Maxwell School News and Commentary

With little indication that the U.S. will attempt to assert leverage over Israel, Blinken’s latest trip to the Middle East is fundamentally “performative,” says Osamah Khalil, professor of history. “There is a face-saving domestic consumption element for [the Biden administration] and a separate face-saving element to allow Israel to claim some kind of victory,” he says.

While there is an unavoidable conflict in a petrostate hosting a climate summit, it may also be fitting: The country that was home to the oil industry’s beginnings may also host negotiations that could one day bring the petroleum era to an end. “It is possible to frame it as something of a closure,” says Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment.

The Hon. James E. Baker, professor of public administration and international affairs by courtesy appointment, expects the complexity of models to make controversies over AI evidence more vexing than debates over DNA evidence. “The challenge with AI is every AI model is different,” he said, “What’s more, AI models are constantly learning and changing.”

"The recent set of labour reforms are also an encouraging development. Numerous labour regulations have been consolidated into four codes, eliminating contradictions among them," writes Devashish Mitra, professor and chair of economics. 

"The contrast with today's youth highlights broader economic and global trends, namely China's current economic slowdown, which has led to reduced hiring, stagnating wages and a general sense of job insecurity in many industries. This environment naturally makes the stability and predictability of government jobs more appealing," writes Yingyi Ma, professor of sociology.

Vice Adm. Robert Murrett (Ret.), professor of practice of public administration and international affairs, warns that the attacks in the Red Sea could easily drag on for the whole of 2024. “In the mind of the Houthi, this is all connected to what’s happening in Gaza,” says Murrett. “And the operations in Gaza could last for the rest of this calendar year.”

“The independents that are part of the polling…don’t like either of them. And then, of course the Democrats in the polls are not going to give Trump any positive ratings, and Republicans are not going to give Biden any positive ratings,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science.

Women in Bangladesh suffer disproportionately during floods, as Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment, has documented in a study, in part because they bear the brunt of responsibility for managing water and food for their household, as well as taking care of their children.

"Drones have been a feature of war for several decades, but today’s conflicts such as the Israel-Hamas war and the Ukraine war show how the technology is changing modern combat. Ever more powerful drones have become cheaper and easier to fabricate and deploy," writes William Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs.

"Having the turnover in the organization that he's had is nowhere near the chaos that the disrupter in chief caused both as a candidate and as president," Grant Reeher, professor of political science, says of DeSantis's aim to be a drama-free Trump. "So in that sense, then that claim is still reasonably valid. I don't know what it gets him."