NEWS
Jan 30, 2013 - BIPARTISAN GUN CONTROL GUIDELINES
As Congress holds its first hearings on gun violence since the Newtown tragedy, Baker Institute honorary chair James A. Baker, III, and Rep. John D. Dingell offer four general gun control guidelines in a New York Times op-ed. Baker, a conservative Texas Republican, and Dingell, a liberal Michigan Democrat, have often found themselves on opposite sides of political battles, they write, but they share a "strong love of guns and the outdoors and, just as important, a respect for both." Any gun legislation that is suggested should be broad-gauged, they say. "There is no one single cause of gun violence and no single solution." "Second, any approach demands bipartisan support … Absent wide support, any laws passed now might well be rescinded once the partisan balance of power inevitably shifts. "Third, common sense should prevail. We must get away from a mind-set that has owners of firearms worried that 'they are going to take our guns away.' The Second Amendment guarantees that won’t happen. Our nation has regulated various kinds of arms throughout history, and done so without violating the Second Amendment. "Finally, each of us should look into our own heart to consider what type of nation we want to be. From members of the National Rifle Association to the most passionate gun-control advocates, no one wants to live in a country where innocent children are killed indiscriminately."
Jan 28, 2013 - BAKER, CLINTON LAUNCH DIPLOMACY CENTER
But the center is not just about the past, Clinton said in her remarks. "It captures the living work of American diplomacy and all the creative ways that our diplomats carry out their missions. Visitors to this center will get to experience for themselves what it’s like to be part of a diplomatic simulation, stepping into the shoes of a diplomat in Darfur, for example, trying to defuse a crisis … They can even poke around an exhibit called, 'Inside the Secretary’s Day.' And, fair warning, it’s not all that glamorous, but it’ll give you an idea of what Jim and I and our other colleagues have done, and to learn for themselves how challenging, valuable, and rewarding diplomacy can be."
Jan 22, 2013 - BAKER INSTITUTE RANKED AMONG WORLD'S TOP 25 THINK TANKS
The Baker Institute is ranked No. 21 — up from No. 24 in 2011 — among the top think tanks in the United States, according to the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program's (TTCSP) survey at the University of Pennsylvania. The new rankings were published this week.
The Baker Institute is also one of only 10 U.S. university-affiliated think tanks ranked among the top 20 in the world; it rose to No. 13 in 2012 from No. 17 in 2011. The institute was also highly ranked No. 6 among energy and resource policy think tanks.
“Poised to celebrate its 20th year, Rice University’s Baker Institute has once again been ranked among the very top U.S. and global think tanks,” said Baker Institute founding director Edward P. Djerejian. “With this gratifying news, we look forward to expanding our research programs and continuing to provide relevant analysis and recommendations to decision-makers in the public and private sectors on domestic and international policy issues.”
Most recently, the Baker Institute expanded its energy program and created a new Center for Energy Studies (CES) in October. The new center provides policymakers, corporate leaders and the public with quality, data-driven analysis of issues that influence energy markets. CES provides a nonpartisan voice to issues that are often politically divisive.
The TTCSP produces the annual Global Go-To Think Tank Index that ranks the world’s leading think tanks with the help of a panel of more than 1,950 peer institutions and experts from the print and electronic media, academia, public and private donor institutions and policymakers.
According to James McGann, director of the TTCSP, 6,603 think tanks from 182 countries were invited to participate in the process, and a total of 1,647 think tanks were nominated.
Jan 18, 2013 - U.S. SENATORS HOST FORUM ON SOCIAL SECURITY
U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, both R-Texas, met with leaders from Galveston, Brazoria and Matagorda counties at the Baker Institute Jan. 17 for a roundtable discussion on the Galveston Plan, designed more than 30 years ago as an alternative to Social Security. As the entitlement reform debate continues in Washington, the senators wanted to hear directly from those who developed the Galveston Plan. Under the plan, county workers’ salaries, together with employer contributions, are placed in private accounts that are invested in the private market. The participants were welcomed by Baker Institute founding director Ambassador Edward P. Djerejian and Rice President David Leebron. (Pictured above, from left to right, are Djerejian, Cornyn, Cruz and Leebron.) Cruz applauded the counties for their initiative. “I think one of the critical keys that these three Texas counties have shown is personal ownership and the power of personal ownership to enable people, often who are making modest salaries, to accumulate very substantial assets that can provide security in retirement,” he said. Cornyn emphasized the importance of bipartisanship and leadership in addressing entitlement reform. “We’re going to have to deal with this,” Cornyn said. “This is not really a matter where one political party has all the knowledge. Everybody understands the problem, but having the political courage and leadership to actually deal with it, that’s what’s in short supply.” John Diamond, the Baker Institute’s Edward A. and Hermena Hancock Kelly Fellow in Public Finance, welcomed the focus on the long-term fiscal challenges posed by Social Security and other entitlement programs. “I spend a lot of time researching different reforms that could potentially solve this long-run fiscal crisis that the U.S. faces. I’m delighted to come today and listen to a real-world policy alternative that sounds like it has been successful in action. This is an extremely important topic that has to be addressed in the coming years.” 
