2016 In the News

Senior Fellow Timothy Edgar discusses how someone gets put on the terrorist watchlist and whether policies related to the watchlist should be changed. Edgar previously reviewed terrorist watchlists under the Bush and Obama Administration between 2006 and 2009. Revelations about the Orlando mass shooting indicate the FBI placed the shooter on a terrorist watchlist, but critics say it wouldn't have mattered if he remained on the list because of his civil liberties.

Timothy Edgar, a senior fellow in international and public affairs at the Watson Institute, and Yahoo correspondent Michael Isikoff join anchor Katie Couric to discuss the attack in Orlando over the past weekend and what information has come to light since the tragedy occurred.

Jo-Anne Hart on LobeLog.com, "Many state-level sanctions on Iran carry provisions allowing for their lifting if the federal government declares that state sanctions interfere with the conduct of U.S. foreign policy or are pre-empted by federal law."

Mark Blyth comments on the state of the Greek economy and the European Central Bank's decision that Greece hasn't done enough to complete its bailout review. "The intellectual case against austerity has never been in doubt."

In the New York Times, Emily Oster's research is cited, "A recently published paper in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy adds to this discussion. Alice Chen, Emily Oster and Heidi Williams combined data from the United States with data from Finland, Austria, Belgium and Britain. As other studies have done before, they adjusted for differences in coding of very premature births. And as other studies found before, the United States has a significant infant mortality disadvantage. This study was different, however. It used microdata, or individual records of birth and death, as opposed to the aggregate data usually employed for cross-country comparisons."

Senior Fellow Sue Eckert testifies on the U.S. sanctions policy in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Following the death of boxing legend Muhammad Ali, Stephen Kinzer comments on the disservice publications have committed in neglecting the boxer's political identity. Reading the obituaries, "one might imagine that Ali lived the kind of life that made everyone admire him. The truth is quite opposite. During the prime of his life, Ali was widely hated," Kinzer wrote. He says that Ali and others who shared anti-war passions are among recent examples to suffer from the indignity of "having crucial aspects of their political identities" forgotten.

Wendy Schiller, a professor of political science at Brown University, comments on Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Rhode Island, to compliment infrastructure improvements via RhodeWorks, the statewide road and bridge repair program.

On Law360, "Research compiled by Sue Eckert and Jo-Anne Hart at Brown University's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs indicates that 32 states and Washington, D.C., maintain some level of sanctions against companies doing business with Iran, further clouding an already uncertain compliance landscape."

Hart and Eckert in The Washington Post, "Beyond U.S. federal sanctions by the executive and legislative branches, two-thirds of U.S. states have imposed their own sanctions against Iran."

Jeff Colgan in The Washington Post, "Some OPEC members, such as Algeria, Iraq and Venezuela, will want the organization to do what cartels do: constrain supplies and raise the world price of oil."

While India witnessed a democratic spectacle where three incumbents lost their positions during state elections, political scientist Ashutosh Varshney discusses the gaps in liberal ideology between elections citing the lynching of Muslim man accused of eating beef.

Stephen Kinzer in The Boston Globe, "Having a long list of vital interests requires readiness to intervene with coercive power, including military power, in much of the world."

Marc J. Dunkelman's book, "The Vanishing Neighbor," is mentioned in The New York Times, by Frank Bruni who writes about social media use.

An article put together by Stephen Kinzer's "Foreign Policy and the 2016 Presidential Election Campaign" class, discusses the current presidential nominees and their divide over foreign policy.

Following the Saudi Arabia cabinet reshuffle, Senior Fellow Jan Kalicki gives an analysis of United States foreign relations in the Middle East and discusses potential opportunities to the strengthen Saudi Arabia-U.S partnerships amid ongoing regional conflict. "Reengagement in the security and economic arenas will not only help put U.S.-Saudi relations back on track, but advance U.S. interests much more steadily in this crisis-ridden region," Kalicki wrote.

Congratulations to Yvette Schein '16 (Development Studies), Alexandra Garcia '16 (International Relations), Rebecca Levy '16 (International Relations), and Emily Schell '16 (International Relations) for being awarded 2016 Fulbright Scholarships. There were 28 Brown University students and recent graduates who were awarded the scholarships.

