Media and Lecture Appearances
Susan Eisenhower provides news analysis and commentary on television and in new media. Please click the underlined Subject Titles below for complete articles.
« Previous Entries
Ms. Eisenhower’s Work on Nuclear Issues
Susan Eisenhower’s appointment to the Commission on America’s Nuclear Future will be the third time in as many administrations that she has served on Blue Ribbon Panels related to nuclear issues. In the spring of 2000, the Clinton Administration’s Secretary of Energy, Bill Richardson, appointed Ms. Eisenhower to the Baker-Cutler Commission to evaluate U.S. funded nuclear non-proliferation programs in Russia. In 2004, she was appointed by the Bush Administration’s Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abraham, to the Sununu-Meserve Commission, co-chaired by former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu and Carnegie Institution President and former Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman Richard Meserve. Its influential final report, Moving Forward with Nuclear Power: Issues and Key Factors, provided many recommendations that were later adopted as national policy. In addition to these efforts, she has also served on a DOE funded study on terrorism and radiological dispersion devices (RDDs) or “dirty bombs.” At the end of last year, she also served on a DOE panel that produced recommendations on nuclear energy for incoming Secretary Chu.
Ms. Eisenhower has written on the subject of nuclear energy, convened working groups on it through the Eisenhower Strategy Form and has visited many sites that are part of the larger nuclear question. In 2004 she visited: Yucca Mountain, the Federal Spent Fuel Repository in Nevada, which is now no longer being funded; a major uranium enterprise in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan, where highly enriched uranium is blended down; and several nuclear facilities in France including La Hague, the French reprocessing facility. She has also visited a number of Russian nuclear reactors. Her work for the Baker-Cutler Commission also took her to Russia’s premier nuclear weapons facility, the Zababakhin Center in Snezhinsk (formally Chelyabinsk-70), a sensitive Russian defense site where nuclear weapons are designed and fissile materials are secured.
An experienced public speaker to expert audiences as well as general audiences, Ms. Eisenhower has addressed the issue of security and nuclear energy at many prestigious gatherings. These include keynote addresses at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California; Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico (The Distinguished Truman Lecture); and the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC. She also gave the 2008 Rose Lecture at MIT and spoke during the General Assembly of the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2007. She has penned articles about the future of nuclear energy for such publications as the IAEA Bulletin and the National Academy of Science’s Issues in Science and Technology.
Susan Eisenhower served for three terms on the National Academy of Sciences standing committee on International Security and Arms Control. She is a founding Director of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) co-chaired by former Senator Sam Nunn and Ted Turner.
Click here to return to Susan Eisenhower’s main biography page..
Reconsidering the Cold War
In November, Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge, UK hosted a conference on “The Cold War and its Legacy”. The conference began with opening statements from Susan Eisenhower and the Deputy Russian Foreign Minister, His Excellency Grigoriy Karasin.
Click here to read more about this event and the work of the Churchill Archives Center.
A New Eisenhower-Khrushchev Conversation
On September 26, 2009, Susan Eisenhower and the son of Nikita Khrushchev gave a talk at at the 50th anniversary of Khrushchev and Dwight Eisenhower’s meeting in Gettysburg.
The Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College presented a weekend to commemorate the visit and examine the future of U.S. and Russia relations.
Ms. Eisenhower’s conversation with Sergei Khrushchev was moderated by Daun van Ee, co-editor of the Eisenhower Papers.
Click here to view the video from this event at C-SPAN.
Real Time with Bill Maher
Susan Eisenhower appeared on the July 24 episode of “Real Time with Bill Maher” on the HBO cable network.
Please click here to view a video clip of the “Overtime” segment, in which the panel answered a variety of questions from the internet audience. On the panel with Ms. Eisenhower are war veteran and political candidate Anthony Woods; writer John Heilemann; and writer Matt Taibbi.
Pressing That Re-set Button
On June 22, 2009, Susan Eisenhower moderated a roundtable discussion entitled “Pressing That Re-set Button: Shared Interests, Competing Values, and U.S.-Russian Relations.” The Century Foundation presented this event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
As the Obama administration redirects U.S. policy on many fronts, the President’s declaration of a fresh start for relations between the United States and Russia has significant implications for the management of many critical issues. The roundtable assessed the direction of policy under the new administration in the week ahead of President Obama’s visit to Moscow, and it explored the challenges and opportunities the two countries face on issues of mutual and global concern.
