Meta tags:
description=A quarterly journal of public policy and political thought;

Headings (most frequently used words):

the, for, and, how, energy, infrastructure, american, power, america, china, competition, case, of, will, pay, permitting, industrial, financing, can, strategic, export, import, bank, capital, to, affairs, journal, data, centers, online, exclusives, arithmetic, who, electricity, investments, trap, political, abuse, prevents, growth, addition, over, obstruction, new, governing, principle, development, balancing, acts, last, time, we, fixed, trade, deficit, lessons, from, plaza, accord, impossible, partnership, apple, coming, reckoning, with, national, orchestration, provincial, policy, ai, dominance, bidenomics, went, bust, midwestern, study, industry, financialization, complement, reindustrialization, missing, institution, investment, in, age, revitalizing, great, closing, gap, modernizing, strategy, path, forward, united, states, entrenched, elites, appreciation, constituency, land, credit, politics, protected, assets, rediscovering, dynamic, elite, securing, digital, republic, safeguard, critical, exploitable, by, design, social, media, adtech, threat, factory, floor, is, now, battlefield, rebuilding, offer, manufacturing, statecraft, legislative, package, renewal, requires, an, framework, common, good, innovation, flat, tariffs, build, like, ike, surface, transportation, reauthorization, drive, next, materials, revolution, interstate, imperative, maintenance, as, nation, building, long, march, process, efficiency, its, discontents, sorry, pdf, downloads, are, available, subscribers, only, follow, us, navigation,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (143), and (68), that (30), for (21), infrastructure (18), with (13), #energy (13), #american (12), strategic (12), from (12), but (11), have (10), united (10), states (10), has (9), public (8), how (8), industrial (8), china (8), political (8), are (7), capital (7), investment (7), about (6), policy (6), will (6), long (6), its (6), must (6), can (6), america (6), one (6), today (6), over (6), not (6), competition (6), world (5), what (5), where (5), cannot (5), scale (5), private (5), climate (5), only (4), issue (4), more (4), systems (4), data (4), case (4), people (4), state (4), these (4), cybersecurity (4), our (4), assets (4), global (4), markets (4), national (4), bank (4), time (4), sector (4), last (4), donate (3), contact (3), archive (3), current (3), follow (3), like (3), 2026 (3), affairs (3), all (3), years (3), americans (3), when (3), ways (3), appears (3), challenge (3), deeper (3), structural (3), joshua (3), next (3), supply (3), chain (3), revolution (3), across (3), their (3), security (3), social (3), addition (3), offer (3), market (3), model (3), now (3), should (3), technology (3), race (3), which (3), this (3), design (3), alone (3), critical (3), challenges (3), into (3), democracy (3), elites (3), might (3), physical (3), land (3), central (3), growing (3), financing (3), power (3), export (3), import (3), industry (3), role (3), apple (3), trade (3), deficit (3), debates (3), growth (3), journal (3), sign (2), subscribe (2), pdf (2), articles (2), rss (2), feed (2), twitter (2), facebook (2), many (2), goods (2), vision (2), story (2), system (2), transportation (2), fact (2), built (2), era (2), expansion (2), imperative (2), nation (2), great (2), buildout (2), centers (2), modern (2), build (2), reauthorization (2), even (2), whole (2), base (2), place (2), life (2), large (2), directed (2), toward (2), common (2), good (2), permitting (2), innovation (2), billion (2), better (2), coalition (2), india (2), requires (2), twenty (2), required (2), adtech (2), attention (2), media (2), increasingly (2), incidents (2), becoming (2), attacks (2), emerged (2), first (2), businesses (2), influence (2), mean (2), redefined (2), democratic (2), key (2), once (2), rather (2), elite (2), effectively (2), longer (2), been (2), history (2), problem (2), capitalism (2), trap (2), most (2), own (2), faces (2), economic (2), such (2), dominance (2), leadership (2), sectors (2), clear (2), advanced (2), short (2), gap (2), implications (2), congress (2), self (2), left (2), rapidly (2), institutional (2), duration (2), than (2), artificial (2), intelligence (2), deployment (2), debate (2), financialization (2), financial (2), purpose (2), bidenomics (2), goals (2), way (2), policymakers (2), against (2), benchmarks (2), chinese (2), international (2), success (2), fundamentally (2), ternus (2), reality (2), position (2), regulatory (2), crisis (2), produced (2), consequential (2), plaza (2), accord (2), new (2), projects (2), term (2), load (2), factors (2), choices (2), electricity (2), pay (2), already, subscribed, blink, your, aaj, account, sorry, downloads, available, subscribers, navigation, copyright, foundation, inc, rights, reserved, terms, conditions, privacy, older, posts, too, seem, think, handful, wake, technofuturist, version, 