Sponsored by the Department of Political Science and the Asian Pacific Studies Institute The third iteration of the NEW FACES IN CHINA STUDIES CONFERENCE at Duke University welcomes 10 advanced graduate students, selected from a competitive pool of applicants from universities across the United States and in Canada, to join graduate students and faculty members in political science at Duke University in presenting and discussing original, rigorous research that advances our knowledge about… read more about New Faces in China Studies Conference »
Justin Sherman, political science undergraduate student and fellow in New America's Cybersecurity Initiative recently coauthored with Deb Crawford for War on the Rocks arguing that, "adapting risk-based cybersecurity frameworks is crucial for addressing threats to infrastructure systems that are vulnerable to hacking." Electrical grid blackouts, traffic light malfunctions, air traffic control failures, production plants gone haywire — for a while, such events were merely the stuff of Hollywood… read more about Securing America's Connected Infrastructure Can't Wait - Justin Sherman coauthors »
A group of Foreign Policy's most seasoned authored gathered to remember the life and times of George H. W. Bush. Peter Feaver, who is a longstanding contributing author, offered his reflection, having worked closely in two other Presidents' cabinets. I did not work in the George H.W. Bush administration, but when I reflect on his life of service, three remembrances loom large. First, he was mocked and vilified by partisan elites all out of proportion to any real defects—and he bore it with greater grace… read more about Peter Feaver remembers Georg H W Bush »
On Sunday November 11, 2018 the world paused to reflect on the centenary armistice of WWI. The memory of war weighs heavy on the next generation of leaders and many Duke students are interested in learning from the how to avoid war and how to conduct it, when necessary. This year, the Duke University Program in American Grand Strategy held their ambitious 'Staff Ride' in Europe, traversing WWI battlefields and memorials. Staff rides are opportunities for students to role play military and war-period… read more about Students participate in flagship university trip - studying WWI »
From Duke Today: If Taylor Swift’s admonition to vote doesn’t move the needle among young Americans this year, researchers at Duke can help explain why. Students in a Bass Connections project are researching why so many young voters, even those who say they’re politically motivated, often fail to turn out at the polls. “It’s always been pathetic,” says Sunshine Hillygus, a political scientist at Duke who studies voter behavior and co-leads the Bass Connections project. In 1972, the… read more about Why So Many Young People Don't Vote - Bass Connections team profile »
Justin Sherman, a junior at Duke double majoring in political science and computer science, was just named a Cybersecurity Policy Fellow at New America, a nonpartisan think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. At Duke, he is the Co-Founder and President of Duke’s Cyber Club and Cyber Team and is co-teaching Duke’s “Cyber and Global Security” seminar. The fellowship is a one-year, non-resident program hosted jointly by the Open Technology Institute and the Cybersecurity Initiative at New America, an… read more about Justin Sherman named Cybersecurity Policy Fellow at New America »
At 2:18 p.m. Eastern time on Oct. 3, nearly all mobile phones in the United States simultaneously received an alert with the message: “Presidential Alert: THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.” In a less polarized environment, this test might have been viewed as routine. After all, the presidential alert system is the product of a bipartisan effort to improve emergency communications after Hurricane Katrina, established with an executive order by President George W. Bush in… read more about The perception of the nationwide alert - Brian Guay and Jesse Lopez write for Monkey Cage »
Another receptive audience for Trump’s disinformation campaigns is made up of foreign despots, such as Gulf monarchs, who face fewer constraints on their actions than he does. On Saturday, the Saudi regime warned its citizens that “sharing or spreading rumors or fake news that might affect public order and security is considered cybercrime punishable by 5-year imprisonment,” the Saudi Gazette reported. On Sunday night, Timur Kuran, a Middle East specialist at Duke University, noted, on Twitter, “The ‘fake news’ narrative is… read more about The fake news narrative - Timur Kuran cited in The New Yorker »
On 31 September 2018, 2nd year Political Science PhD student Joe Brown promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the US Air Force. The promotion ceremony was a tri-service affair as the presiding officer was LCDR Dan Struble, US Naval Reserve (Retired) and Associate Dean of the Duke Divinity School and the narrator was 1LT David Holmes, US Army National Guard, and 2nd year dual Master’s Student in Political Science and Theology. Joe is studying Security, Peace, and Conflict in the department as part of the USAF School… read more about Joseph Brown promoted to Lieutenant Colonel »
Nikki Haley—the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who on Tuesday announced her intention to resign at the end of the year—has a rare quality among Trump administration cabinet officials: She is set to end her time in office with her reputation enhanced, not diminished. Likewise, she has had to serve as the public face for unpopular U.S. policies and thus deal with admonishments by foreign diplomats angered by them. But that, too, is a role that her predecessors played. She has not come to be perceived as the primary… read more about Nikki Haley will be back - Peter Feaver writes for Foreign Policy »
