Publications
Aspen Institute Publications
Aspen Institute publications are listed below. Many are available for purchase through Google Checkout, a secure system for handling credit card transaction online. For assistance with ordering publications, please contact our Publications office by email or by phone at (410) 820.5433. Please note: Orders are shipped two times a week from our warehouse in Queenstown, MD, on the Eastern Shore.
Framework for a Life Cycle Assessment of Paper in the Mail
Framework for a Life Cycle Assessment of Paper in the Mail is the volume resulting from The Aspen Institute Initiative on the International Mailing Industry. The report provides context on what an LCA is, how one is constructed, and the elements necessary to meet international standards. It then details the mailing process cradle-to-grave.
The Promise and Peril of Big Data
The Promise and Peril of Big Data explores the implications of inferential technologies used to analyze massive amounts of data and the ways in which these techniques can positively affect business, medicine, and government. The report is the result of the Eighteenth Annual Roundtable on Information Technology.
Real Savings +
In this paper, the Initiative on Financial Security at the Aspen Institute proposes an investment option for the Automatic IRA: Real Savings+ (RS+). RS+ combines two widely traded and highly liquid assets – Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) and a broad-based equity market index – to provide savers with a personalized, automatic target date investment option. RS+ ensures the preservation of the purchasing power of contributions while at the same time offering the significant – and important – upside potential of market participation. RS+ thus provides low- and moderate-income savers with the opportunity for both growth and safety for their savings. Through an automatic, inexpensive blend of TIPS and the market index, RS+ protects all savers from the three most likely risks to retirement income – inflation, default by the bond issuer, and falling stock prices. By design, RS+ fully protects every dollar saved against economic cycles, market declines and loss of purchasing power.
The Global Economic Crisis and Potential Implications for Foreign Policy and National Security
With the generous support of the Gates Foundation, the Markle Foundation, and many others, the ASG devoted its annual summer conference to discussing the foreign policy and national security implications of a deep financial turmoil. During its sessions, the ASG explored the strategic consequences of the global economic crisis, and considered how dramatically changing economic and financial foundations might impact the foreign policy agenda of both the United States and other countries on the international scene. The papers commissioned for the conference are now available in paperback compiled by Director Nicholas Burns and Associate Director Jonathon Price. It is available through the Aspen Institute bookstore and Brookings Press.
strategy+business: In Search of the Silver Lining
In her recent article for strategy+business, Judith Samuelson reviewed the best business books of 2009 on the topic of management, “In Search of the Silver Lining.”
Making E-Governance Work for India
Making E-Governance Work for India touches on ways the Indian Government can provide services and information and include them in the governing process while transcending the country's vast cultural, linguistic and geographic differences. The report suggests public-private partnerships, policy reform, and infrastructural changes as ways to deliver more efficient and effective e-governance across India.
The Loudest Duck
The Loudest Duck dives into the many aspects of diversity in the ever-expanding, increasingly global workplace. Through practical stories, cultural anecdotes and personal experiences, Laura Liswood explains how to ensure a fair and level playing field for anyone working his or her way up the ladder in this new corporate world order. Non-dominant groups - women, minorities, short people, just to name a few - face an uphill battle when it comes to reaching the top levels in leadership. Liswood discusses some of the reasons for the challenges encountered by historically underrepresented groups and suggests ways to overcome those obstacles by going beyond usual ideas about diversity.
The tools, frameworks and parables in the book aim to offer a new vision, a new level of awareness, a new understanding of diversity. If the loudest duck in China gets shot, but the squeaky wheel in the U.S. gets the grease, there must be a way for the two different approaches to be appreciated and not unconsciously judged, especially as globalization continues to 'shrink' our world. This book details why those differences should be made conscious and why awareness of such issues should be embraced and harnessed to the benefit of all in order to create a workplace where no one is subtly advantaged or disadvantaged because of their diversity.
Oil and Gas in a Changing World
The 2009 Aspen Forum on Global Energy, Economy and Security explored “Oil and Gas in a Changing World,” reflecting the turmoil in the industry caused by the severe economic recession and highly volatile oil and gas prices. Topics included the dramatic increase in U.S. gas reserves as a result of production of gas from shale, the potential for improved efficiency to reduce demand for oil, and the prospects for various alternative fuels and automotive technologies. The Forum co-chairs were Luis Giusti, Senior Advisor to CSIS and former CEO of PDVSA, and Joseph A. Stanislaw, independent senior advisor to Deloitte LLP and CEO of The JAStanislaw Group.
Time is of the Essence: Foundations and the Policies of Limited Life and Endowment Spend-Down
The latest publication from the Aspen Institute's Program on Philanthropy and Social Innovation, Time is of the Essence: Foundations and the Policies of Limited Life and Endowment Spend-Down combines detailed analysis of two famous historic foundations (Rosenwald Fund and General Education Board) with case studies of selected contemporary foundations (Lucille P. Markey Charitable Trust, Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation, and Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust) that decided to spend down their assets within a set period of time instead of existing in perpetuity. Written by John R. Thelin (University of Kentucky) and Richard Trollinger (Centre College), this publication provides donors and foundations with models for consideration in their own policies and planning in the 21st century.
Aspen's Global 100: Beyond Grey Pinstripes 2009-2010
Aspen's Global 100 is the 2009-2010 edition of Beyond Grey Pinstripes, a biennial survey and popular alternative ranking of full-time MBA programs. This year, 149 business schools from 24 countries participated in an effort to map the landscape of teaching and research on issues pertaining to business and society.
While many MBA rankings exist, only one looks beyond reputation and test scores to measure something much more important: how well schools are preparing their students for the environmental, social and ethical complexities of modern-day business.
For the first time, the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto, Canada, ranked first in the survey, getting high marks for the extraordinary number of courses available to students that contain environmental, social and ethical content as well as for the number of relevant scholarly articles being published by the School’s faculty members.
