Maxwell School News and Commentary

"It is just a matter of time until Ukrainian forces overrun Bakhmut, as reflected in advances already made by their forces in key areas surrounding the city," says Vice Adm. Robert Murrett (Ret.), professor of practice of public administration and international affairs.

Brian Taylor, professor of political science, says that the mutiny fallout has put Putin in a position he's neither familiar nor comfortable with—often using his pulpit to blast political enemies, both inside and outside of Moscow. "Now he's applying that very same language to one of his own guys, someone he elevated to a position of power and responsibility," Taylor says.

"He [Prince Harry] will be, I imagine, under a lot of pressure from the palace to try to tone things down. But on the other hand, he is pretty alienated from a lot of these folks and he may feel that since he's not actually a working royal anymore that he's entitled to say whatever he wishes," says Alan Allport, Dr. Walter Montgomery and Marian Gruber Professor of History.

"I think Putin emerges from this significantly weakened," says Brian Taylor, professor of political science. "I think if you're a member of the Russian elite or are in fact a member of the Russian population, you're going to look at this and think, 'Wow, a private army just drove on Moscow for most of the day. No one stopped them and they're allowed to leave and no real consequences.'"

"He’s [Prigozhin] clearly trying to draw a sharp contrast between his presence directly on the battlefield, his engagement with his soldiers, and the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, which he frequently attacks as being out of touch elitists who are damaging the war effort," says Brian Taylor, professor of political science.

The visibility of losing their flagship for an entire fleet inevitably attracted attention, says retired Vice Admiral Robert Murrett, professor of practice of public administration and international affairs. It proved that any and all Russian vessels approaching Ukraine's littoral waters were under threat, he adds.

"The royal family always tries to tread this difficult line between appearing to maintain a kind of continuity with the past but also not seeming to be completely out of date and irrelevant either," says Alan Allport, Dr. Walter Montgomery and Marian Gruber Professor of History.

"Even if the vast majority of jobs are unlikely to disappear, and if many new jobs are likely to be created, the nature of work will change due to the implementation of technologies like ChatGPT. We need to shift our thinking about how that change occurs," writes Aaron Benanav, assistant professor of sociology.

"Constitutionalists, Despots, Whigs, and Revisionists: Tudor Parliamentary History in the 20th Century," written by Associate Professor of History Chris Kyle, was published in Parliamentary History.