Moynihan Institute News, Research and Commentary

“A strong military makes a currency more appealing because it’s a signal to foreign investors that their assets are safe,” says Daniel McDowell, Maxwell Advisory Board Professor of International Affairs. “It matters because a strong defense projects security of assets in a way that is distinct from the financial regulations in a country.”

Jiahuan Lu, associate professor of public administration and international affairs, has co-edited a new research handbook, Nonprofit Organization Management in China: Research and Practice (Routledge, 2026). The volume examines nonprofit management in China through a comparative, organizational lens rather than the state-society framework common in earlier scholarship. 

The article, co-authored by Professor and Chair of Political Science Seth Jolly, was published in the Journal of Politics.

Bernard Appiah, associate professor of public health, delves into the power of combining entertainment and engagement in public health communications.

Four faculty members have received tenure in their promotion to associate professor, while one has been promoted to full professor and another to associate teaching professor.

Bob Bifulco has joined the dean’s office leadership team and faculty have stepped into new roles guiding the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs and the Law, Society and Policy program.

“In fact, that statistic was completely wrong. It was not like those deaths were not excess deaths. They were just South Asians who happened to die in Qatar from this time period,” says Natalie Koch, professor of geography and the environment, about the report in The Guardian that stated more than 6,500 guest workers died since the cup was awarded to the country.

Yingyi Ma observes impact of policy shifts under President Trump on Chinese international students, “We have seen some signals, such as a stronger willingness among some Chinese students to return to China, and an overall decline in the number of Chinese students going to the U.S.”

The Institute for Qualitative and Multi-Method Research draws graduate students and scholars from around the globe to Maxwell. 

“There's real danger here of an escalating conflict that could spill over into the broader Persian Gulf region with profound consequences, not just for the regional stability, but for the global economy. So there's no military solution here. What needs to happen is a good faith, negotiated settlement,” says Osamah Khalil, chair of the International Relations Undergraduate Program.

Devashish Mitra, Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs, argues that tariffs can't do what they promise: trade balances are governed by macroeconomics, not trade policy, and the cost of a tariff falls largely on the country that imposes it. 

Part-time instructor of anthropology Fethi Keles's review of the book On the Record: Papers, Immigration, and Legal Advocacy, written by Susan Bibler Coutin, was published in the International Journal of Refugee Law.

“The role of politics in shaping the global currency hierarchy is seen as secondary to…baseline economic fundamentals,” wrote Daniel McDowell, professor of political science, for the Atlantic Council’s Geoeconomics Center. But that’s changing. “In the great global currency debate, market forces have never been more passé and political forces have never been so prominent.”

Devashish Mitra, professor of economics and Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs, has co-edited a new reference work, Elgar Encyclopedia of International Trade (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2026), with Priyaranjan Jha, professor of economics at the University of California, Irvine. The volume is part of the Elgar Encyclopedias in Economics and Finance series.

“I think his strategy now is the same as it's really been from the very beginning, which is to try and figure out how to subjugate Ukraine. And that's the goal he's been after. And he's using really most of the means at his disposal to try and achieve that. If you look at his recent interviews, he does not want to concede at all that Russia is facing any serious problems,” says Brian Taylor, professor of political science.

“This disaster throws a wrench in the White House and State Department plan for securing and stabilizing the circum-Caribbean region that includes Venezuela,” says Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

“In China, the response is more centralized and top-down,” says Yingyi Ma, professor of sociology. “AI is being built into national education planning and new majors. In the U.S., the response is more decentralized. Individual universities, schools, departments and faculty variability is huge.”

The article, co-authored by Associate Professor of Public Health Bernard Appiah, was published in BMC Public Health.

Lauren Woodard, assistant professor of anthropology, has written Ambiguous Inclusion: Migration and Race on the Russia-China Border (University of Toronto Press, 2026). The book draws on 17 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Moscow and Vladivostok, Russia, and Almaty, Kazakhstan. 

Glyn Morgan, associate professor of political science, writes on CapX how the trade deal the U.S. and EU agreed to during meetings in Turnberry, Scotland, in 2025 exemplifies the changing relationship between the two from one built on mutual benefit to one that is fully transactional.