From the Daily Kos:
People are subject to the daily dysfunction of Congress and they are rightly angry, but the biggest changes that directly impact people's lives - for good or bad - come from state houses and governors. It’s where states are deciding whether to provide health insurance to citizens or not, where the worst attacks on women and LGBTQ citizens are being enacted, and where decisions are being made to intentionally deny voting rights to millions of people.
Distinguished Visiting Professor Terry McAuliffe
From The Foreign Service Journal:
Illicit Trade and Our Global Response
Only governments compartmentalize their responses; criminals and corrupt officials combine their activities to maximize their competitive advantage. The government, through its embassies overseas, needs to be able to work more effectively to follow the money. Different government agencies with responsibility for combating transnational crime—such as the Department of Homeland Security and its U.S. Customs and Border Protection division, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Treasury Department—must work with diplomats to develop, implement and execute efficient responses to the ever-changing behavior of transnational criminals.
TraCCC founder and director, Professor Louise Shelley
From The Hill:
Americans Are Safer from Terrorism, But New Threats Are Arising
That basic question — are we safer now than we were then? — was never far from mind. FBI Director Christopher Wray gave a rather somber assessment on the anniversary of that day: “People think of the 9/11 threat, they think New York, they think DC. Today’s terrorism threat is everywhere, coast to coast, north, south, east, west. It’s not just big cities.” He added that today’s threats come not just from Al Qaeda but from other terror groups, sleeper cells, and “homegrown” extremists.
Distinguished Visiting Professor Michael V. Hayden
From RealClear World:
Playing the Long Game in U.S.-China Relations
The only durable solution to the current dispute is to find areas in which China’s long-term interests align with the West’s. Focusing on trade deficits is the short game and can yield no more than an early harvest. Everyone’s long-term interests lie in playing the long game. This makes the credibility of our institutions more important than ever. If we work toward cooperation, then success in innovation in one economy can aid the other, enhancing the incentive for independent activity in both.
Public Policy Professor Hilton Root
From War on the Rocks:
The Case for a Permanent U.S. Military Presence in Poland
Whether NATO and Russia are even in a security dilemma is debatable. Security dilemmas emerge from assessments of geography, military policies and weapons acquisitions. However, the frictions that exist between NATO and Russia are based on deeper political factors. Which political factors are important admittedly depends in part on personal opinion. Some will explain Russian grievances by pointing to promises allegedly made about NATO expansion. Others will suggest that Russia has historically aspired to dominate its neighbors, whether through territorial acquisition or indirect political influence.
Assistant Professor Michael Hunzeker and Alexander Lanoszka (University of Waterloo)
From the Washington Examiner:
Who to Believe on Saudi Arabia: Trump or the Intelligence Community?
What happens if, in the next crisis, America finds itself threatened by Russian or Chinese aggression, or rogue actors again target the homeland? Will the commander-in-chief issue orders based on the best available intelligence, or will his preferred reality drive him to embrace dangerous narratives peddled by any number of voices in his head?
Associate Professor A. Trevor Thrall and Schar School PhD candidate Erik Goepner
From the Washington Post:
It’s Trump Race in Virginia’s 10th
In any normal election cycle, it would be a safe bet that Comstock would be riding the powers of incumbency to an easy reelection. Two years ago, even when the top of the GOP ticket got trounced in her district, Comstock won by a comfortable six-point margin. Voters in Virginia’s 10th District apparently are not adverse to split-ticket voting. This year, President Trump is not on the ballot, and the latest Post-Schar School poll shows 84 percent of district likely voters rate the economy positively. So logic would suggest an easy reelection year for the incumbent.
But it is as though Trump alone is on the ballot this year, and that is the major problem for Comstock.
Schar School Dean Mark J. Rozell
From The Hill:
Defiance, Division and ‘Me Too’—Lurching Toward a Reckoning in 2020
The bitter division in American politics did not start with Donald Trump. It goes back at least fifty years, to the polarization over values that emerged during the turbulence of the 1960s. As Bill Clinton put it in 2004, “If you look back on the sixties and you think there was more good than bad, you're probably a Democrat. If you think there was more harm than good, you're probably a Republican.” The movement for women's rights, like many other social movements, began in the 1960s. It eventually gave rise to the “Me Too” movement.
Professor of Policy, Government and International Affairs Bill Schneider
From NACLA Report on the Americas:
Imperfect Justice in Guatemala
The verdict was indeed perplexing. Judge Sarah Yoc Yoc began the reading of the verdict, recounting a litany of atrocities in the Ixil region, including over 60 massacres, the destruction of some 50 villages, the widespread use of torture and sexual violence especially against women, brutal violence against infants and pregnant women, forced labor, and search-and-destroy operations against the displaced population who had fled to the mountains for safety. The evidence showed that the military identified the Maya Ixil as guerrilla sympathizers and, therefore, as the internal enemy to be “exterminated,” and that the army’s scorched-earth tactics were carried out with the intention of exterminating the Ixil population.
Associate Professor Jo-Marie Burt