Jan 18, 2013 - FOREIGN POLICY IN OBAMA'S 2ND TERM
Americans should expect no major departures in foreign policy during President Barack Obama’s second term, writes Joe Barnes, the institute's Bonner Means Baker Fellow, in the Baker Institute Blog. At one level, continuity "is not such a bad thing," he adds. "After all, the last time the United States made a dramatic change in our foreign policy — by launching a major war of choice against Iraq — the results were disastrous. And the challenges confronting the United States in the international arena, though real, are not amenable to dramatic new initiatives on practical or political grounds." There is one area where we might see a change, at least in emphasis, Barnes says."The Obama administration could give a higher priority to negotiating bilateral and perhaps regional trade agreements in Latin America and around the Pacific Rim."
For the full story, read "Foreign policy in Obama's second term" in the Jan. 18, 2012, Baker Institute Blog.
Jan 17, 2013 - A PRAGMATIC APPROACH
President Obama is unlikely to change his measured and pragmatic approach to the Middle East in his second term, writes Andrew Bowen, Baker Institute Scholar for the Middle East, in a recent blog for The Majalla.
The president's choices for a second-term national security team are noted for their opposition to U.S. engagement in the Middle East during the Bush administration, and suggest Obama will "continue to push for a restrained American engagement" in the region, Bowen writes. Other factors, including fallout from the Benghazi attack, have reinforced the current strategy and deterred “active American engagement in the region despite pressure from his more vocal advisors.”
Read "President Obama’s cautious engagement with the Middle East" in the Jan. 11, 2013, blog for The Majalla, a leading current affairs magazine on the Arab world.
Jan 16, 2013 - AMBASSADOR DJEREJIAN JOINS 49 U.S. STATESMEN TO SUPPORT HAGEL NOMINATION
Founding director Ambassador Edward P. Djerejian today joined 49 former U.S. Ambassadors and senior officials from the Defense and State Departments and the National Intelligence Council to express support "strongly and without qualification" of the nomination of Chuck Hagel to head the Department of Defense.
In a historic letter to the Senate delivered Jan. 16, 2013, the signers cited their experiences serving Democratic and Republican presidents from Harry Truman to Barack Obama and working with Sen. Hagel on national security issues over two decades. They commended the nominee's unwavering support for a strong military; a commitment to the security of Israel, as a friend and ally; and a determination to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
The letter highlights Hagel's strong support for Israel and a two-state solution, and his opposition to anything that would undermine Israel's security. The signers included six former ambassadors to Israel: Edward P. Djerejian, Thomas R. Pickering, Daniel Kurtzer, Sam Lewis, William Harrop and Edward Walker.
The letter is the largest-ever direct appeal by American diplomats to Congress in support of a cabinet nomination.
Jan 15, 2013 - SCHOLARLY POV
Researchers calculate that in 2012, between $158 billion and $226 billion were spent on medical procedures that had no value. Much of the waste came from treatments that cost far more than equally effective — or more effective — alternatives, writes Vivian Ho, James A. Baker III Institute Chair in Health Economics, in a recent Hospital & Health Networks Daily op-ed. "Fortunately, Congress took a little-noticed, important step in the
Affordable Care Act to rectify this problem by funding
comparative-effectiveness research, which uses data from clinical trials
and real-world treatment settings to determine which health care
practices are the most effective. But the promise of CER still might be
dashed by special interests and a medical establishment that is too slow
to change." Read "Using Comparative-Effectiveness Research to Improve Care" in the Jan. 10, 2013, issue of Hospital & Health Networks Daily.
