Steve Clemons

Steve Clemons is director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation and publishes the political blog, The Washington Note. Previously, he was Executive Vice President of the Economic Strategy Institute, Senior Policy Advisor on Economic and International Affairs to Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and was the first Executive Director of the Nixon Center.

Prior to moving to Washington, Mr. Clemons served for seven years as Executive Director of the Japan America Society of Southern California, and co-founded with Chalmers Johnson the Japan Policy Research Institute. He is a Member of the Board of the Clarke Center at Dickinson College, a liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pa., as well as an Advisory Board Member of the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College in Chestertown, Md. He is also a Board Member of the Global Policy Innovations Program at the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs and on the advisory board of the Robert Bosch Foundation Alumni Association.

The Washington Note

Clemons turned off comments on the blog in November 2009, saying

The comments on my blog have grown increasingly vile -- and are not in any way constructive, civil, fair-minded, or policy-oriented. I am turning them off. The primary violators of my policy know who they are. There are rampant ad hominem attacks on TWN now, comments about the personal lives and relations of other commenters.

This is unacceptable.

Comments closed. I hope I can turn them on in the future -- but that will not happen until I see a marked change in the behavior of nearly all of the lead posters.

I have emphasized over and over again that I am too busy to blog, do my New America Foundation work, and be a nanny for those who are not mature enough to be able to manage a civil discussion here.