"The idea that the Portuguese have never been in Africa is completely false," says Christopher DeCorse, professor of anthropology. "In fact, it was the Portuguese who opened Africa to the Atlantic world." 

According to Grant Reeher, professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute, the push for a single payer health system has gained traction as a "symbolic" issue for some Democrats who want to have a "positive alternative message" to efforts by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to dismantle Obamacare.

"If jobs and wealth are the metric for 'winning the trade war,' China, not America, will emerge the victor," says Mary Lovely, professor of economics.

Michael Boulware Moore heads efforts to build a new museum on slave-trade hallowed ground in Charleston.

These are interesting times for journalists in America. We reached out to nine of them, all with degrees from Maxwell. With their public affairs education, they understand as well as any journalists what the vigor of the press means to us all.

“Our life expectancy is increasingly being shaped by where we live in the U.S.,” says Jennifer Karas Montez, Gerald B. Cramer Faculty Scholar of Aging Studies at Maxwell. It’s tempting to blame lifestyle-related behaviors, but “lifestyle behaviors are not root causes. They are symptoms of the environment and the social and economic deprivation that many parts of the country endure, thanks to decades of policy decisions.”

David Van Slyke, dean of the Maxwell School, and Lorraine Branham, dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, discuss the relationship between their programs and trends in the nation that suggest a public affairs approach to journalism is as important as ever.

Alumna Kerstin Vignard, ’96 MAIR, is the Deputy Director at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR). She leads work on emerging security issues, helping shape policy and regulation of evolving weapon systems.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) program's reputation and Washington location provide Maxwell students and faculty regular access to a range of leaders and practitioners—to an extent not feasible in Syracuse,” says University Professor and Phanstiel Chair Sean O’Keefe ’78 M.P.A., who is charged with developing opportunities to further nurture Maxwell/CSIS collaboration.

Thanks to the generosity of one “citizen of the world,” dozens of budding scholars have chased far-flung intellectual goals.

"If President Trump really wants to cut taxes on capital gains, he should go to Congress with a plan to do so directly, and not through a poorly designed back-door regulatory scheme," writes Leonard Burman, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs.

Mark Monmonier, Distinguished Professor of Geography, notes that the group of west-oriented maps of Virginia could simply have come about because people copied [John] Smith, whose map was early and famous.

Professor Emeritus of Political Science Michael Barkun weighs in on the mystery of "Q" and the history of conspiracy theories in America in the Washington Post. "These ideas never completely die,” says Barkun, who studies conspiracy theories and political extremism. “They get recycled every generation, and in America, some of the most powerful conspiracy ideas deal with an enemy inside the government who is really pulling the strings but cannot be identified.”

“We all want stories that make sense of the world,” Barkun says. “When we can’t find them, we look around in strange places."

"The Chinese are not going to be buying our soybeans, so almost by musical chairs our soybeans are going to Europe,” Mary Lovely, professor of economics, says about the EU's response to China's tariffs on American soybeans. 

Professor of Political Science Grant Reeher says in his experience, the incumbent or the candidate who expects to win wants to have a debate as close as possible to the Election Day and the challenger wants to have it earlier. 

Len Lopoo, professor of public administration and international affairs, and Kerri Raissian '08 M.P.A./'13 Ph.D. (PA), argue that the steady decline of the birthrate in the U.S. could be a "harbinger of difficulties on the horizon," impacting Social Security and Medicare, and affecting the number of young people to enter the military and to innovate in business.