Public Administration and International Affairs Department News, Media Commentary and Research

Professor Emeritus William C. Banks says that the recently released meeting transcripts between the Trump campaign and Russian lawyers corroborated what was already known, that "the Russians did attempt to influence the election, and they attempted to do so in favor of the candidate Donald Trump, who they hoped would win."

David Popp, professor of public administration and international affairs and Carolyn Rapking Faculty Scholar in Public Administration and Policy, will receive the 2018 William Wasserstrom Prize for the Teaching of Graduate Students. The prize is awarded every year to a faculty member in the College of Arts and Sciences who embodies the role of a seminar leader, research and dissertation director, and advisor and role model.

"What we have seen so far is a fairly responsible attitude from the government here that seems to understand that there is a danger that the North Korea strategy is to drive a wedge between the United States and South Korea," says University Professor James Steinberg.

"These talks have the ability to reduce security tensions in East Asia and present an opportunity for the U.S. to reinforce the strong links with South Korea, Japan and even China," says Robert Murrett, deputy director of the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism.

Jurist, scholar, and law and policy practitioner James E. Baker will join the faculty of the College of Law and Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs as a professor in fall 2018. Judge Baker will lead the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism as director, succeeding Professor William C. Banks, who founded the Institute in 2003.

William Banks, professor emeritus in the public administration and international affairs department, says "the House investigation was beset by partisan overtones from the beginning," about the House Intel Committee's investigation into the Trump administration, in an article for WIRED.

"The issue is trying to balance everything," says David Popp, professor of public administration and international affairs, pointing out that wind energy is not easily stored. "Most of the demand is downstate, where most of the wind energy is upstate."

"There's a Justice Department regulation that says that the independent council special prosecutor can only be dismissed for cause for misfeasance in office. Certainly, Mueller can't be reasonably accused of that," says William C. Banks, professor of public administration and international affairs.

"If the Guard is deployed as it has been in the past, there would be little those troops could do to stop crime along the border," says William Banks, professor of public administration and international affairs.

Discussions between public and private entities will ultimately come down to how profitable a deal is in light of the changes, says David M. Van Slyke, dean of the Maxwell School. The requirement for master development plans will probably lead to better-managed projects, he adds.

David Van Slyke, dean of the Maxwell School, says Trump’s opposition to Gateway is mystifying and potentially discourages investors in the sort of public-private projects his administration is advocating.