Associate Professor Jeff Colgan is mentioned in an article on national oil companies. "Jeff Colgan, a prominent scholar on the topic, has found that oil is a leading cause of war and can exacerbate conflict in multiple ways."
Brown Political Review

BPR Interviews: Stephen Kinzer

Senior Fellow Stephen Kinzer sat down with the Brown Political Review for an interview, saying "My training is not from being a scholar, but rather from being out in the world and working as a journalist."
Senior Fellow Stephen Kinzer in The Boston Globe, "For most of the 20th century, the United States was strong enough to keep allies in line and rivals at bay. Today, however, other countries are not so easily intimidated. Many have lost confidence in the US."
Professor Ashutosh Varshney in The Indian Express, "One could suggest that the election verdict was about the electorate's comparative assessment of Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi as leaders, and people chose Modi over Rahul."
Senior Fellow Stephen Kinzer in The Boston Globe, "It has little to do with Iran's behavior, which is no more provocative today than it was a year or a decade ago. Instead it is the product of fevered tempers in Washington."
On Thursday, May 23, as thousands of Brown University alumni and family members began to descend on College Hill to celebrate Commencement and Reunion Weekend, University leaders and community members gathered to dedicate Stephen Robert '62 P'91 Hall, among the newest additions to Brown's campus.
Economist Emily Oster in The Atlantic, "Put simply, mothers and fathers ought to come clean about the nature of their lives. We can't fix problems that we pretend don't exist; we can't improve the lot of parents at work if we pretend we aren't parents."
The Indian Express

What goes UP (written by Ashutosh Varshney)

Professor Ashutosh Varshney in The Indian Express, "Instead, one can speak of two sub-waves, one among the upper castes, and another sweeping through the Dalit-Muslim-Yadav communities."
Research by the Costs of War Project is cited in an article on former national security adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster's thought that war in Afghanistan can be sustained, but the American public's defeatist narrative is inaccurate. "As of August 2016, more than 31,000 civilians are estimated to have died violent deaths as a result of the war, according to the Watson Institute's Cost of War project."
James N. Green, director of the Brazil Initiative, comments on Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro's proposed defunding to federal university budgets, saying "These are excellent universities, some of the top universities; they also have people within them who have organized events criticizing Bolsonaro."
U.S. News & World Report

Afghanistan's hired guns (comments by Cathy Lutz)

Professor Cathy Lutz comments on the number of security contractors that the U.S. military employs in Afghanistan, saying "The main problem with contractors of all sorts is there's just not enough attention to what they're doing. That's not been reported out in a clear way to anybody's satisfaction for all these years."
Economist Emily Oster in The New York Times, "Parenting is full of decisions, nearly all of which can be agonized over. You can and should learn about the risks and benefits of your parenting choices, but in the end you have to also think about your family preferences — about what works for you."
Emily Oster, professor of economics, has written a data-driven parenting guide covering the first three years of life, Cribsheet, out this month from PenguinPress. "This is really a book about decision making and that is what economists study."
Senior Fellow Chas Freeman sat down with America Magazine to discuss the provisional Vatican-Beijing agreement and Pope Francis' engagement with moderate Islamic leaders. "Francis is pursuing a strategy of creative outreach across cultural differences typical of the Jesuits, fortunately. We need to have peace between religious entities. The consequences of allowing hatred to prevail are ruinous."