In the News

Anthropologist Sarah Besky comments on the wages and management of tea gardens, explaining "that ideally the houses required to be built and maintained by the plantation management - something that rarely, if ever, happens. Whether it is painting the house, or just growing vegetables outside, it is done by the families and 'almost always by the women.'"

Economist John Friedman comments on the SAT test's new adversity rating, saying "For each extra year you spend in a good environment, you do a little better. It's very powerful when somebody overcomes that."

Professor Ashutosh Varshney comments on the upcoming results of India's election, stating "Modi is doing what these other leaders are doing — he's projecting resolve, masculinity, determination, daring and courage."

Senior Fellow Chas Freeman comments on the rising tensions between the United States and Iran, saying a conflict "is unlikely to be launched by President Trump, despite his habit of posturing as a tough guy."

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."

Senior Fellow Chas Freeman joined Stanford University's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center's podcast to discuss the ongoig U.S.-China trade negotiations.

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."

Senior Fellow Stephen Kinzer in The Boston Globe, "Nicaraguans are reliving a nightmare. Forty years ago, they deposed the brutal Somoza family dictatorship. But over the decade of Sandinista rule following the coup, tens of thousands of Nicaraguans were killed in a brutal civil war."

Senior Fellow Richard Arenberg comments on the struggle among the Democrats to begin impeachment proceedings against President Trump, saying "Throughout the current scandal, the president has been free to assert his own facts in the absence of virtually any public testimony."

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Sociologist Michael Kennedy joined WPRI's Dan Yorke State of Mind to discuss Attorney General William Barr's testimony and the Mueller Report.

Senior Fellow Richard Arenberg in The Washington Post, "We often think of a filibuster as one legislator rambling along, alone on the Senate floor, in symbolic defiance of the majority."

Senior Fellow Deborah Gordon comments on the future of petroleum refining, saying "Although the future energy supply mix is not expected to resemble the past, we are still going to need sulfur for many chemical products, asphalt and jet fuel, which are not easily replaced by non-fossil-fuel alternatives."

Professor Ashutosh Varshney comments on young people's willingness to vote for Narendra Modi in India's election. "In 2014, Modi undoubtedly represented hope...In 2019, Modi represents a mixture of fear and hope — fear that the state would punitively hurt and repress those who dissent and disagree, and hope for those who still think he can take India higher."

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."

Assistant Professor Robert Blair in The Washington Post, " Beyond the lives lost and livelihoods destroyed, the Liberian civil wars shattered the already-strained relationship between citizens and the Liberian government, especially the police and courts."

Senior Fellow Stephen Kinzer in The Boston Globe, " If the US shares guilt for the Rwandan genocide, it lies not in our refusal to invade. It is to be found in the way ambition and politics came to obscure humanity, both in Washington and at the United Nations."

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."

Senior Fellow Timothy Edgar joins Llewellyn King and Linda Gasparello of PBS' White House Chronicle to discuss privacy in the era of megadata.

Senior Fellow Richard Boucher comments on U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's "ethos" statement he made in hopes of boosting morale. "Nothing speaks like leading with diplomacy and if we are going to start doing that then we don't really need ... (a new) statement."

Economist John Friedman comments on how the recent college admissions scandal highlights the advantages some wealthy families have in the college admissions process. "The American Dream has been distressingly out of reach for a lot of people...The disparities in access are really quite striking."

Richard Arenberg comments on President Trump's vow to fight all congressional subpoenas following the Mueller Report, saying "I believe the Congress has the Constitution on their side, and in the end, they will prevail. But Trump may be able to just wait out the clock."

Jeff Colgan joined BBC's Business Daily to discuss "why he thinks sectors like insurance, property and oil and gas are overpriced given the threat of climate change."

Political Science Chair Wendy Schiller comments on the large amount of money that U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse raised for his re-election campaign. "So it was either overly cautionary on his part, or he was scared of something in that race, because the number is large for the size of the state and the fact that it was his second re-election campaign."