Jan 15, 2013 - POLICY REPORT 55
In a follow-up to his 2010 report on U.S. drug policy, William Martin, director of the Baker Institute Drug Policy Program, examines 
"Cartels, Corruption, and Carnage in the Calderón Era," tracing the origins and growth of Mexican drug cartels and the failed government policies that accompanied their rise. Martin, who is also the institute's Harry and Hazel Chavanne Senior Fellow in Religion and Public Policy, suggests policy approaches that may lead to greater success."Cartels, Corruption, and Carnage in the Calderón Era" by William Martin.
Jan 15, 2013 - VACCINE DIPLOMACY
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are the most common infections of
the world’s poorest people, and disproportionately occur among nations
and populations of strategic interest to the United States. At a recent Baker Institute Health Policy Forum event, Dr. Peter J.
Hotez, fellow in disease and poverty and dean of the
Baylor College of Medicine National School of Tropical Medicine, discussed the potential benefits and challenges of engaging the Middle East,
Pakistan and China in science diplomacy to relieve the shared burden of
NTDs. Watch his Jan. 15, 2013, presentation above.
Jan 15, 2013 - Russell Green interviewed by the Project Management Institute
Last November, Will Clayton Fellow in International Economics Russell Green, Ph.D., was interviewed about India's energy shortages and chronic power blackouts for a story in PM Network, published by the Project Management Institute. From 2007 to 2011, Green served as the U.S. Treasury Department’s financial attaché to India. Though the country's power grid is government owned, the state-operated facilities often lack the funding to build or maintain power plants. "State electrical boards don't want to raise tariffs because it's political unpopular, so many states have dug themselves into deep financial holes," Green says.
Jan 15, 2013 - A UNIQUE GIFT FROM JAMES A. BAKER, III
For years, the mounted head of an enormous North American bull elk dominated the hall near the Baker Institute office of honorary chair James A. Baker, III. Felled more than a decade ago by Baker, an avid hunter, the magnificent elk (known as “Roy”) was a conversation piece unlike any other. But the new year brings new changes, and Roy has found a new home: Rice University’s Baker College, a student residence hall whose high, vaulted ceilings better showcase the elk’s noble visage.
Roy "really overwhelmed” its former place of honor, said Baker. “I thought I really ought to give that elk to Baker College. Baker College and I are named after the same person, Capt. James Baker.”
Baker formally presented Roy to Baker College at a recent ceremony attended by students as well as Baker Institute founding director Ambassador Edward P. Djerejian and his wife, Françoise.
After the former secretary of state fielded questions from the audience on the economy and foreign policy, the students gathered for a group picture with their benefactor. “People who never thought they'd care about politics or political figures came away really inspired and honored to have seen Mr. Baker," said Ellen Trinklein '15. "We were so glad he visited. And we love Roy."
Watch a Rice University video of Baker’s visit to Baker College above.
Jan 02, 2013 - TIME IS NO LONGER ON ISRAEL'S SIDE
In a Dec. 25, 2012, interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, founding director Ambassador Edward P. Djerejian discussed the implications of an Israeli attack on Iran, the ongoing conflict in Syria, and recommendations he and a Baker Institute team are developing to advance Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. "Time is not working in Israel's favor," Djerejian said. "Due to economic and military superiority, [Israel can, for the time being] keep the status quo, but in the long term, I believe that if the Palestinian problem is not solved, this will constitute an existential threat to the concept of a Jewish democratic state."
Dec 20, 2012 - SCHOLARLY POV
The recent killings of nine health workers trying to vaccinate Pakistani children against polio is likely to have a chilling effect on the country's polio eradication efforts, writes Peter J. Hotez, the institute's fellow in disease and poverty fellow, in the Baker Institute Blog. "This concern is especially relevant for Karachi, where at least five of the workers died and where vaccination efforts have now been suspended," he says. "Women comprise most of the health workforce for polio eradication efforts in Pakistan — for the very practical reason that it is easier for a woman to go into a household where other women may be present." Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world where polio is still endemic. Read more about the issue in "Polio and vaccine diplomacy in Pakistan," by Peter J. Hotez.