1950s, uncle, sam, rolled, sleeves, brawny, forearms, dexterous, hands, peerlessly, delivered, necessary, uplifting, sure, emmet, penney, march, process, efficiency, discontents, highway, broadly, reflection, governments, vast, yet, kohler, jack, schwab, interstate, maintenance, building, embarks, form, ensure, material, interstates, underpin, remains, secure, rafae, ghani, ike, surface, drive, materials, move, simpler, dumber, tariff, everything, create, durable, preference, production, let, entrepreneurs, engineers, manufacturers, discover, breakthroughs, come, scalpel, nicholas, phillips, flat, tariffs, availability, allowed, citizens, use, freedom, formation, advance, everyday, likewise, future, country, depend, amounts, cheap, right, chris, barnard, isaiah, menning, framework, 330, million, compared, larger, despite, fraying, traditional, allies, allied, europe, five, eyes, japan, southeast, asia, mark, rosenblatt, rebuilding, manufacturing, statecraft, legislative, package, renewal, past, attacking, specialized, training, custom, tooling, budget, dead, takes, laptop, internet, connection, welcome, infinite, front, firms, take, note, steinman, factory, floor, battlefield, much, money, stake, little, wonder, responsible, delivering, ads, stuck, perpetual, arms, human, advertising, article, principally, concerned, emerson, brooking, exploitable, threat, awash, 2025, lost, cybercrimes, globally, year, targeting, civilian, become, regular, facet, warfare, since, maidan, adam, gluck, levine, lars, erik, schönander, safeguard, defining, century, ransomware, schools, hacks, virtual, operations, fraud, nefarious, collection, corporations, actors, editors, securing, digital, republic, online, exclusives, decided, literally, rule, then, there, particular, reason, why, accept, openness, mobility, adherence, some, ideals, historical, progress, elements, decoupled, idea, ruling, inevitable, rules, behalf, bound, narratives, consigned, metaphors, equate, society, fluidity, motion, free, rethink, want, get, blake, smith, rediscovering, dynamic, passive, extraction, value, was, bird, sees, mechanism, universal, persistent, centuries, argument, waiting, inside, evidence, powerfully, supports, tendency, convert, aspiration, broad, prosperity, engine, asset, price, inflation, logic, correct, hunter, hopcroft, appreciation, constituency, credit, politics, protected, entrenched, dominant, financier, outpacing, nearly, ten, directly, interests, also, excludes, immense, opportunities, largest, foreign, brazil, try, out, subsidize, true, william, bryant, strategy, path, forward, exist, commercialize, them, domestically, does, among, rare, earth, processing, proven, predatory, backed, pricing, defense, reconstitution, shipbuilding, techniques, autonomous, vessel, target, start, industries, jan, jaro, closing, modernizing, charter, set, expire, december, prepares, draft, legislation, opportunity, augment, reorient, generation, legacy, bureaucratic, calcification, outdated, imposed, restrictions, exim, inadequately, prepared, defend, changing, tanner, gebhart, revitalizing, confronting, simply, architecture, through, organized, often, treated, category, spending, balance, sheet, require, structures, institutions, capable, mobilizing, decades, electoral, cycles, address, called, trifecta, hit, decade, fragility, revealed, pandemic, intensity, sadek, wahba, missing, institution, age, harness, urgency, sustaining, force, enables, objectives, conventional, frames, industrialization, antagonists, former, enable, latter, substitute, coordinator, backstop, risk, bear, ultimate, make, construction, delivery, well, understood, repeatable, practice, financiers, evaluate, confidence, declining, support, arnab, datta, skanda, amarnath, complement, reindustrialization, especially, viewed, vantage, point, ohio, stumbled, two, threatened, laudable, problems, endogenous, biden, white, house, partner, intel, frustrated, casts, doubt, structured, relationship, second, federal, funds, proved, sluggish, worked, discredit, program, henry, tonks, went, bust, midwestern, study, pervasive, indifference, characterizes, overconfident, view, stems, grading, sino, preferred, rubric, frontier, center, timelines, general, agi, rarely, measure, performance, categories, themselves, choose, emphasize, party, various, companies, clearly, trying, unleash, capabilities, beijing, desire, beyond, dispute, methods, different, ours, evincing, distinct, understanding, nature, samuel, hammond, farrell, gregory, orchestration, provincial, chief, executive, still, deceptively, familiar, steward, portfolio, iconic, products, manage, sprawling, appease, donald, trump, deliver, outsized, returns, shareholders, poised, transition, tim, cook, john, however, conception, reflects, entails, inherit, altered, geopolitics, sits, uncomfortably, closer, questions, interest, authority, trust, few, corporate, roles, ever, isaac, stone, fish, impossible, partnership, coming, reckoning, focused, sustained, 1980s, strikingly, similar, collapsing, bipartisan, fury, soaring, dollar, episode, currency, coordination, 