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii, a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, spoke on her foreign policy and the possibility of nuclear war at the Watson Institute on April 22.

Stephanie Savell, Co-Director of the Costs of War Project, joined C-SPAN to discuss "America's expanding role in the global war against terrorism."

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."

Taubman Center Affiliate and Professor of Political Science, Corey Brettschneider in The Guardian, "Impeachment and prosecution of this president, of course, require building on Mueller's evidence. He has given us a huge head start. It is now up to Congress to look into whether his actions amount to obstruction."

Political scientist Wendy Schiller joined Bloomberg Daybreak to discuss the release of the Mueller Report.

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."

Anthropologist Sarah Besky comments on the tea garden workers in Darjeeling and the Indian elections. "...the importing of the 'kindly rhetoric of colonial plantation management into India's Constitution' was that these tea gardens function like states within states."

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."

Senior Fellow Stephen Kinzer comments on Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's administration and crackdown on critics. "If we had a political system like 'Yes or no on your president,' Ortega would certainly lose. But that's not the way [it] works."

Senior Fellow Stephen Kinzer joined Libertarianism.org to answer the question, what is America's role in the world?

Next week's Watson-sponsored event with Congresswoman and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard is mentioned. "Rhode Island will see one of its first visits by a presidential candidate next week, with a year still to go before the state's primary."

Professor Emily Oster sat down with Penny Johnston of ABC's Babytalk to discuss what advice is worth taking during pregnancy.

Providence Business News sat down with Provost Richard M. Locke, who was recently awarded a $100,000 grant for his project, "The Future of Work and Its Implications for Higher Education." "Understanding the shape and impact of technological change is a chance for universities to improve the education we provide to our students and the research that we produce to benefit society."

Jessica Bram Murphy '19, a student in Senior Fellow Stephen Kinzer's International Journalism seminar, in Common Dreams, "The consequences of the tragedy of 9/11 have multiplied across continents. Guantánamo Bay is reflective of a false imperviousness, an illusion of immunity to the rest of the world."

Fellow Sam Wilkin joined the All Things Risk podcast to discuss populism and its reach around the world.

Research by Professor John Friedman's think tank, Opportunity Insights, is cited in an article on the recent college admissions scandal. "Research published by Opportunity Insights ... has found that roughly three dozen of the country's "elite" colleges enroll more students from households in the top 1 percent of the income scale than they do students from the bottom 60 percent of that scale."

Professor Ashutosh Varshney in The Indian Express, "In India, populism as a term has generally been used for fiscal handouts for the less privileged — loan waivers, poverty alleviation schemes, etc. But that is not how the term is analysed in political theory."

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James N. Green, Director of the Brazil Initiative, will be the guest speaker at Providence's Committee on Foreign Relations meeting. "Green will talk about the political and economic forces that have led to the election of Brazil's new president, Jair Bolsonaro."

Postdoctoral Fellow Aileen Teague in The Conversation, "If Trump ever follows through on his threat and puts up a closed sign at the southern border, it wouldn't be the first time. Twice in the last half-century the U.S. has tried to use the border to force Mexico to bend to America's will. The ruse failed both times."

Research by the Costs of War Project are cited in an op-ed by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Mike Lee (R-UT). "It is time for Congress to ask whether, nearly 18 years after 9/11, we really want to continue to be involved in these wars for another 18 or more. According to a recent study by the Costs of War Project at Brown University, the War on Terror will have cost American taxpayers almost $5 trillion through Fiscal Year 2019."

Senior Fellow Stephen Kinzer in The Boston Globe, "The delusion that Russians hate us and are working assiduously to rob us of our democratic birthright is dangerous."

Sociologist Andrew Schrank joined Phoenix's KJZZ to discuss disaster relief funding for Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria.

Wendy Schiller, Chair of the political science department, comments on recent damaging news reports about former Vice President Joe Biden. "It's a generational obstacle for Biden because the good stuff he's done is unknown and the bad stuff he's done is on video."