Maxwell School News and Commentary

Professor Emeritus William C. Banks assesses that "the world is out there, and our adversaries are all aware... that we're more vulnerable as a nation and national security apparatus than any other time during the last four years." He adds, "without a coordinated effort between the outgoing Trump people and incoming Biden people, things could quickly lose control."

"'Britain at Bay'...might be the single best examination of British politics, society and strategy in these four years that has ever been written," said reviewer Paul Kennedy about Associate Professor of History Alan Allport's book.

"The forces he is up against are much bigger than President Trump and are tectonic in nature. There are a set of forces that push us apart rather than bring us together," says Grant Reeher, professor of political science. But, he adds, "I do think having a period of time for the country to experience the absence of the daily melodrama of the Trump presidency will help."

"CCE [Citizenship and Civic Engagement] stresses how important it is that we resist the tendency towards imposing our own understanding onto communities, and instead equip communities with the tools to share their own understandings with the rest of the world," says sophomore Maggie Sardino.

Professor Emeritus William C. Banks thinks the delay by the Trump Administration to share information to Biden will be "negligible to none." However, he feels it comes with other costs. "I feel a great deal has been lost symbolically and I believe our democratic institutions have been severely beat up by the bruising battles that have been fought for no good reason," Banks says.