Maxwell School News and Commentary

Baobao Zhang, Maxwell Dean Associate Professor of the Politics of AI, says that the administration may have been willing to give up on the moratorium in order to push through the rest of the bill by its self-imposed Independence Day deadline.

“In theory, what we want is the election that really decides who is going to serve in government to be one that was a higher-turnout election where campaigns, candidates, platforms, policies made some sort of difference in the outcome,” says Assistant Teaching Professor Richard Barton. “But most of those general elections are just not competitive, and they’re not consequential.”

“So these challenges and headwinds are going to persist,” says Alex Wagner, adjunct professor in Maxwell's Washington programs. “And it's actually going to require continuation of the current initiatives, but also new initiatives, new efforts and new insights by an administration that's quick to claim credit but hasn't really put in place any new solutions to date.”

Ryan Griffiths, professor of political science, has co-written a new book, Before Colonization: Non-Western States and Systems in the Nineteenth Century (Columbia University Press, 2025). The book, written with Charles R. Butcher, challenges the Eurocentric view of the world by offering a comparative analysis of non-Western state systems in the 19th century, supported by an original dataset.

The article, co-authored by Austin Zwick, associate teaching professor of policy studies, was published in State and Local Government Review.

“The good news for Ukraine is that...Trump has finally figured out that Putin is the main obstacle to peace,” says Brian Taylor, director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs.

Emily Thorson, associate professor of political science, has published How News Coverage of Misinformation Shapes Perceptions and Trust (Cambridge University Press, 2024). The book analyzes how the media addresses the issue of misinformation and how such coverage shapes public perception and trust. 

“It could affect U.S. citizens’ ability to travel to specific countries if they don’t want the risk of measles getting introduced to their country. It could affect other people’s ability to come visit the U.S. Other countries might require proof of measles vaccination before they can reenter their home country,” says Brittany Kmush, associate professor of public health.

“It is always a bad idea to burden someone with multiple jobs, especially when at least one of those jobs is extremely important,” says Devashish Mitra, professor of economics.

“One year after the July Revolution, the memory of brave young lives lost continues to light the path toward a just, democratic, and united Bangladesh,” says Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment.