The Visible Hand: Positioning America to Compete
Course Description
Since the end of the Cold War, US industrial policy has allowed the Nation’s supply chains to stretch far overseas and its manufacturing capabilities to atrophy. The United States has become dangerously dependent on its primary geopolitical competitor, the People’s Republic of China, for critical inputs to its weapons systems, batteries, and many other key technological sectors. The Chinese Communist Party has gained immense influence over the global flow of critical resources such as minerals, microchips, and pharmaceuticals. To protect the American way of life, Washington must reassert its industrial dominance and independence in these critical sectors, most urgently those that impact national security. This workshop will offer a history of US industrial policy, consider China’s trade policies, examine recent efforts to reinvigorate the Nation’s industrial base and the ongoing debates around those policies, and identify best practices to harness American industrial might for the future.
Instructors
Nadia Schadlow
Nadia Schadlow is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute and a co-chair of the Hamilton Commission on Securing America’s National Security Innovation Base. She conducts research and analysis on a range of issues at the intersection of strategy, national security, and technology. She writes on topics that include the vulnerabilities of US supply chains in areas such as advanced batteries and energetic materials; the relationship between climate and defense policy; and the disconnects between strategy and operational policies. Dr. Schadlow was most recently US deputy national security advisor for strategy. In that capacity she led the drafting and publication of the 2017 National Security Strategy of the United States. Earlier in her career, she served as a senior program officer in the International Security and Foreign Policy Program of the Smith Richardson Foundation, where she helped identify strategic issues that warranted further attention from the US policy community. She also served in the Defense Department. Dr. Schadlow holds a BA in government and Soviet studies from Cornell University and an MA and PhD from the John Hopkins Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Meg Reiss
Dr. Meg Reiss is the founder and CEO of SolidIntel Inc, the first generative AI supply chain and intelligence company. Meg previously spent nearly four and a half years as the national security policy advisor for US Senator Mitt Romney, overseeing his State, DoD, IC, and space portfolios. In her role with Senator Romney, she worked on legislation and regulations that form part of the basis of the supply chain regulatory system SolidIntel is helping address and pushed for expanding mandates to understand upstream supply and is positioned to incorporate future risks and regulatory changes. She has deep connections in foreign policy and national security communities in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Meg is also an Atlantic Council nonresident senior fellow at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and a George Mason School of Law National Security Institute visiting fellow; she recently completed a year as a Schmidt Futures (now the Competitive Studies Project) international strategy fellow. She’s on the board of the Foundation for American Innovation and the alumni board for the Rumsfeld Foundation; she also won the Rumsfeld Foundation’s 2024 Alumna of the Year.. Meg was previously a senior national security fellow for the R Street Institute, a senior editor of Lawfare, and a senior national security fellow for then US Senator Ben Sasse. She has a BA from Stanford University, an LLM from the University of Nottingham School of Law, and a PhD from the University of Texas at Austin.
Thomas J. Duesterberg
Thomas J. Duesterberg is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute. An expert of trade, manufacturing, economics, and foreign policy, Dr. Duesterberg leads project work on trade with Europe and China, reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO), global competition in advanced technologies such as 5G, and the strength of the United States manufacturing sector. Previously, Dr. Duesterberg was executive director of the Manufacturing and Society in the Twenty-First Century Program at the Aspen Institute. From 1999 to 2011 he served as president and CEO of the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI, an economic research and executive education organization based in Virginia. He was also director of the Washington office of Hudson Institute, assistant secretary for international economic policy at the US Department of Commerce, chief of staff to Rep. Chris Cox and Sen. Dan Quayle, and associate instructor at Stanford University. He co-wrote US Manufacturing: The Engine of Growth in a Global Economy and three other books, and is the author of over 300 articles in journals and major newspapers. He is on the Board of Advisors of the Manufacturing Public Policy Initiative at Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and the Board of Trustees of the American University of Rome. He is a graduate of Princeton University (BA) and Indiana University (MA, PhD).
Simulation
In coordination with their peers, candidates will participate in an in-depth tabletop exercise informed by the workshop’s readings and discussions. During this simulation, candidates will be asked to craft policy responses to a hypothetical crisis.
Highlighted Modules
What is Industrial Policy?
The Fall and Rise of the U.S. Industrial Base
Debating the Return of Industrial Policy
Details
Course Dates
Application Deadline
Not available
Location
1201 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
#400
Washington, DC 20004
Applications are now closed
Capstone Project
Candidates will showcase their newly gained policy insight by completing their choice of an op-ed or policy memo. Projects are due a week after the end of program and will be assessed by committee upon the basis of their strategic soundness, original analysis, and grasp of the policy area. The quality of this project will determine if candidates are awarded the certification.
Eligibility
Our Policy Certificate Program is seeking an accomplished cohort of early career professionals who demonstrate capability and interest in American foreign and domestic policy issues. The selection committee will consider a candidate's subject matter expertise, creative thinking, writing ability, and professional background. Applicants should meet the following criteria:
-Undergraduate degree holder
-Professional Experience
-Demonstrated policy expertise in one or more relevant areas
-Highly competent writer and researcher