In the News

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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."

Jeff Colgan in International Studies Quarterly, " I view my work as more of a "proof of concept" than the last word on what we can learn from syllabi. As Tierney and Paulson-Smith point out, one way to improve the product would be to increase the number of syllabi in the dataset."

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

Stephen Kinzer in The Boston Globe, "Honduras was in bad shape before the coup, but it has become far worse. It is corruptly governed, plagued by violence, and servile to rapacious foreign corporations."

David Rohde in Defense One, "But the story of Radovan Karadzic, a psychiatrist turned genocidal mini-state leader, provides lessons for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump."

Watson Institute Director Edward Steinfeld joined Brown University President Christina H. Paxson on a trip to China to explore potential collaboration opportunities and create awareness of Brown's commitment to addressing world challenges.

Justine Hastings in the New York Times, "By remembering a few targets and sticking to them, people may win the overall budget battle and avoid spending or saving too much. Behavioral economists refer to this as 'mental accounting."

Jeff Colgan in Political Violence at a Glance, "In the 1990s, Venezuela was an established democracy with entrenched civil rights and a well-functioning rule of law. For decades, its government had a president, a bicameral Congress, and a Supreme Court."

Peter Andreas talks to BBC World News about former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadžić, and the black market that existed during the Bosnian war.

Following the terrorist attacks in Brussels, Watson Institute senior fellow Stephen Kinzer warns of future attacks and the possible goals ISIS hopes to accomplish.

Senior Fellow Timothy Edgar on Lawfare, "Who might serve on such a European counterterrorism commission? Members should have the stature to demand answers from European security agencies and command the respect of the public."

Mark Blyth, professor of political science, commented on an article about the corruption scandals threatening to end the political careers of Brazil and South Africa's leaders, Dilma Rousseff and Jacob Zuma.

Stephen Kinzer in The Boston Globe, "Only Sanders is truly skeptical of what American intervention can accomplish. He has shown himself to be just as far outside the Washington consensus on foreign policy as he is on domestic policy."

Panelists gathered at the Watson Institute to discuss the impact of Latinos on the upcoming presidential race, an event sponsored by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

Emily Oster's research cited on CNN showing that many at risk for Huntington's disease do not get tested.

Stephen Kinzer, senior fellow at the Watson Institute, writes an op-ed about the reasons countries desire to acquire strategic depth and how it sometimes sets off a spiral of escalating tensions.

Jim Morone joins State of Mind to analyze the Super Tuesday results and give his election predictions.

Emily Oster, associate professor of international affairs, takes an economical approach to answering questions about vacationing with family and the dilemma of spending money in oppressed countries.

Wendy Schiller, professor of political science, discusses what's at stake for presidential candidates on Super Tuesday.

Stephen Kinzer joins The Takeaway with the latest on the fighting, and why the U.S. was so late in using diplomacy to try to end the war.

Peter Andreas on Brink, "For the most part, transnational organized crime is a fuzzy new term for an old practice: smuggling. At base, much of what makes the business of organized crime transnational involves some form of profit-driven trade across borders. How transnational, organized and criminal the trade is tends to depend on the legal and financial risks."

Jim Morone comments on the newly released Taubman Center poll in which Rhode Island residents preferred Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as presidential candidates.

Jim Morone comments on the Taubman Center's recent survey of Rhode Island residents' voting behavior in which Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton were highly favored.