We are engaged in the process of understanding and refining the concepts, ideas and goals that affect the public. To this end, I present The Cornell Policy Review, a place for ideas that draw policy perspectives and criticisms from the varied interests among Fellows at the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs, the broader Cornell community and other colleagues similarly engaged in this process.

In this inaugural edition of The Review, we are pleased to present a diverse selection of entries that reflect this commitment, featuring several former, current and future CIPA Fellows.

Andrei Parvan discusses agricultural technology adoption, with particular attention to World Food Programme policies in Ethiopia. Christopher Smith outlines the city of Los Angeles’s path to renewable energy reform. Jessica Pomerantz provides editorial on the importance of quality, grounded monitoring and evaluation procedures in development aid, and Phoebe Garfinkle comments on the state of U.S. farming policies. We are also pleased to present Dan Cluchey’s analysis of a growing concern over executive power emanating from the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel.

Christopher Coghlan interviewed Anne Herforth, Nutrition Specialist at the World Bank, about malnourishment questions facing East African populations, while Hae Seung Yi sat down with Michael Gillenwater, director of the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute, to discuss the implications of quantitative integrity in emissions monitoring.

Over the last semesters, I have worked with two chief editors, three managing editors, and a host of associate, article and research editors. While my tenure began under The Current, and now concludes as The Review, the accomplishments of each previous staff are embedded in this new edition, and I thank all of them for their contributions. This journal would not be possible without the continued support of the CIPA staff. I have the utmost confidence that my successors, Michael Donovan and Marquis Hawkins, will continue this work of identifying decisive policy critiques.

Sean W. Murphy, MPA/MRP 2011, Editor-in-Chief

Written by Cornell Institute for Public Affairs