Maxwell School News and Commentary

Patents have generally been ignored by map historians, says Mark Monmonier, Distinguished Professor of Geography,  but they reveal a lot about how people have used maps over the years. He found that like many discoveries and inventions, patents for similar ideas seemed to spring up independently around the same time—a phenomenon known as the theory of multiple discoveries.

"It is very important to deal very carefully with North Korea," says Robert Murrett, deputy director of the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism. "They are [a] less rational actor than other international players."

“[President Trump] has got to go there, and he has got to go there while the problem is still extreme, while the place is still in a state of crisis,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science. 

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.

“Regional music lives on in India because it embodies a wide range of values pertaining to community, locality, rituals and gender,” says Carol Babiracki, director of the South Asia Center at the Maxwell School. “Regional performance is a bellwether of social and cultural identity-formation and of processes of change.”  

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."