Maxwell School News and Commentary

The killings of Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Deputy Chairman of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units, "were a dangerous and ill-advised escalation by the United States," Osamah Khalil, associate professor of history and Middle East expert, told USA Today. " Khalil also talked to other outlets about this development, stating that "Their deaths will make it more difficult to resolve the ongoing tensions between Washington and Tehran and will only destabilize Iraq further."

"The fact that this in the end became such a strict party line vote, I think it’s going to reinforce the divisions that already exist," says Grant Reeher, professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute.

"I can't imagine them having a civil conversation," says Glyn Morgan, associate professor of political science, about the potential relationship between President Trump and Jeremy Corbyn, had Corbyn won his election. "Their world views are so diametrically opposed. I doubt Trump has even ever met anyone like Corbyn."

Maxwell’s partnership with the government of India and IIMB continues the efforts of civil servants and academics from both countries to learn from each other. “This is an active partnership that works for all parties,” Dan Nelson, international program manager, says.

"For those who believe in the rule of law and the importance of constitutional norms, his impeachment is nonetheless important because it upholds and reinforces the importance of those norms," says Professor Emeritus William Banks.

Illegal: How America's Lawless Immigration Regime Threatens Us All, a book by Elizabeth F. Cohen, professor of political science, was cited in a New York Times and ProPublica report on McKinsey and Company's ties to President Trump's immigration policies.

"Democracy is not the same thing as providing for the population’s needs...the CCP will never commit to trusting the public over its own political interests. It will resort to force when necessary, as it has in the past, and this use of force is the very essence of dictatorship," writes  Dimitar Gueorguiev, assistant professor of political science.

"On paper, you would say it has to hurt him [Trump] and there are public opinion data that back that up," says Professor of Political Science Grant Reeher. "But there are different ways this might be spun that we can’t predict right now. It could be that this mobilizes a set of voters in a way that helps Trump."