1985, diplomatic, campaign, surrounded, succeeded, reversing, did, forced, action, dissolved, memory, faded, forces, were, largely, intact, setting, stage, imbalances, confront, michael, starr, fixed, lessons, balancing, acts, grounds, liberals, generally, opposed, fossil, fuels, promoted, clean, alternatives, conservative, response, both, fragmented, shifting, emerging, optimal, either, side, aisle, embraced, varying, degrees, obstructionism, pavan, venkatakrishnan, obstruction, governing, principle, development, abundantly, clinging, ability, slow, down, block, disliked, may, appeal, run, serves, maintain, status, quo, untenable, face, decreased, reliability, aging, change, possible, aidan, mackenzie, abuse, prevents, part, broader, commercial, legal, technical, collide, because, contemporary, deeply, intensifies, misallocating, lead, burdens, chronically, fragile, complicated, extenuating, including, technologies, increasing, incidence, shocks, uncertainty, timing, magnitude, location, swirling, uncertainties, government, coalesce, around, singularity, refining, expanding, timothy, fitzgerald, who, investments, arithmetic, summer, volume, number, download, travis, kavulla, menu, search, site, skip, content, quarterly, thought,

Text of the page (random words):
american affairs journal a quarterly journal of public policy and political thought skip to content current issue archive about contact donate american affairs journal like us on facebook follow us on twitter articles rss feed search this site menu current issue archive about contact donate how will data centers pay for power by travis kavulla summer 2026 volume x number 2 download pdf america s energy arithmetic who will pay for electricity infrastructure investments by timothy fitzgerald infrastructure is part of a broader debate about energy and climate where commercial regulatory legal and technical factors collide because of the long life of these assets contemporary investment choices can have deeply consequential implications which only intensifies energy debates misallocating investment can lead to long term financial burdens or chronically fragile physical systems in addition to policy debates choices about infrastructure are complicated by extenuating factors including new technologies increasing incidence of physical shocks over time and uncertainty about the timing magnitude and location of load growth with all of these swirling uncertainties it is imperative that industry and government coalesce around a singularity of vision and purpose in refining and expanding our electricity infrastructure the permitting trap how political abuse prevents growth by aidan mackenzie it is abundantly clear that america must build more energy projects clinging to the ability to slow down and block disliked projects may have short term political appeal but in the long run it only serves to maintain a status quo that is becoming increasingly untenable in the face of challenges such as load growth from ai decreased reliability from aging infrastructure and climate change a better system is possible addition over obstruction a new governing principle for energy development by pavan venkatakrishnan on climate grounds liberals have generally opposed the expansion of fossil fuels and promoted clean energy alternatives the conservative response to climate has been both fragmented and shifting but the emerging reality is deeper than debates over optimal climate policy policymakers on either side of the aisle have effectively embraced to varying degrees energy obstructionism balancing acts the last time we fixed the trade deficit lessons from the plaza accord by michael starr americans last focused sustained political attention on the trade deficit in the 1980s a crisis strikingly similar to today s a collapsing industrial base bipartisan fury in congress and a soaring dollar produced the most consequential episode of international currency coordination in modern history the plaza accord of 1985 and the diplomatic campaign that surrounded it succeeded in rapidly reversing the trade deficit but the success did not last the political coalition that forced action dissolved the institutional memory faded and the structural forces that produced the crisis were left largely intact setting the stage for the even deeper imbalances we confront today the impossible partnership apple s coming reckoning with china by isaac stone fish the role of apple s chief executive still appears deceptively familiar steward a portfolio of iconic products manage a sprawling global supply chain appease donald trump and deliver outsized returns to shareholders as apple is poised to transition from tim cook to john ternus however that conception no longer reflects the reality of what the position entails ternus will inherit a position fundamentally altered by geopolitics one that now sits uncomfortably closer to questions of national interest regulatory authority and public trust in ways few corporate roles ever have national orchestration and provincial competition