This past week featured several insightful reports from AEI's scholars on issues that are central to our tranquility at home and our security abroad.

In a new report about family formation after the COVID-19 pandemic, W. Bradford Wilcox, Lyman Stone, Wendy Wang, and Jason Carroll find that Americans' attitudes toward family formation have become more polarized. They attribute this trend to differing levels of "money, hope, and a deep dedication to family," as "the rich, the religious, and Republicans are most likely to report the pandemic has deepened their desire to marry" and have children.

It has been 10 years since President Barack Obama announced that his administration would "pivot" American foreign policy toward Asia, but Zack Cooper and Adam P. Liff write that the United States has yet to demonstrate substantial "economic and strategic commitments to Asia." They offer several policy approaches to accomplish this goal and conclude that "the fact that much of what ails US Asia strategy is homegrown means that it is also fixable."

In his review of John McWhorter's new book, "Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Betrayed Black America" (Portfolio, 2021), Tunku Varadarajan praises the author's argument that "the Elect" leaders of the so-called anti-racism movement resort to cultlike rhetoric to chill speech. Although Varadarajan fears that "people at the commanding heights of our culture are all too eager to cave," he concludes that "it would be bracing if — as a start — people stopped apologizing when hounded by the Elect."

Daniel Lyons assesses a new bill proposed by House Democrats, which he calls "the latest in a yearlong bipartisan assault on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act." Lyons explains that according to Supreme Court precedent, the First Amendment prohibits governments from compelling editors to publish — or not publish — specific content, thereby shielding online "platforms from the strongest impulses from the right and left in the campaign against Big Tech."

Finally, Kori Schake reflects on her time working for the late Colin Powell, praising his "generosity of spirit," good humor, and leadership.