In a recent debate about the Bribery Act of 2010, the UK House of Lords solicited expert analysis from Edmund Malesky and Nathan Jensen. Their statement was entered in as written evidence: "We find that this convention, and more importantly the underlying domestic laws such as the 2010 United Kingdom Bribery Act, are very effective in reducing bribery behavior relative to countries that haven’t enacted bribery laws. In short, strong domestic laws that criminalize bribery and enforce these laws, reduce… read more about UK House of Lords requests Edmund Malesky's research on corruption »
"From integrating with virtual reality to advancing machine learning towards a 'true' artificial intelligence, quantum computing will likely provide numerous benefits to society. It will also, however, have some drawbacks — primarily, threatening to upend all modern encryption." - Justin Sherman Justin Sherman, double major in political science and computer science, recently wrote for Technology for Global Security, a think tank. Justin is co-president of Duke Cyber Team & Club and coauthored an assessment of… read more about The Quantum Threat to Global Security - Justin Sherman writes for Tech4GS »
On September 26, 2018, Joseph Grieco offered analysis of President Donald Trump's speech before the U.N. General Assembly. "Patriotism is a characteristic to which we all aspire," Dr. Grieco remarks, "I think most people wish to be patriots. But patriotism isn't a doctrine. It doesn't inform you, for example, on whether we should have lower tariffs or higher tariffs. You can be on either side of that issue, whether we should be thinking about more investments with Japan or less… read more about Joseph Grieco on NPR discusses Trump at United Nations »
Trump’s actions here are not some high-minded effort to protect national security by preventing careless people from having access to classified material. Nor are they merely an attempt to tidy up the messy files of too many people holding security clearances, as National Security Advisor John Bolton claimed. Rather, as Trump has candidly admitted, this was an attempt to use the power of the presidency to punish someone he did not like on policy grounds. Worse, as multiple reports have suggested, it may… read more about The Real Reasons Trump Was Wrong to Revoke Brennan’s Clearance - Peter Feaver writes for Foreign Policy »
The first day Allan Kornberg moved into his Duke University office in 1965, he brought his three young children with him, who immediately took to racing down the hallways. The noise brought out longtime political science Chairman Robert Rankin who demanded to know what was going on. Kornberg's son replied, "That's my daddy's office." Like father, like son, Allan is remembered to have an attracting personality. "I'll miss his big laugh," remembers Emerson Niou. After 43 years of service to the… read more about Allan Kornberg, beloved professor emeritus, passed away »
Paula D. McClain, professor of political science and dean of The Graduate School, has been elected as the next president of the American Political Science Association (APSA), the most prestigious academic organization in the discipline. McClain will serve as president-elect for a year in 2018-2019 before taking the reins as president for 2019-2020. In addition to her role as dean of The Graduate School and vice provost for graduate education, McClain is a professor of political science and public policy. She… read more about Paula McClain elected as next president of the American Political Science Association »
Gender balancing in the security sector is an increasingly common reform in postconflict countries, especially in the presence of peacekeeping missions. The UN has repeatedly stressed that increased representation of women in security forces (and other traditionally male-dominated institutions) helps improve overall peace and security for all. Our theoretical priors suggest that gender balancing may have a number of implications for processes that mediate larger state-building goals, including unit cohesion, operational… read more about International Gender Balancing Reforms - Kyle Beardsley et al. publishes new research »
At a time when even the wealthiest nations face problems of poverty, many analysts are concerned about creating jobs in the “new” economy. Are traditional anti-poverty programs up to the task? I don’t think so. Many people, from diverse viewpoints, are talking about a universal basic income (UBI) grant. UBI was recently tried in Finland, though it was discontinued. As a recent New York Times article pointed out, that effort was half-hearted. In California, the city of Stockton is piloting a program that will give 100… read more about Michael Munger write about universal basic income for The Hill »
President Donald Trump has told us that “trade wars are good, and easy to win.” He seems to have thought that just threatening to impose tariffs would bring other countries to their knees, since those countries need access to the vast U.S. market. But his global trade war isn’t going as planned. The threat and then the imposition of tariffs on goods that the U.S. imports — from China, Canada, Mexico and the countries of the European Union — have not induced those countries to capitulate to U.S. demands. Instead, the… read more about Trump's trade war is not going as planned - Grieco and Büthe write op ed for Newsday »
The country has been under a state of emergency for almost two years since the failed 2016 coup, but Erdogan said he would end it after the election. Under the new system, a state of emergency lasts for six months instead of three and Erdogan can declare one without needing the approval of parliament. That change takes away one of the last checks on the president’s power, Duke University professor of economics and political science Timur Kuran told The Media Line. All checks and balances are now gone. The only thing that… read more about Many Fear Erdogan's New Powers - Timur Kuran interviewed in The Jerusalem Post »