Dec 20, 2012 - SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up two cases related to gay marriage, granting review of California's ban on same-sex marriage and of a law that forbids federal recognition of same-sex unions. In a recent blog, Baker Institute fellow Joe Barnes comments on social and political context of the cases currently before the court, predicting that "in 50 years we will look back upon the current controversy over gay marriage with chagrin and shame: chagrin because same-sex unions will have become, by then, utterly matter-of-fact; shame because discrimination against homosexual couples will be generally recognized as an egregious breach of equality under law and simple human decency." Texas, though in many ways a wonderful state, has an "appalling track record on treatment of its homosexual citizens," Barnes writes. Sooner or later, Texans — like other Americans— will be chagrined and ashamed.
Dec 18, 2012 - Addressing the U.S. debt is a national security imperative
A coalition of former high-ranking government officials, including Baker Institute honorary chair James A. Baker, III, recently published a statement urging elected leaders to agree on a budget plan that averts the fiscal cliff and “puts the debt on a downward path.” The message from the 15-member Coalition for Fiscal and National Security — which appeared, among other places, online and in full-page ads in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal — provides guidelines to achieve these objectives. It calls for spending cuts over the next 10 years, tax reforms to raise more revenues, and “changes to entitlements to put them on a sustainable long-term path." In addition, coalition members write, "advances in technological capabilities and the changing nature of threats make it possible, if properly done, to spend less” on an efficient and intelligent U.S. defense strategy. A four-page document expanding on the general framework proposed by the coalition is available In addition to Baker, the signatories to the statement of principles are: Admiral Michael G. Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Madeleine K. Albright, former secretary of state; Samuel R. Berger, former national security advisor; Harold Brown, former secretary of defense; Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor; Frank Carlucci, former secretary of defense; Robert M. Gates, former secretary of defense; Henry A. Kissinger, former secretary of state and national security advisor; Sam Nunn, former chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services; Paul O’Neill, former secretary of the treasury; George P. Shultz, former secretary of state and the treasury; Ike Skelton, former chairman of the House Committee on Armed Services; Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve; and John Warner, former chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services.here.
Dec 13, 2012 - On Syria and Iran's nuclear threat
At a plenary session of the World Policy Conference in Cannes, founding director Ambassador Edward Djerejian discussed the potential impact on Lebanon of the crisis in Syria and Iran's nuclear development program. L’Orient-Le Jour, a leading French-language daily newspaper published in Lebanon, featured the ambassador's insights in a Dec. 12, 2012, story available in French here. The English translation is available here.
Dec 12, 2012 - SCHOLARLY POV
March 19, 2003, will mark the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. "We should not let the anniversary pass without serious soul-searching," writes Joe Barnes, the institute's Bonner Means Baker Fellow, in a recent Baker Institute Blog post. Barnes explains why in "Learning the Lessons of the Iraq War," the first in a series of posts about the war between now and March.
Dec 12, 2012 - CUTTING THE MORTGAGE INTEREST DEDUCTION
Given the severity of the fiscal problems currently faced by the United
States, many recent tax reform proposals have included measures that
would curtail or eliminate the home mortgage interest deduction (MID). A new Baker Institute study shows that such measures would initially result in
declines in housing prices and investment, but would have only modest
aggregate macroeconomic effects in the long run. The study, "The Dynamic Effects of Eliminating or Curtailing the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction," is co-authored by John Diamond, the Edward A. and Hermena Hancock Kelly Fellow in Public Finance at the Baker Institute, and George Zodrow, the university’s Allyn R. and Gladys M. Cline Chair of Economics, and a Baker Institute Rice Scholar.
Dec 12, 2012 - Syria on the "cusp of disintegration"
While in France for the World Policy Conference, founding director Ambassador Edward Djerejian was interviewed by France 24 News about the political transitions in the Arab world, with a special focus on Egypt. The ambassador also discussed the crisis in Syria, and expressed hope for an agreement between Israel and Palestinians during Obama’s last term as president. "It's very painful to see what is happening in Syria because it ... is an ethnic mosaic that has been living in multi-confessional harmony for centuries," Djerejian said. "To see this very rich society at the heart of the Arab world on the cusp of a major sectarian war, on the cusp of disintegration, is a human tragedy, a political tragedy. If Syria implodes, it will have a major impact on its very important neighbors, Turkey to the north, Lebanon to the west, Iraq to the east, Jordan and Israel to the south."
