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Selling Out Uncle Sam

  • By
  • Janine Wedel,
  • New America Foundation
August 18, 2010

It’s 2010. Do you know where your government is? The answer is that, increasingly, government power that should be in the hands of the American people is now in the hands of private companies. This year, we saw lives lost and habitats destroyed from what were widely seen as spectacular regulatory failures: the Upper Big Branch mine disaster and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. But in both cases, the companies were not simply skirting regulation. Often, they were the de facto regulators, not the civil servants.

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Blackwater Dismissal Risks Hurting Iraq Relations | Wall Street Journal

January 1, 2010

... national interest," said Janine Wedel, a professor at George Mason University and a fellow at the New America Foundation, a think tank in Washington. ...

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Shadow Elite

December 1, 2009

Governments and administrations come and go, but not so a new breed of power brokers, who always seem to pop up just where the action is. Wearing different hats, they press their agendas in venue after venue. According to award-winning public policy scholar and anthropologist Janine Wedel, these are the "shadow elite," the prime movers in a vexing new system of power and influence.

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Report: Increasing Number Of Retired Military Officers Are Now Well-Paid Consultants | USA Today

November 18, 2009
"This setup invites abuse," says Janine Wedel, a George Mason University public policy professor and author of a forthcoming book ...
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Wall Street's Bailout Gives Me Déjà Vu

  • By
  • Janine Wedel,
  • New America Foundation
November 8, 2009 |

On the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's fall I think back to the electrified atmosphere on the streets of Berlin. I was there, watching throngs of East Germans swarm through border crossings. A Fulbright scholar and social anthropologist based in Warsaw in November 1989, I drove with a friend through gas-rationed Poland and East Germany to bear witness. Back then many of the excited East Germans I interviewed -- even some border guards -- looked to the United States as a beacon of democracy.

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The Shadow Army

  • By
  • Janine Wedel,
  • New America Foundation
September 30, 2007 |

If there is a quagmire in Iraq, it was created more than a decade ago when the United States instituted a flawed system governing the use of contractors to perform governmental functions. Now, despite Iraqi fury at Blackwater USA, some of whose employees are accused of fatally shooting Iraqis, Washington is so reliant on the firm that it dare not order it from the field.

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Halliburton's Army

Tuesday, March 10, 2009 - 1:15pm
Blackwater is changing its name to "Xe". Halliburton has sold off its KBR division. President Obama is pledging to crack down on the use of contractors by the military. Where does the future for private military contractors lie? Join us March 10th as we discuss these issues with Pratap Chatterjee, the author of the new book Halliburton's Army: How a Well-Connected Texas Oil Company Revolutionized the Way America Makes War, joined by Janine Wedel and Michael A.
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Shadow Elite

Tuesday, December 1, 2009 - 12:15pm

On December 1st, the New America Foundation hosted a lecture delivered by Janine Wedel about her new book, Shadow Elite: How the World’s New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government, and Free Markets. After being introduced by Policy Director Michael Lind, Janine Wedel described today’s hidden networks of influence and power. Tightly-bound, amorphous, and largely unknown to the public, these networks consist of adaptive, multifaceted power brokers.

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Janine Wedel

Former Senior Research Fellow, American Strategy Program
Janine Wedel
Click on the photo to download a larger, print-quality image.

Janine R. Wedel is Professor of International Commerce and Policy in the School of Public Policy at George Mason University. Dr. Wedel writes about governance, corruption, development, and foreign policy through the unique lens of a social anthropologist. As a fellow at the New America Foundation, Dr. Wedel completed Shadow Elite: How the World's Next Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government and the Free Market, published by Basic Books in December 2009.

Publications

Selling Out Uncle Sam
Policy Paper | Aug 18, 2010 | New America Foundation
Reinventing America: Just End the Budget-Busting Shadow Government
Article | Feb 26, 2010 | The Globalist
Shadow Elite
Book Page | Dec 1, 2009 | New America Books/Basic Books
Wall Street's Bailout Gives Me Déjà Vu
Article | Nov 8, 2009 | Salon
The Shadow Army
Article | Sep 30, 2007
 

Events

Shadow Elite
Event | Dec 1, 2009 | Washington
Halliburton's Army
Event | Mar 10, 2009 | Washington
 

Press

Blackwater Dismissal Risks Hurting Iraq Relations | Wall Street Journal
In the News Item | Jan 1, 2010 | The Wall Street Journal
Shadow Elite | Al Jazeera English
In the News Item | Dec 16, 2009 | Al Jazeera
Report: Increasing Number Of Retired Military Officers Are Now Well-Paid Consultants | USA Today
In the News Item | Nov 18, 2009 | USA Today
WBAI-FM NYC Radio Interviews Janine Wedel on Blackwater Quagmire
In the News Item | Oct 7, 2007 | WBAI New York City Radio
Financial Times Quotes Janine Weden on Wolfowitz Retirement
In the News Item | May 18, 2007 | Financial Times
 

Related Programs

Areas of Expertise

Foreign Policy

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