Maxwell School News and Commentary

"My impression is that his power and visibility have increased a lot since the start of the war in Ukraine," says Brian Taylor, professor of political science. "He's a much more public figure than a year ago, and I think that reflects his ambition. And, up to a certain point, the impression it has of its current usefulness."

"The decision of Germany to allow allies to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, as well as Berlin dispatching its own bilateral donation, is a significant symbol of allied commitment to Ukraine, but the implications of this move should not be exaggerated," says Michael Williams, associate professor of public administration and international affairs.

"A bizarre situation with this balloon, in particular, is best understood as an attempt to kind of clarify what the terms of engagement are," says Dimitar Gueorguiev, associate professor of political science. "And what you’ve seen over the past couple of days is that surveillance aircraft at a certain level of altitude are now probably more likely to happen and are more at risk of being shot dow," he says.

The governor of New York possesses too much formal power to think about writing her off, says Grant Reeher, director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute. “She has an enormous amount of power in the budget,” he says, “and that’s the thing that’s coming up next.”

"If Trump, unable to accept losing, ignored the available evidence confirming the election’s integrity and really believed it was fraudulent, then his dearth of intellectual honesty renders him cognitively incompetent to hold the most powerful office in the world," says Dana Radcliffe, adjunct professor of public administration and international affairs.

DIANA [Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North-Atlantic] could prove key to facilitating interoperability and a more level playing field between the nations—in emerging tech areas and traditional ones that are rapidly evolving, says Michael Williams, associate professor of public administration and international affairs.

"Delta Democracy: Pathways to Incremental Civic Revolution in Egypt Beyond" (Oxford University Press, 2020), written by Associate Professor of Public Administration and International Affairs Catherine Herrold, was reviewed in Democratization.

"Gold has become an attractive hedge against sanctions risk for central banks at risk of such penalties. While there are limitations to gold's usefulness compared to, say, U.S. Treasuries, its unique appeal is found in its physical form, unquestioned value, and the ability to store bars in national vaults, safe from foreign seizure," says Daniel McDowell, associate professor of political science.

"Here we have yet one more opportunity to fully flesh out and understand what went wrong with the drug war in Mexico and why it could arguably be considered to be a colossal failure," says Gladys McCormick, associate professor of history and Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

With [Chinese President] Xi now signaling a shift to less rancorous bilateral ties, “I expect [Xie Feng, China's new ambassador to the U.S.] to be more kumbaya-ish,” says Dimitar Gueorguiev, associate professor of political science and expert on Chinese elite politics.