Coming June 23, 2011: Breakthrough Journal

The Breakthrough Institute, a think tank known principally for its work on climate and energy issues, has launched a new journal dedicated to rethinking progressive politics.

"We wanted to create a place where iconoclastic thinkers could work out challenging new ideas," said Ted Nordhaus, Breakthrough Institute co-founder. "Our ambition is to publish sharply argued essays that question common assumptions."

"How can we renew the American Dream in a post-American world?" said Michael Shellenberger, who along with Nordhaus serves as Executive Editor of the Breakthrough Journal. "That's a really hard question and the one that our contributors wanted to address in different ways."

In the first issue:
 

• Innovation scholar Rob Atkinson argues that progressive economics is poorly suited to deal with the critical issue of global competitiveness.
   
• NYU Dean of Social Sciences Dalton Conley argues that poverty is now a relative, not absolute, condition and that traditional progressive social policy must adapt to the changing landscape of American society.
   
• New America Foundation co-founder Michael Lind challenges liberal cosmopolitanism and re-affirms the continuing dominance of the nation-state well into the future.
   
• Nordhaus and Shellenberger call for a new liberalism that embraces larger public investments in innovation and recognizes that redistributive liberalism is outmoded.

Other essays cover the roots of the Tea Party, the decline of manufacturing, the hysterical style of environmental journalism, and the influence of punk rock.

Catch a preview of this new Breakthrough Institute project below:
 

Follow @BTJournal on Twitter or send an email to journal@thebreakthrough.org for more information about the release of the print issue and the launch of the website.