Maxwell School News

“Contrary to a lot of modern assumptions, it [the Maginot Line] was never expected to defeat a German attack by itself. The point of the Maginot Line was not to stop the boche in their tracks, but to channel any future westward offensive away from the French industrial heartland and toward the Low Countries, particularly Belgium,” writes Alan Allport, professor of history.

The maps are a tool to communicate more realistic flood risks to vulnerable groups, says Sarah Pralle, associate professor of political science. You can plug your address into a FEMA webpage and it will tell you your property’s flood risk. “But,” Pralle says, “if you don’t know where the risky areas are, none of that works.”

While the strikes on alleged drug boats have raised questions about the use of military force, Trump’s seizure of the tanker and other actions against sanctioned entities are consistent with past American policy, says Vice Adm. Robert Murrett (Ret.), professor of practice of public administration and international affairs.

If parents had more guaranteed welfare state program available to them, “it would be easier for them to juggle jobs and children and they might not need to rely on grandparents quite as extensively,” says University Professor Madonna Harrington Meyer.

For Trump, it doesn't matter whether an immigrant obeys the law, or owns a business, or has been here for decades, says Mark Brockway, assistant teaching professor of political science. “They are caught in the middle of Trump's fight against an invented evil enemy,” Brockway says.

“So many small farmers across Vermont and New York and elsewhere, are competing in a really unequal, unfair system. You have this structure where the vast majority of the food dollar—the money we pay for the food—is not going to the farm, the farm level, at all. So small-scale farmers are really struggling today, not just the workers but the farmers and the farm owners,” says Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, associate professor of geography and the environment.

“The job is a leadership role, where your task is to motivate people from wide-ranging, different disciplines to come together to define the problem as the same and then go about trying to solve it through multiple avenues. Everything I’ve heard about him certainly suggests that he’s got a lot of talent and capability to make him the ideal person,” says University Professor Emeritus Sean O'Keefe.

“If the U.S. stops even doing that—and it would be quite a radical policy change if the U.S. is unwilling even to sell weapons to European countries—then Europe will have to continue on the path it is already on, which is to bolster its own defense production capacity,” says Brian Taylor, director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs.

Rural communities are far more varied than people understand them to be, says Professor of Sociology Shannon Monnat and her co-author. “Getting these facts right matters because public debates, policies and resource—including money for programs—often rely on these assumptions, and misunderstandings can leave real needs neglected.”

“It is time to wake up, break the gridlock, and take steps to address a range of large and growing challenges that threaten our collective future—including the need to make the Social Security system both solvent and sustainable,” says University Professor and Dean Emeritus John Palmer and his co-authors.

“I don't think Takaichi's budget, or anything she has stated so far, addresses any of the core underlying factors,” says Margarita Estévez-Abe, associate professor of political science.

“She [Vice President Delcy Rodriguez] strikes me as somebody who has known how to accommodate to Maduro, which is part of the reason why she’s there, but she doesn’t sort of strike me as somebody who would sort of step into that political vacuum and take control,” says Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

“Whether Costco is successful through its lawsuit in getting compensated for the tariffs that it has already paid on its imports really depends on the Supreme Court’s decision on whether the president has the legal authority to impose tariffs,” says Devashish Mitra, professor of economics.

“I think the fundamental problem remains, that Vladimir Putin wants to subjugate and control Ukraine and Ukraine wants to stay independent and sovereign and make its own political choices. So it's really hard to see a meaningful deal coming out of this,” says Brian Taylor, director of the Moynihan Insititute of Global Affairs. 

Rural communities have “leaned increasingly conservative” for several decades, and support for Trump is “especially strong” among these communities, which could mean they feel the country's leadership reflects their priorities, particularly on cultural and social issues, says Shannon Monnat, Lerner Chair in Public Health Promotion and Population Health.

“As government—especially federal—support recedes, competition for philanthropic dollars and other revenue sources is likely to intensify significantly,” says Jiahuan Lu, associate professor of public administration and international affairs.

“We are already seeing the negative reactions from the market... Further depreciation of the yen will hit ordinary Japanese households with higher prices,” says Margarita Estevez-Abe, associate professor of political science.

Mongolia’s leaders plan to move the nation’s capital from increasingly congested Ulaanbaatar to the culturally-significant yet undeveloped area called Kharkhorum. But Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment, says, “Buildings on a blank slate, it's a lovely image, but it doesn't solve any of those bigger structural issues in a state."