How do civil society organizations operate in the authoritarian environment of Vladimir Putin’s “sovereign democracy?”  To what extent are they able to further their causes despite pervasive corruption and the rule of courts that take their cues from the Kremlin?

American Enterprise Institute (AEI) Russia expert, Leon Aron, recently traveled through Russia interviewing leaders of grass-roots movements. In a just released Russian Outlook, Aron describes the transformation underway in Russia.

The Valentine's Day announcement of new scientific and technological achievements in Iran's nuclear program demonstrates the continued broadening and deepening of its capacities in this sensitive, dangerous field.

Grass-roots leaders are convinced that lasting Russian liberalization will come not from violent revolution or a great rupture imposed from above but from a mature civil society with the courage to control the executive. Thus, their work is not geared toward political change, but inner moral transformation, self-organization, and self-reliance.

Barring the unimaginable, just 30 years from now, Japan will be a far smaller and vastly more aged country than the one we know today. On the cusp of a monumental demographic transformation, Japan is gradually but relentlessly evolving into a society whose contours and workings are the stuff of science fiction.

Even if the trigger isn't enacted, I am concerned that guidance from the White House would direct cuts beyond what the Defense Department is prepared to absorb. It's time to focus our fiscal restraint on the driver of our debt, not the protector of our prosperity.

Congressman Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, will deliver a keynote address that reflects upon on the experience of America’s armed forces since the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.