Maxwell School News

“We’ve known for decades that extreme heat and drought are becoming more common due to anthropogenic climate change. So the general outline of these events, if not all the details, was tragically predictable,” explains Jacob Bendix, professor emeritus of geography and the environment.

Ryan Monarch tells Marketplace that a trade deficit is not necessarily a bad thing, “If you have a trade deficit, another way of saying that is that your country is a place in which a lot of other countries really want to invest, where they want to put their money into.” 

Yingyi Ma observes impact of policy shifts under President Trump on Chinese international students, “We have seen some signals, such as a stronger willingness among some Chinese students to return to China, and an overall decline in the number of Chinese students going to the U.S.”

"With a large field, that could help the one most progressive (or socialist) candidate emerge with a plurality," says Grant Reeher, professor of political science. 

Robert Murrett told Newsweek that President’s talk of "massive attack" on Iran likely means "a dramatically escalated air campaign." Murrett added, "I don't see any evidence of large deployments of ground forces, or indicators that any kind of significant ground activity would take place." 

“Rubio’s surge doesn’t surprise me. He has been more in the news lately, given the U.S. international posture, and he has managed to sound reasonable and grounded, in contrast to the defense secretary, for instance,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science.

“There's real danger here of an escalating conflict that could spill over into the broader Persian Gulf region with profound consequences, not just for the regional stability, but for the global economy. So there's no military solution here. What needs to happen is a good faith, negotiated settlement,” says Osamah Khalil, chair of the International Relations Undergraduate Program.

Vice Adm. Robert Murrett (Ret.), professor of practice of public administration and international affairs, says he isn't terribly surprised by the long-range drone capabilities that Ukraine has been able to develop based on “the technology that Ukraine has brought to the battle so far and their ability to pivot very quickly and to do both short-range, medium-range and now long-range strikes over the vastness of the Russian land mass.”

Devashish Mitra, Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs, argues that tariffs can't do what they promise: trade balances are governed by macroeconomics, not trade policy, and the cost of a tariff falls largely on the country that imposes it. 

“South Sudan at the moment is a failed promise,” says Jok Madut Jok, professor of anthropology. “South Sudanese who had lived under brutal regimes in Sudan and had been excluded from money and development programmes, and were victims of security operations in the southern part, had hung their hopes on independence.”

“I think we're in a tit-for-tat right now, which it actually represents a new phase of the conflict between the United States and Iran. Certainly, we're on our fifth consecutive day of strikes, which seem to be getting more aggressive on both sides,” says Vice Adm. Robert Murrett (Ret.), professor of practice of public administration and international affairs.

As they prepare to field the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System for 2027, states can secure the important data necessary to guide policy and resource choices related to food security, writes Colleen Heflin, professor of public administration and international affairs.

“The situation certainly makes it much harder for any replacement to defeat Collins, and therefore it makes it one seat harder to retake the Senate,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science.

“The role of politics in shaping the global currency hierarchy is seen as secondary to…baseline economic fundamentals,” wrote Daniel McDowell, professor of political science, for the Atlantic Council’s Geoeconomics Center. But that’s changing. “In the great global currency debate, market forces have never been more passé and political forces have never been so prominent.”

“I think his strategy now is the same as it's really been from the very beginning, which is to try and figure out how to subjugate Ukraine. And that's the goal he's been after. And he's using really most of the means at his disposal to try and achieve that. If you look at his recent interviews, he does not want to concede at all that Russia is facing any serious problems,” says Brian Taylor, professor of political science.

“This disaster throws a wrench in the White House and State Department plan for securing and stabilizing the circum-Caribbean region that includes Venezuela,” says Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

Colleen Heflin, professor of public administration and international affairs, says it is important to note that “since a large portion of these errors are outside the control of the agencies [because they have to work with the information that clients provide], it will be difficult to bring down these errors without needlessly burdening all SNAP recipients.”

“In China, the response is more centralized and top-down,” says Yingyi Ma, professor of sociology. “AI is being built into national education planning and new majors. In the U.S., the response is more decentralized. Individual universities, schools, departments and faculty variability is huge.”

Grant Reeher, professor of political science, argues Pres. Trump's declining approval ratings on the economy are about more than just the recent economic impact of the war with Iran, saying it is "the cumulative effect of a host of policies that have not enjoyed widespread support, combined with rhetoric that has turned a lot of people off." 

“This might be a time of thinking about liberty, equality, the pursuit of happiness,” says Carol Faulkner, professor of history. But in some ways this time is different, she says. “It's much more partisan. It's really much more about a divisive president than the 1876 or the 1976 commemorations.”