Background Briefing - Sunday, November 7, 2010

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Thomas Ferguson is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. His books include Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political Systems and Right Turn: The Decline of the Democrats and the Future of American Politics. He is a member of the advisory board for George Soros' Institute for New Economic Thinking and a contributing editor to The Nation.

Dr. Jacob Hacker is a Professor of Political Science at Yale University, a Resident Fellow at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies and a Fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C. An expert on the politics of U.S. health and social policy, he is author of The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream, The Divided Welfare State: The Battle over Public and Private Social Benefits in the United States, and is also co-author of Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy. His latest book, with Paul Pierson, is Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class.

C. Christine Fair is a professor in the Center for Peace and Security Studies within Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Previously, she served as a political officer to the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan in Kabul, and as a senior research associate in USIP’s Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention. She is also a senior fellow with the Counter Terrorism Center at West Point. She has authored, co-authored and co-edited several books including Treading Softly on Sacred Ground: Counterinsurgency Operations on Sacred Space, The Madrassah Challenge: Militancy and Religious Education in Pakistan, and Fortifying Pakistan: The Role of U.S. Internal Security Assistance.