Maxwell School News and Commentary

Fred Carriere, research associate at the Moynihan Institute, provides his assessment on the discussions between Joseph Yun, the U.S. envoy for North Korea policy, and Pak Song-il, a senior North Korean diplomat at its UN mission in New York.

"The Mueller investigation from the beginning has been about potential collusion, and this would be additional evidence of potential collusion involving the campaign, in particular of General Flynn," says Professor Emeritus William C. Banks.

Corri Zoli, director of research for the Institute for Security Policy and Law, says that "governments who are proactive," such as in New York City, have physical barriers as a necessary step to slow down vehicular terror attacks.

Grant Reeher, professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute, says a primary challenge to Trump would be futile unless Republicans could "have an agreed-upon person that's going to represent that challenge."

"Egypt might be a particularly fruitful pressure point in applying pressure to North Korea," says Fred Carriere, research professor of political science. "There may be other motivations, but this move would certainly be the latest in a pattern of applying pressure to North Korea."

"Social Security is wildly popular," says Leonard Burman, professor of public administration and international affairs. "People support the regressive payroll tax because they like what it pays for and because it’s automatically withdrawn from their paychecks, unlike the reviled income tax that requires an obvious and painful annual reckoning."

"The lesson we can take from nature is that evolution is the key to the future of local government. Evolution in nature and in government is risky—the outcome is uncertain. But the outcome of a refusal to evolve is certain: extinction in nature and irrelevance in government," writes Minch Lewis, adjunct professor of public administration and international affairs.

The map of Trump’s victory looked eerily similar to her documentation of deaths of despair, according to Shannon Monnat, associate professor of sociology and Lerner Chair of Public Health Promotion, from New England through the Rust Belt to the rural coast of Washington.

 According to Grant Reeher, professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute, the timing of Trump's plan to speak on Afghanistan "feels a little like a ‘wag the dog' type of effort at distraction."

Studies make it clear that crime in sanctuary jurisdictions is lower than in non-sanctuary cities, according to Elizabeth Cohen, associate professor of political science.