Within a week of becoming president, Barack Obama gave his first formal interview to Al Arabiya, one of the leading Arabic-language television news channels. In the interview, he discussed his desire to reach out the Muslim world and the importance of language in his efforts.

A little over a year later, Internews and Middle East Progress bring together Nabil Al Khatib, executive editor of Al Arabiya, and Howard Schneider, staff writer and former Jerusalem bureau chief at the Washington Post, to discuss the changing role of Arab media in covering the region and promoting progress.

Join us as Brian Katulis, Senior Fellow at Center for American Progress, and Spencer Ackerman, national security correspondent for The Washington Independent, lead a discussion on progressive foreign policy during the final event in the spring Progressivism On Tap series.

Progressivism On Tap is a lecture and discussion series from the Progressive Studies Program at the Center for American Progress, focused on the history and intellectual traditions of progressivism and liberalism.

President Barack Obama's fiscal year 2011 budget proposes nearly $4 trillion in federal spending, and Congress is currently starting its budget review process to examine whether funding the president's proposed budget makes sense.

But this review process fails to include nearly 25 percent of the government's spending. This other budget is made up of tax expenditures, which deserve as much scrutiny as direct federal spending in order to reward programs that work.

Please join the Center for American Progress's Doing What Works project for an event that addresses the broad issues related to scrutinizing tax expenditure spending, using energy tax expenditures as an example.

On April 8, Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitri Medvedev will meet in Prague to sign the New START, the successor to the original landmark Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. The historic treaty makes good on President Obama's top priority for the "reset" of U.S.-Russia relations.

Please join the Center for American Progress for an event featuring William J. Burns, the Department of State's undersecretary of state for political affairs, who will discuss the first year of the Obama administration's Russia policy and the future of the bilateral relationship.

The event will also mark the launch of the Center's report "Assessing the Reset and the Next Steps for U.S. Russia Policy," written by Dr. Samuel Charap.

In the years before World War II, Franklin Roosevelt's fiercest, most unyielding opponent was neither a foreign power nor "fear itself." It was the U.S. Supreme Court.

Beginning in 1935, in a series of devastating decisions, the Supreme Court's conservative majority left much of FDR's agenda in ruins. The pillars of the New Deal fell in short succession. It was not just the New Deal, but democracy itself, that stood on trial. In February 1937, Roosevelt struck back with an audacious plan to expand the Court to fifteen justices - and to "pack" the new seats with liberals who shared his belief in a "living" Constitution.

The ensuing fight was a firestorm that engulfed the White House, the Court, Congress, and the nation. The final verdict was a shock. It dealt FDR the biggest setback of his political life, split the Democratic party, and set the stage for a future era of Republican dominance. Yet the battle also transformed America's political and constitutional landscape, hastening the nation's march into the modern world.

Providing new evidence and fresh insight, Supreme Power shows why understanding the Court fight is essential to understanding the presidency, personality, and legacy of FDR—and to understanding America at a crossroads in its history.

Copies of Supreme Power will be available for purchase at the event.

The insideIRAN.org project at The Century Foundation and the National Security Network have convened a year-long advisory group of North American, European, and Iranian participants well connected either to their respective countries' policymaking on Iran or, in the case of the Iranians, to civil society and the Green Movement.

At the group's first meeting on February 19 in Washington, D.C., a consensus was reached that U.S. policy toward Iran should pursue such a multitrack approach. Instead of viewing the policy options starkly as a choice between a military attack or acquiescence to a repressive regime that likely orchestrated a rigged presidential election, the advisory group agreed that a more nuanced "middle way'" should characterize U.S. policy.

A report generated by that meeting, including recommendations for the Obama administration, will be the focus of the panel discussion at an upcoming Center for American Progress event.

In honor of the first anniversary of the signing of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act and National Volunteer Week, this event launches the new book by CAP Visiting Fellow Shirley Sagawa, The American Way to Change: How National Service and Volunteers are Transforming America.

With a prologue by CAP President John Podesta, this book provides a new perspective on how to solve the nation's most pressing domestic problems by engaging ordinary Americans in in innovative ways. After an introduction by the author, this event will feature a panel discussion moderated by Stacy Palmer, editor of The Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Job creation is paramount for developed and developing countries alike—in the wake of the global recession. Policymakers have emphasized at recent forums like the G-20 that economic recovery requires the creation of good jobs and worker and social protections to create a virtuous circle of economic growth and rising living standards- all of which will improve resilience in the face of future crises.

Please join us at the Center for American Progress to discuss the importance of employment creation and worker/social protections, and how to build these institutions around the world. Several countries in the developing world are looking to build or improve existing institutions— ministries, expertise, and laws—to protect their populations under economic stress. Developed countries see positive returns as developing countries prosper in terms of improved global stability, new sources of aggregate demand to spur the global economy, and a more even competitive playing field.

This event is scheduled following the G-20 labor ministers meeting hosted by the U.S. Department of Labor and the International Monetary Fund/ World Bank spring meetings making this discussion particularly timely.

Even though a nuclear exchange between the United States and Russia seems a distant possibility, large stockpiles of weapons in both countries still threaten each population. New proliferation challenges have emerged in South Asia, North Korea, and Iran and could spark a new nuclear arms race. And the greatest threat is the prospect that nuclear weapons will fall into the hands of terrorist organizations.

The Center for American Progress is honored to host Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-PA) and The Honorable Ellen O. Tauscher, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, for an event on a new nuclear security agenda for the United States. Following Sen. Casey's remarks there will be a discussion with former Ambassador to the Ukraine Steven Pifer and Lawrence J. Korb, CAP Senior Fellow and former assistant secretary of defense under President Ronald Reagan. This discussion will be followed by remarks from Secretary Tauscher on U.S. objectives for the upcoming NPT Review Conference.

From minimum wage to safety to equal opportunity protections, U.S. Department of Labor regulations affect the lives of every working American. The Obama administration has taken a different approach from one that allowed some employers and other regulated entities to circumvent the rules that make our workplaces safe, healthy, and equitable. On April 26, the DOL will release its agenda to increase transparency, protect workers and responsible business owners, and prevent workplace violations.

Through its regulatory agenda and nonregulatory initiatives, the Department of Labor is aiming to change the culture of compliance so that employers and others in the department’s regulated communities understand that the burden is on them to obey the law, not on the DOL to catch them violating the law. Please come April 29 to hear top DOL officials discuss this agenda.

The Great Recession has deepened a long-term trend (briefly reversed in the late 1990s) toward a hollowing out of America's middle class, with job growth predominantly at lower and higher incomes and growing wage inequality. Even after the job losses of the recession are erased, a deeper challenge remains: how to create good, well-paid jobs to sustain and grow America's middle class.

Please join The Hamilton Project and the Center for American Progress for the first of two conferences addressing the implications of the competitive global economy and rapid technological change for the challenge of creating high-paying jobs in the United States.