Brookings Today, 2/19/15

A roundup of some of the content published today at Brookings.

• Mapping the cultural generation gap. Drawing from data in his new book, “Diversity Explosion,” William Frey presents the racial diversity of America’s youth compared to older, whiter generations.
• Federal disaster response. Jason Barnosky says that the federal government should shift some post-disaster recovery resources to pre-disaster mitigation efforts “in ways that will save lives and money.”
• Education innovation. Martin West argues that, in the current reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, certain elements of federal policy “that stand to benefit students and taxpayers” should be preserved.
• A Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center? Richard Bejtlich explains the rationale behind the new proposed center any why “the new agency may have a difficult time establishing legitimacy for itself, thereby diminishing its effectiveness.”
• Israel’s natural gas. Calling Israel an “energy island,” Natan Sachs and Tim Boersma analyze the challenges Israeli policymakers face as natural gas fields have been discovered in Israel’s economic zone.
• A return to spheres of influence? Robert Kagan writes that “If the United States wants to maintain a benevolent world order, it must not permit spheres of influence to serve as a pretext for aggression.”
• High costs of being poor. Carol Graham reviews how poverty in America is “exacting a high cost … in terms of stress, unhappiness, and pain.”
• Cuba and trade. Ashley Miller and Ted Piccone discuss new U.S. State Department regulations on goods and services that may be imported from Cuba’s private sector, including Cuban entrepreneurs.