In this thought-provoking event, Michael Ware and Nir Rosen provide a unique perspective on Iraq from a vantage point possessed by few. Their experiences on the ground will offer audiences the opportunity to hear the realities of the war. The panelists will share valuable insights on Iraq’s contemporary problems and future challenges and discuss threats to maintaining stability in the country. Drawing on countless hours in the field, panelists will examine the effects of the surge on Iraqi civil society, the Iraqi government, the insurgency, and Al Qaeda in Iraq. The fragile political situation and power struggles emanating from within Iraq’s fractured body politic will be also be analyzed from the viewpoints of these two cutting edge journalists who have experienced the war firsthand.

Body of War is an intimate feature documentary about the truth of war today. Meet Tomas Young, 25 years old, paralyzed from a bullet to his spine–wounded after serving in Iraq for less than a week.

Body of War is his coming-home story as he evolves into a new person, dealing with his disability and finding his own unique and passionate voice against the war. Body of War is a nakedly honest portrayal of what it's like inside the body, heart, and soul of this young man. The film is produced and directed by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro and features two original songs written and performed by Eddie Vedder.

Please join us for a provocative Q&A session immediately following the film.

Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go With the Flow (Wiley; March 2008) introduces readers to people across the country who have actually done this—people in business, politics, health care, farming, religion, and other areas who are taking charge, living their values, doing good, and doing well. Hightower and DeMarco show how they are doing precisely what the elites want us to believe can't be done: changing their lives and making a difference. In this uplifting book, they tell the stories of these people and offer inspiration and information that will help readers tap into their own maverick potential in order to navigate a different, more satisfying course of their own. Please join us for a lively discussion with author Jim Hightower on this groundbreaking new book.

Addressing educational challenges in rural areas is as important as addressing those in urban and some suburban areas if achievement gaps are to be closed in this country. One promising strategy that responds to these challenges is the expansion of learning time for all students attending schools with large concentrations of low-income students. A comprehensive, well-implemented approach to school reform that adds time to school days, weeks, and/or years for all students can result in significant learning gains. But such programs have proven difficult to put into place in rural areas. Join us for a lively discussion and Q&A session on a new paper from the Center for American Progress by Roy Forbes about rural after-school programs and their resource needs, successes, and challenges.

With the impending presidential election and start of a new administration, the time is ripe for a reexamination of key issues in human rights and the role of the United States in the promotion of human rights around the world. This conference promises to provide the signal opportunity to engage in that reflection with major figures in the fields of international relations and human rights as well as politics, journalism, and academia.

This year's Samuel Dash Conference on Human Rights is co-sponsored by the Center for American Progress and Georgetown University Law Center. This daylong event will include Secretary Albright's insights into how the United States can best advance human rights and ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo speaking on "The Role of the International Criminal Court in Preventing Mass Atrocities." It will also mark the launch of a new book, The Future of Human Rights: U.S. Policy for a New Era, designed to provide a blueprint for the next President's human rights policies.

The average American will have nine operations before the age of 85. Surgery accounts for half of all hospital admissions and over 40 million inpatient operations per year in the United States. These procedures carry an inherent risk—globally, major surgical complication risks range from 3 to 16 percent, and death rates from 0.2 to 10 percent—yet there is remarkably little effort to discover how to reduce surgery’s high rate of complications, ensure access to surgery, reduce unnecessary surgery, or understand how to make its provision more cost-effective.

Through the Center for Surgery and Public Health, Michael Zinner and Atul Gawande are developing strategies for improving the quality and safety of technological care like surgery, enhancing our understanding of how such care is distributed across socioeconomic and racial/ethnic lines, and charting a path toward expanding nationwide access to higher quality care. Please join us for an engaging presentation and a lively discussion of the policy dimensions of their important work.

Taking us from the corporate boardrooms of America's most powerful companies to a dinner meeting with Russia's most notorious oligarch, from the secretive meetings of the Trilateral Commission and the Bohemian Grove to China's upstart Boao Forum for Asia, David Rothkopf draws back the curtain on a privileged society that most of us know little about, even though it profoundly affects our everyday lives. This is the first in-depth examination of the connections between the global communities of leaders who are at the helm of every major enterprise on the planet and control its greatest wealth. And it is an unprecedented look at the trends within the superclass, which are likely to alter our politics, our institutions, and the shape of the world in which we live. Please join the Center for American Progress for a provocative discussion with the author on this groundbreaking new book.

In 2006, New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau won the Pulitzer Prize for his “carefully sourced stories on secret domestic eavesdropping.” Now, Lichtblau delves deeper into the legal machinations of the Bush Justice Department in his new book, Bush’s Law: The Remaking of American Justice. In this book, Lichtblau details the measures taken by the Bush administration to circumvent the legal and constitutional limitations on the power of the executive branch to conduct electronic surveillance and engage in other activities related to the "war on terror." Lichtblau also describes the means by which he and other investigative reporters ultimately got the story, and the lengths to which the administration went to prevent the truth from coming to light.

On April 22, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will participate in an international conference in Kuwait to advance efforts to provide Iraq with economic, political, and diplomatic support. On the eve of this conference,  Middle East Progress at the Center for American Progress will host a panel discussion examining the full range of diplomatic and political tools available to achieve progress in Iraq. The panelists will offer analysis on recent regional and international diplomatic efforts to support Iraq and determine what more can and should be done to achieve a "diplomatic surge" in the country.

Today's dialogue in medical journals and the mainstream press on health disparities in American society increasingly focuses on individuals' genetic predispositions to disease. More and more, race is interjected into this dialogue as scientists link genes of certain racial groups to medical conditions while pharmaceutical companies increasingly seek to medicate those conditions. Unfortunately, during this process the focus on reducing and preventing racial health disparities – which in large part can be attributed to social determinants – becomes obscured. The Center for American Progress and Generations Ahead will explore these trends and their implications for addressing racial health disparities by hosting a public dialogue with Meredith King, Dorothy Roberts, and Mildred Thompson.

Body of War is an intimate feature documentary about the truth of war today. Meet Tomas Young, 25 years old, paralyzed from a bullet to his spine–wounded after serving in Iraq for less than a week. Body of War is his coming-home story as he evolves into a new person, dealing with his disability and finding his own unique and passionate voice against the war. Body of War is a nakedly honest portrayal of what it's like inside the body, heart, and soul of this young man. The film is produced and directed by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro and features two original songs written and performed by Eddie Vedder.

Teacher quality is critical to the success of all other education improvement efforts, which is why forward-thinking education reformers are so focused on reforming teacher certification standards to boost quality. One approach to meeting the challenges of teacher quality and supply is developing alternative routes to teacher certification. Since many traditional, university-based programs are not adequately preparing teachers, particularly for hard-to-staff schools and subjects such as math and science, alternative programs are needed that try new and innovative approaches, rather than mimic traditional approaches. Join us for a lively discussion of a new paper by Davida Gatlin from the Center for American Progress that describes some of the more innovative models for alternative teacher certification programs and offers recommendations for state policy to encourage their growth.