Maxwell School News and Commentary

“We are entering contentious electoral cycles on both sides of the border, with voters going to the ballot box in June 2024 in Mexico and November 2024 for the U.S. The scourge of drug trafficking and ineffective government responses to organized crime will figure prominently in stump speeches,” writes Gladys McCormick, Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

William Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs, says that once the attack on the Capitol began, Trump had options he did not use. “He should respond to his constitutional responsibilities to protect the security of the United States when there’s an assault on our democratic process,” Banks says of Trump.

"So many of the calls come to them [mothers], even though they're in kind of very demanding jobs [and] they've told the schools to call their children's fathers," says Kristy Buzard, associate professor of economics.

“Social media works a lot like any other type of addictive drug,” says Alexandra Punch, director of the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health. “When you utilize these services, it triggers dopamine responses and serotonin responses in the brain, so it also increases your craving for more of that same thing.”

“As the world prepares for COP28, the onus is on global leaders, corporations and individuals to rise to the occasion and champion the cause of climate justice. Wealthy nations must start putting real funding towards loss and damage, while ramping up their mitigation and adaptation efforts, and reining in the influence of the fossil fuel industry in climate policies,” Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment, writes in The Guardian.

Matthew Huber, professor of geography and the environment, calls the outcome of the strike a huge victory for the United Auto Workers and its workers. “It shows that when workers harness their collective power through strikes, they can force employers to give in to workers’ ambitious demands,” he says.

Michiko Ueda-Ballmer, associate professor of public administration and international affairs, says many young Japanese women would like to get married, “but they simply cannot afford it. The result is that people don’t get married.”

"The reality is a ceasefire is needed now and that's not something the United States is willing to agree to. The most the United States is willing to do is a humanitarian pause, but that's not nearly sufficient. And on this, the United States and Israel are an outlier in the international community," Osamah Khalil, professor of history, tells BBC News.

"The state’s new election system, combining nonpartisan primaries and instant-runoff general election voting, makes elections more competitive and encourages cooperative governance," writes Richard Barton, assistant teaching professor of public administration and international affairs.

If the (Biden) administration does not incentivize an electric transition, it means the U.S. will cede EV [electric vehicle] leadership to China," says Tod Rutherford, professor of geography and the environment. "The Europeans are very alarmed by this and especially the German manufacturers are scrambling to catch up."