Research Briefs

Delve deeper into the most recent research published by Watson faculty.

   

News from Watson

Glenn Loury selected as a 2022 Bradley Prize winner

Glenn Loury has been named a 2022 Bradley Prize winner. The honor recognizes individuals whose outstanding achievements reflect The Bradley Foundation's mission to restore, strengthen, and protect the principles and institutions of American exceptionalism. Loury will receive the award at the 18th annual Bradley Prizes ceremony on Tuesday, May 17th at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.
Jeff Colgan and co-author Miriam Hinthorn recently published a Climate Solutions White Paper on the threat of a full or partial cut-off of Russian natural gas to the European Union, countermeasures available, and the importance of transitioning to clean energy.
In May 2020, Jayanti Owens was selected as a William T. Grant Scholar for her project, "What Drives Racial/Ethnic Disparities in School Discipline? Understanding Mechanisms to Inform Policy Solutions." The grant will allow her to assist schools in developing and evaluating a diagnostic tool to reduce racial/ethnic disparities in student discipline.
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Faculty book contributions in 2021

Each year, Watson faculty help to edit books and chapters and publish books of their own. Explore the books our faculty worked on this year.
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Reid Pauly Wins Nuclear Security Grant

Reid Pauly recently won a Nuclear Security Grant from the Stanton Foundation, which focuses on international nuclear security issues. The grant will support Pauly's forthcoming research, "Threats That Leave Something to Chance."
Reid Pauly and Cullen G. Nutt (U.S. Naval Academy) recently co-authored an article published in International Security 46, 2 (Fall 2021). Together they delve into four case studies of nuclear proliferation in Taiwan, Libya, South Africa, and North Korea.
Wendy Schiller was recently awarded the APSA Barbara Sinclair Lectureship Award by the American Political Science Association, which recognizes achievement in promoting understanding of the U.S. Congress and legislative politics.
Nitsan Chorev and coauthor Salma Mutwafy recently published a piece in SECTORS: Newsletter of the American Sociological Association's Sociology of Development Section on the impact that international contests over innovation, vaccine diplomacy, and health nationalism have on both the availability of vaccines and their perception in low-income countries.
In her book, "No Standard Oil: Managing Abundant Petroleum in a Warming World," published by Oxford University Press in October 2021, Deborah Gordon examines the widely varying climate impacts of global oils and gases and proposes solutions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in this sector.
In September 2021, the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies (CHRHS) at Watson, in collaboration with the Naval War College, presented cutting edge public health, social science, and legal research examining key questions regarding humanitarian civil-military coordination.
In an article appearing in the Fall 2021 issue of the journal Holocaust and Genocide Studies titled "The Italian Catholic Press and the Racial Laws (1938–1943)," David Kertzer, with coauthor Roberto Benedetti, examines the support that the Roman Catholic Church gave to Fascist Italy's antisemitic "racial laws."
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Who Gets What? The New Politics of Insecurity

Margaret Weir recently co-edited "Who Gets What? The New Politics of Insecurity," a book harnessing the expertise of scholars from across the disciplines of history and the social sciences to probe how the economic and social transformations of the past forty years have introduced new risks and insecurities that fractured the solidarities of the postwar era.
Jeff Colgan recently authored, "Climate Change, Grand Strategy, and International Order" a piece in which he identifies three different ways that various analysts of strategy and order think about climate change.
Emily Oster recently co-authored "Disparities in Learning Mode Access Among K–12 Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic, by Race/Ethnicity, Geography, and Grade Level," a report focused on access to full-time in-person learning for non-Hispanic White students, non-Hispanic Black students, Hispanic students, and students of other race/ethnicities from January–April 2021.
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Populism and Hindu Nationalism in India

Ashutosh Varshney recently co-authored, "Populism and Hindu Nationalism in India" which presents findings from the first-ever survey, conducted in 12 states, of populist attitudes in India.
Reid Pauly was recently invited to join the inaugural Schmidt Futures International Strategy Fellowship Class of 2020, which aims to elevate and connect rising leaders in global affairs and to equip them to tackle the most pressing challenges of the next few decades.
Jeff Colgan recently published, "Climate and Energy in the Transatlantic Relationship" - a piece examining the relationship between climate change and changes in the transatlantic political landscape.
Reid Pauly is mentioned in "2020 Year-End Reflections: Helping People Now and Helping People More in a Global Pandemic" as being among the 27 fellows from diverse fields that made up Schmidt Futures ISF-North America 2020 cohort - a team working on various humanitarian efforts surrounding COVID-19, climate change, racial injustice, rising economic inequality, and threats to democracy.
Rob Blair and co-authors recently wrote, "Can Americans Depolarize? Assessing the Effects of Reciprocal Group Reflection on Partisan Polarization," a piece analyzing an experimental evaluation of a unique depolarization initiative that draws on principles of couples therapy to mitigate hostility between Democrats and Republicans.
Jeff Colgan and co-authors Thomas N. Hale (University of Oxford) and Scott M. Moore (University of Pennsylvania) recently published "Biden's Climate Report Card: 4 A's, 2 B's, 3 Incompletes," in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Andrew Schrank recently wrote "Design Principles for American Industrial Policy," a piece focused on the Biden administration's efforts to mobilize American manufacturing.
Jeff D. Colgan and co-authors Thomas N. Hale (University of Oxford) and Scott M. Moore (University of Pennsylvania) recently published "Biden @ 100 DAYS: A Climate Foreign-Policy Scorecard," which examines the current administration's actions and commitment to reorienting U.S. foreign policy to meet the climate challenge.
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Foreign Aid and State Legitimacy

Rob Blair and Philip Roessler recently published, "Foreign Aid and State Legitimacy" which examines evidence on foreign aid from surveys, survey experiments, and behavioral games.
Drawing on Rio de Janeiro City Councillor Marielle Franco's published masters thesis in public administration, Professor Geri Augusto recently wrote the article "For Marielle: Mulhere(s) da Maré—Danger, Seeds and Tides" for Transition magazine that shines a light on Marielle's thinking about favela life on its own terms, gender equality, anti-racism, policing, and social justice.
Chase Foster and Jeff Frieden, Professor of Government at Harvard University recently published, "Economic Determinants of Public Support for European Integration, 1995–2018" which examines how the state of the economy has shaped public attitudes toward the EU over the last quarter century.
Jayanti Owens recently published "Parental intervention in school, academic pressure, and childhood diagnoses of ADHD," in Social Science & Medicine. The article delves into the dramatic increase in childhood diagnoses of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the U.S. in recent decades.
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Can the 25th Amendment Save Democracy?

Rose McDermott is the author of "Presidential Leadership, Illness, and Decision Making", and regularly comments on presidential health and power. Most recently her work has appeared in Vox, the Atlantic, and the Economic Times. Following the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, we asked her to provide additional analysis of the history and potential application of the 25th Amendment.
In January 2021, Eric Patashnik and Wendy J. Schiller provided commentary on the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol. Their insights draws from points made in their recently published edited volume, "Dynamics of American Democracy," (University of Kansas Press).