett is a retired Navy rear admiral and a Senior Research Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.  He is also active in MISSION:READINESS, a non-profit group of more than 130 retired admirals, generals and other senior military leaders. On April 20, MISSION:READINESS released a report raising the alarm about youth obesity and its negative impact on the military. According to the report, more than 9 million young adults are too overweight to join the military, which the group says poses a serious threat to national security. The group is calling for Congress to act by eliminating junk food from schools. Click here to watch Adm. Barnett's interview on CNN.

Potomac Institute for Policy Studies Senior Fellow Amb. David Smith says the New START nuclear treaty deserves close scrutiny in the Senate.  In an article for Defense News, he writes that the new US-Russia deal "holds both less and more than meets the eye." He lists six key areas in which lawmakers should be sure to put the pact under a microscope.  Click here to read the article in full.

Tevi Troy, PhD, is a Senior Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, a former Deputy Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services, a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, and a writer and consultant on domestic policy issues.  In a new piece for The Washington Post's Outlook section, Dr. Troy takes a look at presidential reading lists. The books a president reads inform his policymaking and worldview, Dr. Troy writes, and they also send a powerful signal to observers about the president's interests and intellect. Click here to read the article in full.        

On April 23, the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies will continue to host the Capital Consortium for Neuroscience: Ethical, Legal and Social Issues (CCNELSI) series of lectures with a guest presentation by Daniel Hall-Flavin, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Consultant in the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology at the Mayo Clinic.  Dr. Hall-Flavin will give a talk entitled "The Cave that DSM Built? What Arrhythmias and the School of Athens May Have to Teach Us about the Future of Psychiatry." The event will be at 4 pm at the Institute in the M-level conference room.  Click here for more information.  

Former US arms negotiator and Potomac Institute for Policy Studies Senior Fellow Amb. David Smith is closely following the Obama administration's evolving nuclear weapons policy. On April 8, President Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev met in Prague to sign a new nuclear-arms reduction pact.  But many questions remain about the future of nonproliferation efforts. Amb. Smith offered comments to correspondent Sally Kidd of Hearst Television; click here to watch the Hearst stations' story in full.    

On May 7, Prof. James Giordano, PhD, Director of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies' Center for Neurotechnology Studies, will join a distinguished panel at the Domenici Neuroscience Symposium in Washington, DC. The event will be hosted by the Mind Research Network and the theme is "Neuroscience for National Security." Other speakers at the event will include former US Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico, former Congresswoman Heather Wilson of New Mexico, and prominent experts from organizations including the National Institutes of Health, US Marine Corps, and Sandia National Laboratories. Click here for details and registration information.