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The Art of Coercion
Reid Pauly’s new book "The Art of Coercion" explains why strong states often fail to force compliance in international politics.
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Fall 2025 practitioner-led study groups
These not-for-credit study groups provide an opportunity for students to delve deeply into topics and apply theory and research to real world challenges. Enrollment in each group is limited to 25 students.
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Robert Blair receives Theda Skocpol Emerging Scholar Award
Robert Blair has been named the 2025 recipient of the Theda Skocpol Emerging Scholar Award, which recognizes outstanding early-career contributions to the field of comparative politics.
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Watson Researchers Advise Nobel Assembly on Preventing Nuclear War
Reid Pauly and Rose McDermott joined Nobel Laureates at the University of Chicago to advance solutions for preventing nuclear war.
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Alumni Spotlight: Derrick Zantt ’16 MPA
Derrick Zantt earned his master's degree in public affairs from Brown in 2016. A fourth-generation service member, Zantt currently works as an analyst for the Department of Defense, where he puts his belief in open data and the knowledge he acquired at the Watson Institute to influence policy.
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Profits of War: Top Beneficiaries of Pentagon Spending, 2020 – 2024
A new Costs of War report titled “Profits of War: Top Beneficiaries of Pentagon Spending, 2020–2024” finds that military contractors received over half of Pentagon spending from 2020 to 2024.
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Alumni Spotlight: Sonia Cuesta ’17 MPA
Sonia Cuesta, who earned her Master of Public Affairs (MPA) degree from Brown in 2017, was happy to give back to the program that helped her establish a career in human rights and international relations. During the spring 2025 semester, Cuesta supervised a new generation of MPA students' Policy in Action project from her position at the United Nations.
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Ieva Jusionyte wins multiple awards for latest book ‘Exit Wounds’
Ieva Jusionyte’s 2024 book, "Exit Wounds: How America’s Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border," has won multiple awards, including the Juan E. Méndez Book Award and two awards from the Association of American Publishers.
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Brown's first new school in over a decade, the Thomas J. Watson Jr. School of International and Public Affairs, launched on July 1. Plans for the new school include broadening the scope of research, expanding the faculty, and breaking down traditional barriers between disciplines to address the world's most pressing economic, political, social and policy challenges.
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Human Capital Investment in the Presence of Child Labor
New research by the Watson School's Bryce Millett Steinberg, funded by the Orlando Bravo Center for Economic Research, finds that early childhood interventions in places with high child labor rates lead to reduced schooling.
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John Friedman Testifies on Social Mobility Before UK House of Lords
John Friedman recently testified before the UK House of Lords’ Social Mobility Policy Committee, which is exploring ways to improve social mobility through education and employment integration.
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From May 12-14, the Watson Institute's Master of Public Affairs (MPA) program held its annual Policy in Action (PIA) Symposium, in which students presented the results of work they did for government, nonprofit and private sector organizations over the spring semester.
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The Illicit Global Economy: What Everyone Needs To Know
Peter Andreas recently published "The Illicit Global Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know," a new book that explores the unauthorized cross-border flows of goods, people and money shaping global trade and politics.
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Jennifer Hadden recently published a book titled "Crowded Out: The Competitive Landscape of Contemporary International NGOs," examining how global nonprofits are being squeezed by competition, specialization, and dispersion—even as global needs grow.
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Eric Patashnik Awarded APSA's Outstanding Public Engagement Award
Eric Patashnik has been awarded the 2025 Outstanding Public Engagement Award by the American Political Science Association.
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Watson Policy Labs experience busy, productive first year
The Watson Institute’s Policy Labs — created with the goal of turbo-charging research on critical policy issues by bringing together students and researchers — were highly productive during their first year of operation. The Civil Conflict and Democratic Erosion Policy Lab, the Justice Policy Lab, and the Realizing Rights Lab created cutting-edge social science research while enhancing student research skills.
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Student Spotlight: Charlie Adams ’25
Senior International and Public Affairs and environmental science concentrator Charlie Adams, who graduates this month, grew up around policy and politics. Naturally, he found himself at home in the Watson Institute's International and Public Affairs (IAPA) concentration.
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The Watson Institute's Africa Initiative is the only U.S. partner in the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA), an organization dedicated to building a vibrant multidisciplinary African academy that produces world-class research.
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Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers
Mark Blyth recently co-authored a book titled "Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers," which challenges conventional thinking on inflation and calls for new policy approaches.
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The Massachusetts Book Awards recently named Exit Wounds to its 2025 nonfiction longlist, recognizing author Ieva Jusionyte’s powerful examination of gun trafficking across the U.S.-Mexico border.
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The Evolving Landscape of US Green Banks
A new Climate Solutions Lab white paper highlights the rapid rise of green banks in the U.S. over the past decade as a vital tool for financing the green energy transition.
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Mark Blyth co-authored a paper for Review of International Political Economy as part of a special issue on macrofinance and the green transformation, titled "Macrofinance and the green transformation: nudging, attracting, and coercing capital towards decarbonization."
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Mark Blyth co-authored a paper for Review of International Political Economy as part of a special issue on macrofinance and the green transformation, titled "Decarbonising national growth models: derisking, ‘hobbled states’, and the decarbonisation possibility frontier."
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Ieva Jusionyte Awarded the 2025 Salomon Award in Social Sciences
Brown University’s Office of the Vice President for Research awarded Ieva Jusionyte a Richard B. Salomon Faculty Research Award in social sciences for her project titled “Extradition: Can Justice Be Exported?”
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