Maxwell School News and Commentary

A tariff rollback to encourage cooperation with China "would make sense, but I don't think it will work if the framework is, we're suspending them till January, while we try to get [the two economies stabilised], and then we're going to put them back in again," says University Professor James Steinberg.

"At its core, this is about an aircraft carrier skipper who sees an imminent threat and is forced to make a decision that risks his career in the act of what he believes to be the safety of the near 5,000 members of his crew," says University Professor Sean O’Keefe.

“We always imagine that our programs have global reach. So many of our students come here from around the world. But this amazing response to the coronavirus emergency confirms Maxwell’s belief in global community,” said Xueyi Chen, who directs Executive Education’s China Program, after 100 Chinese alumni of the program shipped medical masks to Central New York.

"Partisanship is determining how citizens respond to COVID-19, and this divided response puts every American at risk," Shana Gadarian, associate professor of political science, and her co-authors write. "If America’s political elite cannot come together, the costs of COVID-19 will be disproportionately felt in those places where Republicans did not act." 

Grant Reeher, professor of political science, says that while the primary focus needs to be on the human cost of the crisis, "it is in fact a very good natural experiment to answer the question of how deep our polarization goes — and the answer is, very damn deep."

Gary Pudles '84 B.A. (PSt) is the president and CEO of AnswerNet, a call center outsourcer operating throughout North America. AnswerNet was awarded a large contract to make outbound calls for the State of New York to book appointments for COVID-19 testing. 

Most of the time...America’s military forces have remained in the background, waiting for direction from civilian leaders to respond to crises and then only in limited ways," says William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. "That’s by design. We train soldiers to fight and win wars and deter threats overseas."

"We're looking at a labor market catastrophe right now here in the United States," says Professor of Economics Mary Lovely. "What we seem to need right now is employment support to keep these people attached to their employers and able to get back to work relatively quickly when the economy comes back." 

James E. Baker, director of the Institute for Security Policy and Law talked to the New York Times regarding the federal governments, authority over the security of our medical supply chain, amid urging by State and local authorities.

"Tariff rollbacks signal a desire to reduce mounting U.S.-China trade tensions, offering a much-needed model of global cooperation at a time of shared crisis," writes Mary Lovely, professor of economics.