Economics professor Emily Oster is quoted in an article about mothers buying breastmilk online based on the mantra and evidence-based research indicating "Breast is best.

Wendy Schiller, professor of political science, comments on an incident involving a series of fliers being sent out to at least five state House districts in Rhode Island, who some Democratic representatives are calling illegal.

An article that highlighted research by Prerna Singh is mentioned as one of the things to read in Forbes India.

Stephen Kinzer, senior fellow at the Watson Institute, writes an op-ed about the extremists in the United States who threaten to tear up the Iranian nuclear deal.

Glenn C. Loury, a Watson Institute faculty fellow and the Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences, was recently named a Distinguished Fellow by the American Economic Association (AEA).

Chas Freeman in The Intercept, "I don't think you can restore a government, especially an unpopular one, from the air, and I don't think the use of force in this matter does anything but create long-term enmity."

Nick Ziegler in The New Yorker, "Most of the industry was violently opposed to the new rules."

Watson's Cost of War project cited in Huffington Post, "More important is the human cost."

Jeff Colgan joins Political Violence at a Glance to discuss the international implications of the recent downturn in oil prices.

Stephen Kinzer, a senior fellow at the Watson Institute, wrote an op-ed about a recent American foreign policy choice which might be seen as the second worst decision post-Cold War era.

James Morone and Wendy Schiller discuss the April 26th Rhode Island primary elections in the Providence Journal.

Michael Kennedy in RI Future, "The truth of Bernie Sanders is not just about his consistency over more than three decades."

With 33 Democratic and 19 Republican delegates up for grabs in tomorrow's Rhode Island primary, the state will play a bigger role than usual.

Chas Freeman joins Becky Anderson and Salman Al-Ansari to discuss U.S.-Saudi tensions.

David Rohde, Angus McDowall, and Phil Stewart in Reuters Investigates, "The kingdom's armed forces have often appeared unprepared and prone to mistakes."

Jeff Colgan comments on the unlikely oil output freeze amid the race for market share.

Emily Oster, associate professor of economics, takes an economical approach to answering a readers questions about the worth of a liberal arts education and the college admissions process.

Deepak Lamba-Nieves comments on the emergency law in Puerto Rico that just passed, allowing a halt on debt payments until January 2017.

Wendy Schiller comments on a recent poll in Rhode Island that shows Donald Trump leading among Republican and independent voters.

Stephen Kinzer in the Boston Globe, "Trump steadfastly refuses to accept the world affairs catechism that President Obama recently called "the Washington playbook." This has spread panic through the inbred American foreign policy establishment."

Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Spielberg will direct a film based on David Kertzer's book "The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara."

On the opening day of the Brains in Crisis conference, Brown University undergraduate Tala Doumani projected photographs of several young refugee children from her trip to Jordan that exemplified the 'human dimension' of the crisis.

Watson Director Edward Steinfeld accompanied President Christina Paxson to China to meet with alums, students, and parents at Tsinghua University in Beijing and Fudan University in Shanghai. The trip was also to build upon existing collaborative academic relationships.

James A. Morone, director of the Taubman Center, comments on the upcoming presidential primary in Rhode Island.

Sarah Besky, assistant professor of anthropology and international affairs, answers questions about the plight of young girls working in tea plantations in India as part of CNN's Freedom Project.

At a two-day conference starting Friday, Brown University professors and experts overseas will convene to discuss the effects of the Syrian crises on children's brain development and what could be done to help Syrian children cope with the traumas they experienced.

Nick Miller, and Gene Gerzhoy of the American Political Science Association in The Washington Post, "Trump says he would scale back or entirely end U.S. alliance commitments unless our allies made major financial concessions."

Wendy Schiller talks to Minnesota Public Radio on the outcome of the Wisconsin primaries.

Brown University political economist Mark Blyth discusses the reemergence of the debt crisis in Greece on "Bloomberg Markets."

Nick Miller in The International Security Studies Forum, "In addition to the theoretical contribution, Gerzhoy's article makes a significant empirical contribution as well, providing intriguing evidence on a historically pivotal but understudied case of (non)proliferation."

Nick Miller comments on Donald Trump's proposal to withdraw military support and encourage the acquisition of nuclear weapons in Japan and South Korea.