Christopher Johnston and his coauthors won the David O. Sears Book Award for 2018 for their work Open versus Closed: Personality, Identity, and the Politics of Redistribution. Announced at the 41st annual scientific meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, this award is given to "the best book published in the field of political psychology of mass politics, including political behavior, political values, political identities, and political movements, during the previous… read more about Chris Johnston won the 2018 David O. Sears Book Award »
On June 28, 2018, the US Supreme Court denied requests by two death row inmates from Mississippi to have their cases heard. Justice Stephen Breyer dissented from these decisions, citing a recent work by Prof. Frank Baumgartner along with UNC undergraduate students Marty Davidson, Kaneesha Johnson, Arvind Krishnamurthy, and Colin Wilson on three different points. First, one of the inmates has been on death row for 42 years, and Breyer notes the research they conducted on exactly this topic. Second, he refers to their… read more about U.S. Supreme Court Justice cites co-authored work by Arvind Krishnamurthy »
Thanks to Stormy Daniels, Harvey Weinstein and #MeToo, most of us are now familiar with agreements where one party purchases the other’s silence. But such nondisclosure agreements, also known as NDAs, aren’t limited to allegations of sexual misconduct, and often they involve public money. The agreements regularly undermine the accountability of the powerful and protection for the public. Nondisclosure agreements are more prevalent than you may think. More than one-third of U.S. employees are bound by NDAs of some kind,… read more about What We Don’t Know Can Hurt Us - Ruth Grant writes Wall Street Journal op ed »
"Kaufmann and Jardina’s work raises a crucial question: has traditional polling failed to capture the actual views of the public on immigration?" Ashley Jardina, a political scientist at Duke, argues in her 2017 paper “The White Backlash to ‘Crying Racism’: How Whites Respond to Calling Racial Preferences Racist” that Allegations of racism no longer work to reduce support for the target of the accusation. Instead, such accusations are now tantamount to ‘crying wolf’ and have the opposite of their intended effect… read more about New York Times Opinion cites Ashley Jardina's research »
Peter Feaver, a Duke University political scientist, rejects the idea that changes in the GOP’s coalition have irreversibly shifted the party toward Trump-style isolationism and unilateralism. “The cost of alienating our allies … will start to mount,” said Feaver, who analyzed public opinion for Bush’s National Security Council. “It’s going to be harder and harder to sustain it.” Yet in recent days, the GOP’s internationalist voices have been stifled at every turn. Beyond Arizona Senator John McCain, stunningly few… read more about Trump foreign policy has reshaped GOP position? - Peter Feaver interviewed in The Atlantic »
Michael Munger joins host Frank Stasio to talk about his new book: Tomorrow 3.0: Transaction Costs and the Shared Economy (Cambridge University Press/2018) which describes a movement that Munger says will rival the Industrial Revolution. In the short term, he sees an acceleration in job loss with jobs being replaced by temporary gigs and a struggle to earn a living wage. In the long term, Munger believes this system of shared economy will foster a spirit of sharing, reduce the need for individual ownership of… read more about Michael Munger on NPR discusses the sharing economy »
What do apples, bourbon, pork, cranberries, and orange juice have in common with designer blue jeans, Harley-Davidsons, beer kegs, lamps, and washing machines? They’re all profitably exported to Canada, the European Union, and Mexico from U.S. districts and states where Republicans must win in November to keep their majority in the House and the Senate. They are also subject to “punitive” tariffs imposed (or about to be imposed) by these countries in retaliation against the 10 percent and 25 percent tariffs the Trump… read more about The coming trade war with Canada, Mexico, and Europe - Tim Büthe op ed »
The more intriguing question, then, is not whether these deals make sense, but why politicians and voters are so keen on them. “It’s a little baffling, given that there seems to be such consensus on these programs,” said Nathan Jensen, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He and Edmund Malesky at Duke University argue in a new book that much of what’s going on here is pandering by politicians. Voters want jobs, which are hard to deliver. Ribbon cuttings and splashy announcements about, say, a new Foxconn… read more about NYTimes Upshot features Malesky's research on pander incentives »
Mike’s enormous career achievements and contributions stand out in three dimensions: (1) his pioneering work in several methodological areas (estimation of dynamics; observational dependence, especially spatial and network interdependence; out-of-sample forecasting; and statistical graphics, for examples); (2) the early, sustained, and great effects his methodological contributions have had on the subfields of international relations and comparative politics, especially in the democratic peace literature; and (3) his years… read more about Michael Ward is the honored recipient of The 2018 Political Methodology Career Achievement Award »
The faculty, staff, and students of political science are saddened at the news of the passing of J. Peter Euben, beloved Research Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Kenan Distinguished Faculty Fellow in Ethics. Euben won five teaching awards across his career. Writing for Duke Today, nearing his retirement, Peter reflected on his teaching. "All this speaks to the importance of establishing a dialogue among the students and between them and me even in a class of 75. Of… read more about Remembering Peter Euben »