The government this week issued its second annual report on the U.S. Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (USEITI).  This report is a direct outgrowth of anti-corruption work begun by Sen. Lugar when he was in the Senate, and a board member of The Lugar Center sits on the committee that oversees USEITI. You can find a copy of the report here.  USEITI is part of a larger effort to promote transparency and fight corruption in developing countries, which dovetails with The Lugar Center’s project to increase the effectiveness of U.S. foreign aid.... Read More

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan led an off-the-record round table discussion with 15 ambassadors to the United States Wednesday in the second meeting of the Lugar Diplomacy Series.... Read More

Voters in the nation’s most partisan Congressional districts—the deep reds and the dark blues—can nonetheless elect bipartisan representatives who are willing to reach across the aisle to try to get things done in Washington.... Read More

The Lugar Center launched its new Lugar Diplomacy Series Monday with a roundtable discussion among 15 foreign ambassadors led by retired Gen. David Petraeus and former Sen. Richard Lugar.... Read More

The first Green Revolution, led by the work of Norm Borlaug and M.S. Swaminathan, is credited with saving millions of lives through its concentration on raising crop productivity through scientific advances around improved inputs and farming techniques. However, it brought us only so far. According to the FAO, today 795 million people suffer from chronic hunger. Our global food and agriculture systems will continue to be under enormous pressures that can only be ameliorated by greater investments in science. To feed a world population of nearly 10 billion by 2050 will require not just greater productivity, but smarter productivity that recognizes the environmental challenges of climate change, the demands of a more urbanized global population, stresses on water resources, and changing dietary preferences.... Read More

For many Americans, July of 2016 meant a hot summer - in weather and politics - with both parties hosting their presidential nominating conventions, and the nation seemingly as divided as ever politically. 

However, there was outstanding news of bipartisan action in both the House and Senate on legislation that commits the United States to leadership in the area of global food security.... Read More

The notion that women in Congress are more bipartisan got another boost last week when Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine announced she was working on a bipartisan compromise bill to stop terrorists from buying guns. This came after it was widely expected that the two Republican and two Democratic gun bills up for a vote this week, following the terrorist-linked mass murders in Orlando, would be defeated, just as they had been in December.... Read More

One of The Lugar Center’s core policy areas is global food security. We seek to elevate the issue so that the American public understands its value for the United States, whether explained in terms of an humanitarian ethic, national security imperative, or commercial interest. In fact, food security affects all three.... Read More

Sen. Lugar was an honored guest Monday, May 9, 2016, at a Pentagon ceremony to mark the 25^th anniversary of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter praised Sen. Lugar and his colleague, former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn, also in attendance, as “forward thinking statesmen.” He called their proposal to cooperate with America’s Cold War enemy, the Soviet Union, to reduce nuclear weapons stockpiles an idea that was “brand-new to history.”... Read More

Today, nearly six years after the Cardin-Lugar Amendment on extractive industries disclosure was enacted, the Securities and Exchange Commission is on the cusp of issuing a final rule to implement the legislation. The rule will require all petroleum and mining companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges to report to the public—shareholders and investors—how much money they pay to the governments in the foreign countries where they operate. This is a strong example of bipartisanship at work.... Read More