Lessons for U.S. Foreign Policy from the Failed War on Terror

In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States launched an international war on terrorism defined by military intervention, nation building, and efforts to reshape the politics of the Middle East. As of 2017, however, it has become clear that the American strategy has destabilized the Middle East while doing little to protect the United States from terrorism. In a new paper, A. Trevor Thrall and Erik Goepner argue that it is time for the United States to take a different approach.

Senate Republicans Offer a Bill to Preserve & Expand ObamaCare

The Senate on Thursday finally released the text of their health care bill, the “Better Care Reconciliation Act.” Given the response from Democrats and the media, you’d think Republicans were really about to repeal ObamaCare. They’re not. According to Cato scholar Michael F. Cannon, the Senate bill is not even a step in the right direction: “If this is the choice facing congressional Republicans, it would be better if they did nothing.”

Commercial Speech and the Values of Free Expression

Commercial speech has become one of the most litigated and controversial areas of First Amendment protection. Yet the question of protecting such speech should not be in doubt.  In a new paper, law and public policy professor Martin H. Redish illustrates how reducing or excluding First Amendment protection for commercial advertising contravenes core constitutional values of free expression. Redish argues that it is time for the Supreme Court to expressly acknowledge that commercial speech properly stands on an equal footing with all other kinds of expression given full protection by the First Amendment.

Would More Government Infrastructure Spending Boost the U.S. Economy?

President Trump has promised to induce $1 trillion of new public and private investment in infrastructure over the next decade. He believes that strategy will be beneficial both for short-run, macroeconomic reasons (it will stimulate the economy) and for long-run, microeconomic reasons (it will improve productivity). A new paper from Cato scholar Ryan Bourne assesses both sets of reasoning, and finds that the case for more government investment is significantly weaker than commonly asserted.

Cato Institute 40th Anniversary

Recent Commentary

Events

June 29

Should Every School Serve Everyone?

Featuring Lindsey Burke, Director, Center for Education Policy, and Will Skillman Fellow in Education in the Institute for Family, Community, and Opportunity, Heritage Foundation; A. D. Motzen, National Director of State Relations, Agudath Israel of America; Joe McTighe, Executive Director, Council for American Private Education; facilitated by Neal McCluskey, Director, Center for Educational Freedom, Cato Institute.

12:00PM to 1:30PM EDT
Hayek Auditorium, Cato Institute

More Events

Of Special Note

The Three Languages of Politics

The Three Languages of Politics

First released in 2013, and now available as a newly revised Cato ebook and paperback, Arnold Kling’s The Three Languages of Politics could not be any more timely, as Americans talk past one another in a growing swirl of volume, heat, and disinterest in contrary opinions. An insightful guide on how to lower the barriers coarsening our politics, this isn’t a book about one ideology over another. Instead, it is about how we communicate issues and our ideologies, and how language intended to persuade can too often divide. Kling offers a way to see through our rhetorical blinders so that we can incorporate new perspectives and thinking into the important issues we must together share and resolve.

Special! 10 Copies for $10

Cato Pocket Constitution

To encourage people everywhere to better understand and appreciate the principles of government that are set forth in America’s founding documents, the Cato Institute published this pocket-size edition.

Now Available

The Libertarian Mind Audiobook

The Libertarian Mind, by David Boaz, longtime executive vice president of the Cato Institute, is the best available guide to the history, ideas, and growth of libertarianism, and is the ultimate resource for the current, burgeoning libertarian movement. This acclaimed book is now available as a fully unabridged audiobook, ready for immediate downloading, on Audible.com.

The Supreme Court: Past and Prologue
A Look at the October 2016 and 2017 Terms

The annual Constitution Day symposium, presented by Cato’s Center for Constitutional Studies, marks the day in 1787 that the Constitutional Convention finished drafting the U.S. Constitution. We celebrate that event each year with the release of the new issue of the Cato Supreme Court Review and with a day-long symposium featuring noted scholars discussing the recently concluded Supreme Court term and the important cases coming up.