July 12, 2018 Quartz
Earlier this year, the U.S. tried to weaken a World Health Organization proposal encouraging the benefits of breastfeeding. Economist Emily Oster pointed out that it's "impossible to disentangle" the most commonly cited benefits of breastfeeding, such as higher IQ and lower obesity rates, from socioeconomic factors.
July 12, 2018 The Indian Express
Professor Ashutosh Varshney in The Indian Express, "A true meritocracy would place equally meritorious students from rural or urban settings, richer or poorer provinces, on an equal footing...China modifies the principle in the opposite direction. Its quota system gives preference to the privileged."
July 9, 2018 The Providence Journal
More female candidates than ever are running for political office in Rhode Island this year. Political scientist Wendy Schiller said the establishment party's endorsement controversy and recent pushback against pay equity, abortion rights and new sexual harassment laws has received stinging national media attention, and outrage among far-left-leaning voters could spur big wins for progressive candidates.
July 9, 2018 Deccan Chronicle
In an article on India's capital, Ashutosh Varshney, Director of the Center for Contemporary South Asia, calls the country an improbable democracy -- poor, impossibly heterogeneous and multicultural, and heavily reliant on its colonial history.
July 9, 2018 The Washington Post
Progressive political candidates motivated by Bernie Sanders' insurgent run against Hillary Clinton in 2016 are advocating for Medicare for all as part of their platforms. Professor Eric Patashnik said that the political viability of the idea will ultimately depend on its details -- such as whether the program would eliminate the private-insurance system altogether.
July 6, 2018 Global Policy Journal
Jeff Colgan in Global Policy Journal, "At the moment, property values and stock prices generally seem unaffected by the prospect of climate change, which generates a comforting illusion that our current trajectory is sustainable. But the idea that that markets rapidly update prices with all available information – an idea for which Eugene Fama won a Nobel Prize in 2013 – relies on a strict set of assumptions. In a world of climate change, those assumptions bear re-examination."
July 6, 2018 The Washington Times
Senior Fellow Stephen Kinzer comments on Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and the widespread discontent with leadership in the Central American country.
July 5, 2018 The New York Times
The must-have accessory at the 2018 World Cup is the digital Fan ID, part identity card and part all-access pass. Senior Fellow Timothy Edgar says the Fan ID is "part of a surveillance economy where you are offered something that sounds enticing in exchange for valuable personal information."
July 3, 2018 The Washington Post
Professor Peter Andreas argues in a column penned on the eve of the Fourth of July that Americans should consider the fact that the U.S. founders were relentless lawbreakers -- particularly of laws meant to restrict who and what was allowed to cross borders.
June 28, 2018 TomDispatch.com
A new study by the Costs of War Project examines the relationship between the United States' war-related debt and societal inequality.
June 28, 2018 Dan Yorke State of Mind
Senior Fellow Timothy Edgar joined WPRI's Dan Yorke State of Mind to discuss the week's pressing security issues, including immigration policies, North Korea, and the Russian election meddling investigation.
June 25, 2018 The Washington Post
Senior Fellow Timothy Edgar in The Washington Post, "A warrant requirement dooms collection in bulk because mass surveillance programs involve billions or trillions of records."
June 25, 2018 The Boston Globe
Senior Fellow Stephen Kinzer in The Boston Globe, "The prospect that the United States would allow Hawaii to resume its place as an independent nation seems far-fetched."
June 25, 2018 Legal Talk Network
Senior Fellow Chas Freeman joins Legal Talk Network's Lawyer 2 Lawyer podcast to discuss the summit meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
June 22, 2018 The Providence Journal
Reviewer Tim Norton says Faculty Fellow David Kertzer's new book, The Pope Who Would Be King, is an "important contribution in understanding the many ways that the Catholic Church, cloaked with unquestioned power in the Papal States of Europe, conspired to keep it."
June 20, 2018 Dan Yorke State of Mind
Sociologist Michael Kennedy joined WPRI's Dan Yorke State of Mind to discuss the Singapore Summit between President Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong-un, and raise questions about the state of moral leadership in America.
June 18, 2018 Radio Open Source
Senior Fellow Chas Freeman joins WBUR's Radio Open Source to discuss President Trump's summit meeting with North Korea's Kim Jong-un.
June 13, 2018 The Washington Post
An opinion piece co-written by Eric Patashnik, argues that the law’s political vulnerabilities and Republican electoral dynamics drive conservative efforts to uproot it and yet conservatives are unlikely to be able to repeal it.
June 6, 2018 Worker's World
A May 2017 report from the Costs of War Project indicated that military spending creates fewer jobs than the same amount of money would have if it had been invested in other sectors, such as clean energy, health care and education.
June 6, 2018 The Atlantic
As sanctions restrict the legal flow of goods, people grow accustomed to the black market. In a 2005 study, Professor Peter Andreas noted that sanctions often breed "a higher level of public tolerance for lawbreaking and an undermined respect for the rule of law."