AEI's weekly digest of top commentary and scholarship on the issues that matter most
AEI This Week
AEI's weekly digest of top commentary and scholarship on the issues that matter most
THE FUTURE OF THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY
Rebuilding the Academic-Social Contract
June 6, 2026
In the past week and a half, AEI hosted two major conferences featuring policymakers and experts from across the political spectrum to address two of America’s most significant challenges. On May 28, AEI’s Center on the Future of the American University, led by Benjamin Storey and Jenna Silber Storey, brought together more than 100 professors, administrators, and government officials to address the collapse of public trust in institutions of higher education. Watch recordings of the sessions here ([link removed] ) .
Gov DeSantis at AEI ([link removed] )
On June 3, a wide assortment of current and former elected officials, including Governor Ron DeSantis, former Senator Joe Manchin, former Senator Max Baucus, House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington, Senator Steve Daines, and former Governor Chris Sununu, spoke at AEI about the importance of balancing the federal budget and reducing the national debt. Watch a recording of the conference, which evaluated policy options, political strategies, and the possibility of a balanced-budget amendment, here ([link removed] ) .
Rising inflation and spikes in long-term interest rates, driven in part by the conflict with Iran, have only increased the urgency of fiscal responsibility. Desmond Lachman evaluates ([link removed] ) the effects of these developments and the responses the Federal Reserve must now pursue.
America’s global AI leadership is our most important positive tailwind reinforcing economic health and geopolitical strength, but current policymaking risks compromising export controls crucial to maintaining our advantage over China. Writing in The Washington Post, Hal Brands provides ([link removed] ) a blueprint for preserving and leveraging US dominance.
The United States is rapidly accelerating its spending on K–12 education technology, which reached $30 billion in 2024, but this massive investment has so far shown little discernible impact on overall student performance. In a new AEI report, Mark Schneider and Auditi Chakravarty assess ([link removed] ) why it’s so difficult to get proven technology tools into schools and keep unproven ones out.
Will Nothing Stop the Incredible Global Birth Crash?
Human beings are unique among living creatures in being able to alter their own fertility deliberately, imposing their own constantly changing choices and preferences on childbearing. In a new AEI Foreign and Defense Policy working paper, Nicholas Eberstadt and Patrick Norrick provide ([link removed] ) an empirical overview and analysis of the revolutionary transformation of human birth choices playing out around the world today. A birth crash is underway all around the world, in rich and poor regions alike. Demographers’ assumption that the postwar drop in birth rates would end up at a replacement-level equilibrium is no longer tenable, and global population could peak within the coming generation. The prospect of indefinite global depopulation looms beyond that, with little empirical guidance for assessing how far birth rates will ultimately fall or whether they will recover.
More from AEI
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
A Study Isn’t “Worthless” Because It’s Incomplete ([link removed] )
Samuel J. Abrams | AEIdeas
Home Is Where Your Politics Are ([link removed] )
Howard Husock | The Wall Street Journal
Reading Tocqueville at 250 ([link removed] )
L. Lynne Kiesling | Knowledge Problem
Trump Is Stuck Between Two Realities. Neither Serves the American People. ([link removed] )
Jonah Goldberg | Los Angeles Times
The Best News in America ([link removed] )
Ross Douthat | The New York Times
PODCASTS AND VIDEOS
What Is Going On with Iran? General Jack Keane Explains. ([link removed] )
Danielle Pletka et al. | What the Hell Is Going On?
Live from the Watergate Hotel! ([link removed] )
Jonah Goldberg and Sarah Isgur | The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg
How to Disagree and Remain Spiritually Grounded ([link removed] )
Robert P. George and James Martin | The Spiritual Life with Fr. James Martin, S.J.
William McRaven ([link removed] )
Ben Sasse et al. | Not Dead Yet
Does the Congressional Baseball Game Increase Collaboration in Congress? ([link removed] )
Kevin R. Kosar and SoRelle Wyckoff Gaynor | Understanding Congress
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
I would like to thank AEI for getting together in a single room a vast array of different factions and different people from different political persuasions. I do not think this is happening anywhere else in the United States today.
—Amherst College Professor Adam Sitze at AEI’s Future of the American University Conference ([link removed] )
Ensure delivery ([link removed] ) | Subscribe ([link removed] )
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Robert Doar, President
1789 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036
202.862.5800 | www.aei.org ([link removed] )
Unsubscribe from the link below. ([link removed] )
Facebook ([link removed] )
X ([link removed] )
LinkedIn ([link removed] )
YouTube ([link removed] )
Instagram ([link removed] )
Podcast Logo New_Gray ([link removed] )
Donate to AEI ([link removed] ) in support of defending and promoting freedom, opportunity, and enterprise.
This message is for:
[email protected] | Manage preferences or Unsubscribe ([link removed] )
