Moynihan Institute News, Research and Commentary

“You have a unique and distinctive state form, call it American Europe, and that's been around for 80 years. It replaced an earlier state form I call Imperial Europe, which America really hated and wanted to destroy because it was a pure competitor and new American Europe was not a competitor,” says Glyn Morgan, associate professor of political science.

The article, authored by Lauren Woodard, assistant professor of anthropology, was published in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

The originality of Associate Professor of Political Science Glyn Morgan’s book “lies in its claim that European unification—first the European Coal and Steel Community, in 1951, then the European Economic Community, in 1957, and finally the European Union, in 1993—was more an American creation than a European one. Postwar Europe, he argues, was made in America’s image,” says reviewer Ian Buruma.

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

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.

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.

Glyn Morgan, associate professor of political science, has written The Rise and Fall of American Europe (Polity Press, 2026). The book traces how the post-World War II American-led project of European integration—a political order grounded in U.S. military protection and transatlantic trade—came to be, and why it is now unraveling. 

“In his short but incisive account, he [Glyn Morgan, associate professor of political science] argues that the decisive shove for postwar European integration came not from Europeans but from America. It was the U.S., alarmed by Soviet domination of eastern Europe, that saw integration as key to turning Europeans into prosperous and stable allies,” says reviewer Simon Nixon.

“The book is a story about what happened to the common citizen, and the common soldier. It is a splendid example of how to do a fully rounded work on a people at total war, of how to use a vast mix of sources, and to keep the story going,” writes reviewer Paul Kennedy, Dilworth Professor of History at Yale University.

Catherine Herrold, associate professor of public administration and international affairs, along with Khaldoun AbouAssi from American University, report that locally based supportive groups strengthen the civic skills that sustain free societies.

“It's always possible that it could be a rogue missile, however, the Iranians have struck all across the region so rather than isolating their attacks to just U.S. targets and Israeli targets who are conducting the military operations against them, it looks like they've targeted purposefully Turkey as well as all members of the Gulf Cooperation Council,” says Michael Williams, associate professor of public administration and international affairs.

Oxana Shevel’s lecture reflects the Maxwell School’s ongoing scholarship, policy engagement and support for those affected by the conflict. 

“This EU-level response is being replaced by individual country responses, which is withdrawing support,” says Lauren Woodard, assistant professor of anthropology. “In Poland, where many people live, the Polish government this month announced that they would not be extending that temporary protection status to Ukrainians.”

“At one point, we had over a dozen ..military bases across the country, and that was because Greenland was pretty important in terms of defense against subs and any sort of attack from the north,” says Michael Williams, associate professor of public administration and international affairs.

“Denmark cannot legally sell Greenland to the United States. The Greenlanders would need a vote on what they wanted to do, and they have expressed no desire to join the US in any form of state or territory,” says Michael Williams, associate professor of public administration and international affairs.

“Allport is a fluid writer, a conjurer with the rare ability to sustain a gripping narrative without resorting to Vaseline-lensed sentimentality. He overturns one piece of conventional wisdom after another—quarrelsome, occasionally, to a fault,” says New York Times reviewer Kevin Peraino.

“Contrary to a lot of modern assumptions, it [the Maginot Line] was never expected to defeat a German attack by itself. The point of the Maginot Line was not to stop the boche in their tracks, but to channel any future westward offensive away from the French industrial heartland and toward the Low Countries, particularly Belgium,” writes Alan Allport, professor of history.

The article, co-authored by Associate Professor of History Robert Terrell and William Henry Johnson ’25 B.A. (Hist), was published in Central European History.

Alan Allport, professor of history, has written Advance Britannia: The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1942-1945 (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2026). The book is a sequel to Allport’s 2020 work Britain at Bay: The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1938-1941 (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2020).