Maxwell School News and Commentary

“There is no way to disentangle red and blue America without tremendous violence. Additionally, a large and increasingly ignored percentage of Americans hold moderate views,” says Ryan Griffiths, professor of political science. “There is no doubt that polarization in America is a problem that is getting worse, but a national divorce is simply not the solution.”

“As a person who has lived on three continents and traveled extensively through three more, and as someone who has thought deeply about the implications of gospel values for both church and world, Leo is well aware that all that he says and does will be examined and parsed for their repercussions,” says Margaret Susan Thompson, professor of history and political science.

“We're on an upward tide in relations for right now, but in general in the long term, I would expect this kind of ratcheting up and down to continue,” says Ryan Monarch, associate professor of economics.

“22.4 million households across America will be disrupted if the benefits are not disbursed on time. And the total impact of the delay in SNAP benefits will ripple throughout the local economy,” says Colleen Heflin, professor of public administration and international affairs.

“Immigration attitudes are not immune to strategic electoral thinking and hyper-partisanship,” says Daniel McDowell, Maxwell Advisory Board Professor of International Affairs. “For many Americans, our study shows that the desirability of immigration depends not just on cultural or economic factors, but also whether voters believe migrants have the same partisan preferences that that they do.”

“Let's say a company offshores programming work to India, they would probably be paying a quarter of what they pay here, or even less,” says Devashish Mitra, professor of economics. “So even if the U.S. government taxes them 100% for what they're paying foreigners abroad, it's still going to work out well for the Big Tech companies.”

“Monitoring the nation’s food security status is important in its own right and also because food insecurity is associated with a variety of negative health outcomes,” says Colleen Heflin, professor of public administration and international affairs. 

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.