Strategic Counterterrorism: The Signals We Send (Cato) Featuring Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies, Cato Institute, and co-editor, Terrorizing Ourselves: Why U.S. Counterterrorism Policy Is Failing and How to Fix It; and Joshua A. Geltzer, Author, U.S. Counter-Terrorism Strategy and al-Qaeda: Signalling and the Terrorist World-View. Moderated by Brandon Arnold, Director of Government Affairs, Cato Institute.

America at Risk: Camus, National Security, and Afghanistan (AEI) Former Speaker of the House and AEI senior fellow Newt Gingrich will warn that now is the time to awaken from self-deception about the nature of our enemies and rebuild a bipartisan commitment, in Afghanistan and elsewhere, to defend America. Drawing on the lessons of Camus and Orwell, Gingrich will describe the dangers of a wartime government that uses language and misleading labels to obscure reality. He will explain why we need a debate about this larger war against the irreconcilable wing of Islam—which mortally threatens America’s way of life, freedom, and rule of law—and how it relates to the nuclear threat from Iran and the various other risks posed to America’s very existence. Most importantly, Gingrich will argue that America will remain at risk until it confronts this willful blindness about the nature of its enemies and the nature of the war in which it is engaged.

The Air They Breathe: How Media May Shape Boys and Girls' Beliefs About Sex and Gender, Their Sexual Behavior, and Their Futures (RAND) Each day, youths spend more than seven hours with some kind of media, and when one accounts for the use of two media at once, they clock in at nearly eleven total hours of watching, listening, or generating content. This creates the potential for powerful influence on young people's lives, both positive and negative. How might current media images of girls influence how they see themselves and their potential? Do the portrayals of sex that saturate popular music, television, and film influence behavior? We will discuss when and how media use might put well-being and future opportunities at risk, and how it might be harnessed by parents, content creators, and others to help young people build happier, healthier futures.