Moynihan Institute News, Research and Commentary

“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).

“There is no silly sensationalism in this book, merely sound storytelling and measured judgments. The author writes of ‘that particular German approach to war-making in the first half of the 20th century—tactical ingenuity in the service of strategic vacuity,’ writes Max Hastings, book critic for The Sunday Times.

Michael Williams, associate professor of public administration and international affairs, has co-authored a new book, Understanding International Security: Theory and Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2025). The book explores the meanings and debates around international security, with chapters addressing war, terrorism, violence, cyber security, health and more. 

“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.

“Bavaria is a very agrarian place, even more so at that time,” says Robert Terrell, associate professor of history. Even today nearly half of Bavaria’s land remains devoted to agriculture, and every four years, the Bavarian Central Agricultural Fair coincides with Oktoberfest. 

“The situation is very serious indeed. We have been observing airspace violations by Russia for years. But what Putin is doing now has a new quality. He is testing how resolutely NATO reacts and whether weaknesses are emerging,” says Michael Williams, associate professor of public administration and international affairs.

Azra Hromadžić, professor and undergraduate director for anthropology, has contributed to a recently published book, Bosnian Fluxes: Belonging, Caring, and Reckoning in a Post-Cold War Semiperiphery (Routledge, 2025).

Woodard, assistant professor of anthropology, recently traveled to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi and to major cities in South Korea to examine the war’s impact on migration patterns throughout Europe and Asia.