I enjoyed this article in this weekend’s New York Times about the influence of books and ideas inside Washington. As the article states, books still matter in shaping ideas. The article, written by Emily Parker, senior fellow and digital diplomacy adviser at the New America Foundation, also has some great book recommendations for those bibliophiles who want to know what ideas have influenced leaders in recent years. She writes:
“What hasn’t changed is that a book with a strong idea has a good chance of getting inside the Beltway in some form or other. And what makes for a strong idea? Back in the 1960s, a former assistant secretary of defense, John T. McNaughton, perhaps put it best: An outside idea has a chance to influence government policy only if it has two characteristics. First, it can be stated in a simple declarative sentence. Second, once stated it is obviously true.”