Panelists:
* Jack F. Matlock, Jr., former George F. Kennan Professor, Institute for Advanced Study and former U.S. ambassador to the USSR; co-chair, Century Foundation Working Group on U.S. Policy toward Russia
* Thomas Graham, Senior Director, Kissinger Associates and former Senior Director for Russia, National Security Council; author of Century Foundation report Resurgent Russia and U.S. Purposes
* Sarah E. Mendelson, Director, Human Rights and Security Initiative and Senior Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies; author of Century Foundation report U.S.-Russian Relations and the Democracy Deficit
Click here for more video from this event.
A Dialogue on Energy Security with America’s Business Leaders
On May 13, 2009, Susan Eisenhower delivered remarks and hosted a panel at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy as part of “A Dialogue on Energy Security with America’s Business Leaders.”
Ms. Eisenhower was joined by three regional business leaders for the panel discussion: Robert “Bobby” Wegener, Secretary of Energy, State of Oklahoma; Laurence Weatherly, Ph.D., Chairman, University of Kansas Energy Council; and Bray Cary, President and Chief Executive Officer, West Virginia Media.
Click here to view a video from this event.
Examining The Media-Military Relationship
In May, Susan Eisenhower moderated a panel at the first Civilian-Military Safe Havens Conference in Pocantico Hills, New York. The conference was organized by The Eisenhower Project and The Open Society Institute in collaboration with members of the Department of Social Sciences, United States Military Academy at West Point.
General John J. Sheehan and Dan Rather joined Ms. Eisenhower for the panel, entitled “From Birth of a Nation to YouTube: The Media-Military Relationship Through Time.” A summary of their discussion:
From the earliest joint ventures between the American military and media to the more strained years of Vietnam up to the recent collaborations of the Iraq War, the military-media relationship has been an ever-changing one. Against this historical backdrop, this panel will explore challenging questions about the pros and cons of contemporary war coverage — from the benefits of transparency to the challenging ethical implications of embedding and the inevitable reality that military personnel who appear as experts on television and radio must strike a balance between providing independent expertise and adhering to official talking points. What better avenues for collaboration may be established between officers and their media counterparts in order to give voice to professional military expertise and concerns on aspects of on public policy while maintaining a high regard for the vital security, hierarchy, and safety of military operations.
Photo by Joe Posner/The Eisenhower Project
www.whywefight.com
Susan Eisenhower honored at The Virginia Military Institute
Since 1996, The Virginia Military Institute’s Department of International Studies has presented the Distinguished Diplomat Award to someone who has had a lifelong commitment to serving his or her country in the area of foreign affairs. Past award winners have included Ambassador Jean Kirkpatrick, ex-Director of the CIA James Woolsey, and Senator Lee Hamilton.
In May 2009 Susan Eisenhower was honored with this award. Colonel Hentz noted that Eisenhower is “best known for her work in the field of energy and as an expert on nonproliferation programs in Russia. It is hard to imagine two more central challenges informing America’s foreign relations.”
Photo by Kevin Remington
Comments on the President’s First Overseas Trip
In the wake of President Barack Obama’s first overseas trip, Susan Eisenhower and Steve Clemons were interviewed together on Sky News. Steve wrote about the interview on his blog, The Washington Note:
Read the rest of this entry >>
Energy: Modernize to Meet an Increasing Demand
Susan Eisenhower spoke at Kansas University about the need for a modern electricity grid. She was quoted in the Lawrence Journal:
During a visit to Kansas University Thursday, Susan Eisenhower said that the United States needs to upgrade its electrical infrastructure to take advantage of renewable energy forms….
Eisenhower said the nation needs to focus more on a strategic, larger scale model of thinking, rather than its current tactical, short-term approach to some energy problems.
“We have to be thinking in the logic of 20 years, not in the logic of tomorrow or the next day,” she said.
Click here for full coverage from LJWorld.com.
