RESEARCH INTERESTS
My main research interests are centered around three areas: Germany, Eastern Europe, and international and development economics

GERMANY
I've been a Germanophile ever since college, when I took a class from Helmut Norpoth at SUNY Stony Brook on German politics. I've continued this interest in Germany throughout my academic and professional career, even spending time in 1996 at the German Ministry for Economics.  I was saddened at Helmut Kohl's loss in the 1998 elections, and Gerhard Schroeder's new Red-Green coalition seems to be following the same "new democrat" (read: neo-socialist) policies that America and Britain have fallen into.

Here's a collection of some of my writings and scholarly pieces on Germany and German foreign policy:

The German Groundhog - an unpublished op-ed on how Germany's new foreign policy, and how it's mirroring the old.

Germany's Coming Out Party - an Op-ed written for the Washington Times dealing with the German military presence in the Kosovo mission.

Germany's Coming Out Party (extended) - a longer version of the op-ed, going into more detail on the background of the new German government.

On Thin Ice 1 & 2 - A revised version of my master's thesis at Harvard, dealing with German policy choices towards the Baltic States after NATO expansion. This was due to be published in Comparative Strategy, but Kohl's defeat rendered some of the policy option moot. Due to its size, it's in two parts.

Policy Adrift - a (now outdated) op-ed that examined the leftward drift that Finanzmnister Oskar LaFontaine was taking the country on.

For further commentary or other work on Germany, be sure to contact me.

A view of the Marienkirche in Muenchen at night.

EASTERN EUROPE

Another area I have traveled extensively in, visiting Russia, Belarus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Poland.

Coping with Loss - an op-ed dealing with Russian intrasigence in the Kosovo debacle.

Looking for Lenin - a paper written for a political economy class at Penn that examines some conclusions about the Cold War in light of Marxist theory. It finds that some Marxist critiques can explain Cold War-behavior. This paper is in NO WAY an endorsement of marxism, it is merely an interesting philosophical exercise - that Marxist theory can explain exigencies of the Cold War, while practice itself cannot.

Politics/Government

My political leanings, for those of you who know me, are far to the right. It's an important truth of government that the government that governs best, governs least. IMHO, it should guard the shores and let UPS deliver the mail! No dirty tree-hugging hippies allowed!

My former employer is the Reason Public Policy Institute who has no knowledge, or gives no endorsement, of this site.  We are a libertarian, free-market oriented think tank that approaches economic problems from the open society perspective.  Individual liberty is a critical facet of life - guarding liberty is the only rationale for a government's existence (and not "providing services").

Important links:
WWW.NEWENVIRONMENTALISM.ORG - a key facet of RPPI's philosophy, with most of the content provided by me.

Heritage Foundation - THE conservative think-tank

Cato Institute - Libertarian brothers-in-arms

Milken Institute - Important financial/economic think-tank

National Review- America's Conservative magazine

IntellectualCapital.Com - a GREAT source of policy news and ideas (and who I have published for, as well)