President's Corner
Research, blogs, commentary, and media from Brookings President John R. Allen
Invoke the 25th Amendment–Now
John Allen writes that Donald Trump’s actions on January 6 have led to an unavoidable national reckoning.
COVID-19: A moment for unity
Amidst the COVID-19 crisis and racist rhetoric that has emerged, John R. Allen addresses the critical need to lead Americans forward in unity in order to save our economy and contain the spread of the virus.
Fiona Hill on the role of expertise and public servants in a time of crisis
Brookings President John R. Allen interviews Brookings Senior Fellow Fiona Hill about the role that public servants and expertise have during a time of crisis. Also, Senior Fellow David Wessel offers six points on economic stimulus in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The US-Taliban peace deal: A road to nowhere
Having led all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan from 2011-13, Brookings President John R. Allen writes that he has his own perspective on this agreement, which is grounded in practical, lived experience.
Anita McBride talks Taliban peace deal that lacks guarantees for Afghan women
Brookings President and Retired Four Star Marine Corps General John R. Allen joins Andrea Mitchell to discuss the expected deal between the Afghan government and the Taliban that could pave the way for the U.S. withdrawal from the country without any guaranteed protections for Afghan women as a condition for U.S. withdrawal.
Good deals — and bad ones — with the Taliban
The first part of a deal that could eventually bring peace to Afghanistan, and troops home to America, may be close. A second phase of a peace accord will be essential, and experts outline what good and bad elements of such a deal would look like.
White-Supremacist Violence Is Terrorism
As commander of all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, I fought America’s enemies abroad. Now we must fight violent, hateful ideologies at home.
Sirajuddin Haqqani, Terrorist
The decision by the New York Times to feature a piece by Sirajuddin Haqqani, deputy leader of the Taliban and avowed enemy of the United States, is nothing short of reprehensible. This individual is a cold-blooded killer and terrorist, with the deaths of thousands of Afghans and the blood of hundreds of American and Coalition.
On coronavirus, America and China must demonstrate global leadership and join together
General Allen underscores the importance of American leadership in the face of an international health catastrophe and shares his firsthand experience in helping to organize past relief efforts with the DoD — to include the tsunami relief effort across Southeast Asia in 2004, and the subsequent bird flu in 2005. He demonstrates that as American leaders have successfully done in years past, President Trump and President Xi must join together and act quickly in order to save lives.
How to reverse the global drift toward authoritarianism
Brookings President John Allen on why autocrats are rising and what to do about it.
The US military has made progress in ending racial discrimination. The rest of our country must as well.
Brookings President John R. Allen describes how his time in the military allowed him to see firsthand how the barriers of racial discrimination can be brought down within institutions, and how he hopes to see the same change across the United States.
Disrupting the international order
In a chapter from the 2020 World Economic Forum special report, “Shaping a Multiconceptual World”, John R. Allen argues that a “combination of economic and technological shifts” is reshaping the post-World War II international order in which U.S. leadership played a dominant role.
Confronting the rise in Anti-Semitic domestic terrorism
In testimony before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence & Counterterrorism, Brookings President Gen. John R. Allen, USMC, Ret., testified on confronting the rise in anti-Semitic domestic terrorism.
Ret. General: ‘We are not safer’ after Soleimani strike
Retired Marine Corps General and President of the Brookings Institution John Allen discusses with Hallie Jackson the fallout from the strike that killed Iranian general Soleimani. Allen says that Trump’s follow-up threat to bomb Iranian cultural sites would be an “illegal order” and a “war crime” if acted on.