2018 In the News

Senior Fellow Chas Freeman comments on one journalist's description of how China has grown, decades after her first visit, saying "China is not trying to make revolution anymore; it is trying to make money, which is much more wholesome."

Economist Emily Oster joined economics and finance lecturer Frank Conway on his podcast Economic Rockstar to discuss diabetes and diets, disease and vaccinations, and pregnancy myths.

Senior Fellow Stephen Kinzer in The Boston Globe, "Since they have become an almost permanent feature of modern life, people are slow to react to them.

In The New York Times' The Upshot, Emily Oster co-writes about the 2014 episode that left 159 Disneyland visitors with the measles, and the policy change that followed in California that triggered a jump in vaccination rates across the state.

An article that posits that the false missile alert in Hawaii illustrates how close we are to being at war with North Korea notes that the Costs of War study at Brown University found that "future medical and disability costs" for the current wars "will total between $600 billion and $1 trillion."

Costs of War Co-director Stephanie Savell, co-authored an opinion piece on the Project's new map, which shows the U.S. counterterror activity around the world. "What started with President George W. Bush's launch of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in October 2001 is now a rapid expansion of the U.S. military footprint across the globe."

Political scientist Eric Patashnik comments on the banned practice of earmarks, saying "Restoring earmarks is not strong enough medicine to cure the dysfunctions of today's Congress. Polarization runs much too deep. But it is still a sensible thing to do."

This article co-written by political economist Mark Blyth in Foreign Affairs is part of an e-book on financial geopolitics. "As a single-currency area, the eurozone formally has no internal imbalances."

Professor Ashutosh Varshney comments on India's economic woes and Prime Minister Nardenra Modi. "If economic manoeuvrability is limited, then the communal card, the Hindu-Muslim card, is a massive political temptation."

Nina Tannenwald's research is cited in an article on the history of world leaders avoiding using nuclear weapons since World War II, saying "powerful revulsion associated with nuclear weapons had played a role in inhibiting their use."

Political economist Mark Blyth joined WBUR's Radio Open Source to give his state of the union.

In Newsweek, Narges Bajoghli comments on women's involvement in the Iran protests. "Women have been at the forefront of pushing for change in Iran since the establishment of the Islamic Republic. In fact, the women's rights movements are the biggest thorns in the side of the regime."

Postdoctoral Fellow Ali Kadivar in The Washington Post, "The current protest wave in Iran has already shaken the political landscape of the regime and society. Some younger activists in the mid and lower reformist ranks have suggested channeling this wave to make their own demands through street demonstrations organized by reformist parties."

Research by Emily Oster is cited about the infant mortality rate in the United States. "In the paper, published in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 'we find that 45% of regional differences can be attributed to differences in birth weight, with lower birth weights in states like Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas, especially relative to the Northeast.'"

Postdoctoral Fellow Narges Bajoghli in Jacobin Magazine, "At the moment, the protests are leaderless, and the slogans vary from demands for economic equity to the freedom of political prisoners to the overthrow of the supreme leader to the downfall of the entire regime."

Professor Cathy Lutz joined Daniel Denvir on his The Dig Podcast to discuss troop veneration, John Kelly's recent diatribe, and President Trump's attack on protesting NFL players.

A new map from the Costs of War Project analyzes the U.S. counterterror activity around the world between 2015 and October 2017.

Postdoctoral Fellow Narges Bajoghli comments on the protests in Iran, saying "[The protests are] very much focused on the economic situation."

Senior Fellow Stephen Kinzer in The Boston Globe, "A sudden collapse of Iran's governing system would be bad for us. It would set another Middle Eastern country aflame and feed the instability that breeds terror."

Postdoctoral Fellow Narges Bajoghli explains how "media outlet backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) seek[s] to reinforce the narrative of the supreme leader above the politics of Iran."

Postdoctoral Fellow Ali Kadivar comments on the protests happening in Iran and why the middle class is mostly sitting out. "For any successful protest movement of this type with radical demands a broad alliance is required."