china s industrial policy for ai dominance by farrell gregory and samuel hammond the pervasive indifference that characterizes america s overconfident view of its place in the ai race stems from grading the sino american ai race against our own preferred rubric frontier model benchmarks the scale of the data center buildout and timelines to artificial general intelligence agi rarely do we measure american performance against the categories that the chinese themselves choose to emphasize the party state and various chinese companies are clearly trying to unleash ai capabilities and beijing s desire for international ai leadership is beyond dispute but their methods and benchmarks of success are different from ours evincing a fundamentally distinct understanding of the nature of the competition how bidenomics went bust a midwestern case study by henry m j tonks bidenomics especially when viewed from the vantage point of central ohio stumbled in two ways that threatened its laudable goals first problems endogenous to the biden white house s key partner intel frustrated political goals in a way that casts doubt on how policymakers structured their relationship with the private sector second the deployment of federal funds proved sluggish in a way that worked to discredit the whole program financing american industry how financialization can complement reindustrialization by skanda amarnath and arnab datta to harness the urgency for strategic industrial investment into a self sustaining force public financing infrastructure must be built that enables deployment of private capital toward strategic objectives the conventional debate frames financialization and industrialization as antagonists in fact the former can enable the latter the public sector s critical role is not as a substitute for markets but as a coordinator of market infrastructure and a backstop for financial risk that the private sector cannot bear alone the ultimate purpose of this public role is to make the construction and delivery of strategic assets a well understood repeatable practice one that private financiers can evaluate with confidence and with a declining scale of public support over time the missing institution infrastructure investment in the age of strategic competition by sadek wahba the central challenge confronting the united states today is not simply the scale of infrastructure investment required but the institutional architecture through which that investment is organized infrastructure is often treated as a category of public spending when it is a balance sheet problem long duration assets require long duration capital structures and institutions capable of mobilizing capital across decades rather than electoral cycles markets and the private sector alone cannot address what might be called the trifecta that hit the united states in the last decade supply chain fragility revealed by the pandemic growing strategic competition with china and the capital intensity of the artificial intelligence revolution revitalizing the export import bank for great power competition by tanner j gebhart the charter of the export import bank of the united states is set to expire on december 31 2026 as congress prepares to draft reauthorization legislation it has an opportunity to augment and reorient the bank for a generation over time a legacy design model bureaucratic calcification and outdated self imposed restrictions have left exim inadequately prepared to defend u s industry in a rapidly changing era of global economic and strategic competition closing the strategic capital gap the case for modernizing the export import bank by jan jaro investment should be directed at sectors where american technology and innovation exist but the infrastructure to commercialize them domestically does not and where the national security case is clear among these sectors are rare earth processing where proven american technology faces predatory state backed pricing defense industrial reconstitution and advanced shipbuilding techniques and autonomous vessel design in short strategic capital must target the start up and scale up gap in advanced industries with national security implications energy financing power china s strategy and a path forward for the united states by william bryant the united states faces a growing strategic challenge china has emerged as the world s dominant energy financier outpacing the united states nearly ten to one in global markets china s growing influence not only directly challenges u s strategic interests but also excludes american businesses from immense economic opportunities in the world s largest foreign markets such as brazil and india the united states should not try to out subsidize china but true american energy dominance requires global market leadership entrenched elites the appreciation constituency land credit and the politics of protected assets by hunter hopcroft the passive extraction of land value was the central problem of industrial capitalism bird sees that the mechanism is universal