Maxwell School News and Commentary

“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. 

“There is no silly sensationalism in this book, merely sound storytelling and measured judgments. The author writes of ‘that particular German approach to war-making in the first half of the 20th century—tactical ingenuity in the service of strategic vacuity,’ writes Max Hastings, book critic for The Sunday Times.

Part-time instructor of anthropology Fethi Keles's review of the book African Witchcraft and Global Asylum Seeking: Border-Crossing Beliefs, written by Katherine Angela Luongo, was published in the International Journal of Refugee Law.

Osamah Khalil, professor of history and expert on the modern Middle East, says it’s untrue that Obama or Biden “held a personal animus toward Israel, especially Biden. Indeed, both administrations oversaw expansions in U.S. military assistance and coordination with Israel.”

“Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine is greatly damaging Russia’s future, with the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of soldiers at the front and the emigration of some of Russia’s best and brightest young people,” says Brian Taylor, director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs. 

“The invasion scenarios that dominate U.S. military planning—involving massive amphibious assaults on Taiwan and preemptive strikes on American bases—may fundamentally misread Beijing’s calculus,” writes Michael Williams, associate professor of public administration and international affairs.

“The truth is that a national divorce would require a dangerous unmixing and re-sorting of Americans. Imagine trying to draw a new map that is coherent yet still satisfies the greatest number of people,” writes Ryan Griffiths, professor of political science.

“The situation is very serious indeed. We have been observing airspace violations by Russia for years. But what Putin is doing now has a new quality. He is testing how resolutely NATO reacts and whether weaknesses are emerging,” says Michael Williams, associate professor of public administration and international affairs.

“Unless the decision is followed by a renewed and robust peace negotiations that bring an end to Israel’s war in Gaza as well as the settlement and annexation policies in the occupied West Bank, recognition will be too little and far too late,” says Osamah Khalil, chair of the International Relations Undergraduate Program.

The “idea that irreconcilable differences justify secession ignores the violent history of such efforts, including the Civil War, and overlooks the reality that Americans are deeply intermixed—politically, geographically and ideologically,” says Ryan Griffiths, professor of political science.