Forum: More "Smartest Guys in the Room"

Before joining Vanity Fair as a contributing editor in 2008, BETHANY MCLEAN was an editor-at-large for Fortune magazine. In 2001, she wrote an article in Fortune that questioned the immense profitability of Enron, then a darling of the stock market. Her book about the scandal, The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron (Portfolio, 2003) led to the energy company’s collapse and was developed into an Oscar©-nominated documentary in 2005.

Forum: Justice Antonin Scalia

JOAN BISKUPIC has covered the Supreme Court since 1989. Before joining USA Today in 2000, she served as Supreme Court Reporter for the Washington Post and Legal Affairs Writer for Congressional Quarterly. Prior to that, Biskupic covered government and politics for newspapers in Wisconsin and Oklahoma. She is the author of several books, including Sandra Day O’Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice and Congressional Quarterly’s two-volume  encyclopedia on the Supreme Court (3^rd Ed., 1997, with co-author Elder Witt). A book signing will follow her Forum

Forum: The Fourth Star: Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army

C A N C E L L E D

GREG JAFFE is the Pentagon correspondent at the Washington Post and previously held the same position at the Wall Street Journal. In 1999, he was part of a team of reporters that won the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. Jaffe will be discussing his new book (co-authored with David Cloud) The Fourth Star: Four Generals and the Epic Struggle for the Future of the United States Army (Random House, 2009). This Forum is part of the military preparedness series.  A book signing will follow his Forum.

Forum: Cuba after Castro

JAMES C. CASON recently retired as U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay, a position he held since 2005. Cason served much of his 38-year career with the Department of State in Latin America, including Bolivia, Cuba (as Chief of the U.S. Interests Section), El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Uruguay, and Venezuela. He also held positions in Italy and Portugal, served as Deputy Chief of Mission at U.S. embassies in Jamaica and Honduras, and was Political Advisor to the Commander of the U.S. Atlantic Command and to NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic. Cason’s work has earned him six meritorious honor awards, a Superior Honor Award, the department’s Distinguished Honor Award, and the Presidential Rank Award.

Forum: The Guardians of the Revolution: Iran’s Approach to the World

Iranian-American Middle East scholar RAY TAKEYH is a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and has served as Senior Adviser to the Special Adviser for the Gulf and Southwest Asia at the U.S. Department of State. A contributing editor at National Interest, he has extensively written on Iran, including his books, The Guardians of the Revolution: Iran’s Approach to the World and Hidden Iran: Paradox and Power in the Islamic Republic. He has also appeared on various television programs, including “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.”  A book signing will follow his Forum.

Forum: We Still Hold These Truths: Rediscovering Our Principles, Reclaiming Our Future

MATTHEW SPALDING connects the principles of America's founding with today's thorniest issues as Director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation. Spalding, a constitutional scholar and authority on American political thought and religious liberty, also serves as project leader of Heritage's First Principles initiative. In his latest book, We Still Hold These Truths: Rediscovering Our Principles, Reclaiming Our Future (ISI Books, 2009), he details America's core principles, shows how they have come under assault by modern progressive-liberalism and lays out a strategy to recover them.  A book signing will follow his Forum.

Forum: Interesting Times: Writings from a Turbulent Decade