and persistent across political systems and centuries the argument waiting inside the land trap and the one its evidence most powerfully supports is that democratic capitalism has a structural tendency to convert the aspiration for broad prosperity into an engine of asset price inflation that it cannot by its own logic correct rediscovering a dynamic elite by blake smith if we have decided that democracy cannot literally mean the rule of the people and has to be redefined then there is no particular reason why we must accept democratic elites openness mobility or adherence to some ideals of historical progress to be the key elements of a redefined democracy today democracy once decoupled from the idea of the people ruling might rather mean that the inevitable elite rules effectively on the people s behalf once we are no longer bound to narratives that have been consigned to history or to physical metaphors that equate a good society with fluidity and motion we might be free to rethink what we want from our elites and how to get it online exclusives securing the digital republic by the editors cybersecurity has emerged as one of the defining policy challenges of the twenty first century from ransomware attacks on businesses and schools to hacks into our critical infrastructure from virtual political influence operations to large scale fraud and nefarious data collection by corporations and state actors cybersecurity how to safeguard america s critical infrastructure by lars erik schönander joshua levine and adam gluck the world is increasingly awash with cybersecurity incidents in 2025 americans alone lost over 20 billion in cybercrimes 1 globally cybersecurity incidents are becoming more common by the year and attacks targeting civilian infrastructure have become a regular facet of warfare since the maidan revolution of exploitable by design social media and the adtech threat by emerson t brooking with so much money at stake it is little wonder that the technology and infrastructure responsible for delivering these ads adtech is stuck in a perpetual arms race for human attention the world of social media advertising with which this article is principally concerned is the factory floor is now the battlefield by joshua steinman for the past twenty years attacking industrial systems required years of specialized training custom tooling and a nation state budget that model is now dead today it takes a laptop and an internet connection welcome to the infinite front american firms should take note rebuilding the american offer manufacturing statecraft and the legislative package industrial renewal requires by mark rosenblatt the united states has 330 million people compared to china s 1 3 billion we cannot offer a larger market we must offer a better one despite what today appears to be a fraying of traditional allies the allied coalition europe india five eyes japan southeast asia an energy framework for the common good permitting capital and innovation by isaiah menning and chris barnard the availability of energy in america has allowed citizens to use their security freedom and formation to advance the social goods of everyday life likewise the future of the country will depend on the addition of large amounts of cheap energy directed toward the right the case for flat tariffs by nicholas phillips the more strategic move is simpler dumber even tariff everything create a durable preference for production in the united states across the whole industrial base and let entrepreneurs engineers and manufacturers discover where the next breakthroughs will come the scalpel has its place but the build like ike how surface transportation reauthorization can drive america s next materials revolution by rafae ghani as the united states embarks on the next great buildout of strategic infrastructure in the form of ai data centers it must ensure that the material supply chain for the interstates that underpin it all remains secure and modern the interstate imperative infrastructure maintenance as nation building by jack schwab and joshua kohler the story of the highway system is in many ways the story of public infrastructure more broadly what appears as a transportation challenge is in fact a reflection of a deeper structural issue governments built vast systems in an era of expansion but have yet the long march of process efficiency and its discontents by emmet penney too many seem to think that in a handful of years americans will wake up to a technofuturist version of the 1950s when uncle sam s rolled sleeves brawny forearms and dexterous hands peerlessly delivered the world s goods a necessary and uplifting vision to be sure older posts subscribe copyright 2026 american affairs foundation inc all rights reserved privacy policy terms conditions follow us like us on facebook follow us on twitter articles rss feed navigation current issue archive about contact donate sorry pdf downloads are available to subscribers only subscribe already subscribed sign in with your aaj account sign in with blink