The only thing that disappointed John Bleed \u201917 about the American Enterprise Institute\u2019s (AEI) Summer Scholars June program in Washington, D.C., was that he couldn\u2019t bring AEI back to Furman. Or so the political science\/history double major thought\u2014until he found out about the AEI Executive Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt might be kind of surprising I\u2019m taking the time to start this new campus group when I only have one year left, but this opportunity was presented to me over the summer, and I thought about it for a while. Do I really want to commit my senior year by adding one more thing to the list?\u201d Bleed, who participates in The Bell Tower Boys a cappella group, the Reformed University Fellowship, and the Riley Institute, said. \u201cI was a bit hesitant at first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, though, the opportunity to \u201ccreate an environment where there\u2019s free-flowing debate without any kind of negative or emotional circumstances\u201d was too important to pass up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really think that\u2019s fundamental to a healthy America,\u201d Bleed said. \u201cI wanted to bring that to Furman. I want to encourage\u00a0the mentality that it’s ok to\u00a0talk to each other and have different\u00a0opinions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first step will be taken on Oct. 4 at Hartness Pavilion when Dalibor Rohac, Ph.D., presents \u201cBritain, the European Union, and the Future of the Western World,\u201d a talk that will focus on \u201cBrexit,\u201d the United Kingdom\u2019s vote over the summer to leave the European Union (EU).<\/p>\n
Rohac, a native of Slovakia, advocates reforming and improving the EU. He\u2019s a research fellow at AEI as well as a visiting junior fellow at the Max Beloff Centre for the Study of Liberty at the University of Buckingham and a fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs in London.<\/p>\n
Political science professor Brent Nelsen, Ph.D., Bleed\u2019s advisor, will serve as a moderator.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to having Dr. Rohac on our campus,\u201d Nelsen, who teaches courses in European politics, said. \u201cThe American Enterprise Institute is a fantastic organization, and I\u2019m glad to partner with them to discuss an issue that has been on my mind almost 24\/7 since the end of June. Students and community members will be able to hear from a scholar who has lived and worked in both Brussels and London and understands both sides well.\u201d<\/p>\n
A semester studying abroad in Brussels, home of the EU, convinced Bleed that he wanted to pursue a career in international relations. It also gave the Chicago native a special appreciation for the complexities of the Brexit vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was able to see everything first hand and see how the European Union worked; why some people don\u2019t really like the European Union, and why some people are really dissatisfied with what\u2019s going on,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019s an issue that\u2019s very close to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bleed has recruited several underclassmen with similar interests to help with getting the AEI Executive Council off the ground, and he hopes to present two or three more big talks in addition to some smaller ones before the year is over in hopes of the organization becoming a permanent part of campus. AEI calls itself a \u201cpublic policy think tank\u201d dedicated to promoting free enterprise, among other things, and while officially non-partisan in 2014 Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post<\/em> dubbed AEI \u201cthe dominant conservative think tank\u201d in the country.<\/p>\n Started in 2013, the AEI Executive Council program operates under the mantra that \u201cthe competition of ideas is fundamental to a free society,\u201d and members \u201cwork every day to ensure the best arguments on every side of pressing public policy issues are heard by students on campus\u201d through lectures, private dinners, student debates, reading groups, film and debate viewings, and writing op-eds.<\/p>\n \u201cIt kind of set itself apart for me because they stress how much they value people disagreeing with them,\u201d Bleed said. \u201cIt\u2019s not every day that a scholar from a prestigious group like the American Enterprise Institute visits Furman, and I\u2019m really just excited to jump start a new group on campus this way.\u201d<\/p>\n Free and open to the public, the event begins at 7 p.m. and is part of Furman\u2019s Cultural Life Program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The only thing that disappointed John Bleed \u201917 about the American Enterprise Institute\u2019s (AEI) Summer Scholars June program in Washington, D.C., was that he couldn\u2019t bring AEI back to Furman. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":6126,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,42,32,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-history","category-politics-and-international-affairs","category-top-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}