An invitation to our readers
Next week we will hold our first-ever Shadow Government live event, and all of our faithful readers are invited to attend. On Wednesday, May 25, Foreign Policy magazine is sponsoring a Shadow Government panel discussion and cocktail reception at the palatial FP offices at 1899 L Street NW, Suite 400 in Washington, DC. The festivities ...
Next week we will hold our first-ever Shadow Government live event, and all of our faithful readers are invited to attend. On Wednesday, May 25, Foreign Policy magazine is sponsoring a Shadow Government panel discussion and cocktail reception at the palatial FP offices at 1899 L Street NW, Suite 400 in Washington, DC.
Next week we will hold our first-ever Shadow Government live event, and all of our faithful readers are invited to attend. On Wednesday, May 25, Foreign Policy magazine is sponsoring a Shadow Government panel discussion and cocktail reception at the palatial FP offices at 1899 L Street NW, Suite 400 in Washington, DC.
The festivities will run from 4-6:30 p.m. and we hope to cover all the burning questions of the 2012 presidential campaign, the GOP field and foreign policy. The panel, moderated by Politico editor in chief John Harris, will feature Shadow Government contributors with campaign experience Steve Biegun (Dole/Kemp ’96, Bush/Cheney 2000, McCain/Palin ‘08), Peter Feaver (Bush/Cheney 2000), Mike Green (McCain/Palin 2008), Kori Schake (McCain/Palin 2008), and Mike Singh. This will be followed by a cocktail reception until 6:30 p.m.
Space is limited, so please send your RSVP to Kate Brown at kate.brown@foreignpolicy.com or 202.728.7316.
It will also be a good opportunity to meet the rest of the Shadow Government gang, many of whom will be at the event. Shadow Government has now been in operation nearly two and a half years, the brainchild of Christian Brose, a former State Department speechwriter then working at FP who recognized there was an opportunity to create something new and different: a blog that would bring together not just the critics but the voices of those who had actually had to play key foreign policy roles in past administrations and were now watching, cheering, and critiquing from the bleachers. And that is Shadow Government’s brief today: presenting unvarnished foreign policy analysis with the freedom of outsiders– plus the empathy and, hopefully, insight of onetime insiders.
As regular readers will know, Shadow Government doesn’t hold a house editorial stance on issues. We give praise to the Obama team when praise is due, and we try to elevate our analysis beyond the shouting that can be found elsewhere in the blogosphere. We are not afraid to critique things that happened on our watch nor are we shy about replaying old internal debates when they are relevant to current affairs (for example, read Dov Zakheim’s hard-hitting account of Bush-era Afghanistan policy and the responses his post is likely to provoke in coming days). The conversation on May 25 will reflect this same spirit and should be great fun. We hope to see you there (especially those faithful, if alas usually critical, anonymous commenters!).
Will Inboden is the executive director of the Clements Center for National Security and an associate professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, both at the University of Texas at Austin, a distinguished scholar at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law, and the author of The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink.
More from Foreign Policy

Can Russia Get Used to Being China’s Little Brother?
The power dynamic between Beijing and Moscow has switched dramatically.

Xi and Putin Have the Most Consequential Undeclared Alliance in the World
It’s become more important than Washington’s official alliances today.

It’s a New Great Game. Again.
Across Central Asia, Russia’s brand is tainted by Ukraine, China’s got challenges, and Washington senses another opening.

Iraqi Kurdistan’s House of Cards Is Collapsing
The region once seemed a bright spot in the disorder unleashed by U.S. regime change. Today, things look bleak.