Political scientist Peter Feaver says the questions around Russia’s interference in the U.S. election will not end until there is an independent commission investigating what happened, and that for Russia, the meddling was a “tactical success, but a long term strategic blunder.”
Listen on Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Politics can be a thorn in the side of companies and universities. Bill Boulding, dean of The Fuqua School of Business, thinks he can use it to build better leaders. “It’s not our job to take a political position on these decisions as a business school, and I’m not doing that on this particular issue,” Boulding says. “However, the political decisions that get made will affect your ability as a business leader to create great teams, to create a sense of belonging on those teams.”
Read More in Bloomberg
President Trump’s speech Tuesday alarmed many observers who say focusing on the misdeeds of a small minority of immigrants will foster a climate of fear and animosity that puts others at risk. “It’s tough to make parallels (with Nazi Germany) when the scapegoat is so different. But the process is the same,” says history professor emeritus Claudia Koonz.
Read More in the Toronto Star
Of the 20 news events rated by a New York Times panel, President Trump’s order to close the nation’s borders to people from seven nations was considered the most important. Timur Kuran, professor of political science and economics, says the order “violated the U.S. Constitution, and it has raised the danger of global war based on religion.”
Read More in The New York Times
What is most concerning about the conduct of Donald Trump during and since the 2016 presidential campaign is not any potential violations of the U.S. Constitution. Most concerning, writes law professor Neil Siegel, are his disregard of norms that had previously constrained candidates for president and his flouting of constitutional conventions that had previously guided occupants of the White House.
Read More in the Oxford Human Rights Hub
David Schanzer, director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, discusses the flurry of foreign trips undertaken in the past week by Trump cabinet members, the duties and responsibilities of his new national security adviser and the progress in the fight to retake Mosul.
Listen at On Security
A tip for leaders who are confused about whether to trust the president or his emissaries is to watch how Trump reacts when Cabinet secretaries appear to contradict what he’s said. “They are not being rebuked by the White House for doing what they’re doing,” says political scientist Peter Feaver, a former member of the National Security Council staff under President George W. Bush. “That is a very important fact.”
Read More in The Boston Globe
A proposal by President Donald Trump would change a law that says churches and other religious organizations risk losing tax-exempt status if they endorse political candidates. Such restrictions “are designed to keep churches and government at arm’s length,” says law professor Richard Schmalbeck. “We don’t want IRS agents sitting in churches taping sermons.”
Read More in the Asheville Citizen Times
The military has polled high since the administration of President Ronald Reagan, following a low point in public perceptions after the Vietnam War, says Peter Feaver, a political science professor. “The Supreme Court used to rank high, too. What happened? The Supreme Court increasingly took on a partisan appearance and looked like a group of Republicans and Democrats arguing with each other.”
Read More in Politico
Political scientist Peter Feaver, a specialist in civil-military issues and a national security aide to President George W. Bush, talks about the potential impact of a book written by new national security adviser, Gen. H.R McMaster, that highlighted the consequences of the military not giving candid advice to a president during the Vietnam War.
Read More in The New York Times
“The Senate has confirmed Scott Pruitt to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. As Oklahoma’s attorney general, Pruitt filed 14 lawsuits challenging EPA regulations, including limits on carbon emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants,” writes Tim Profeta, founding director of the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, in a summary of the week’s top environmental news.
Reads More in National Geographic
“It’s not novel to point out that with the election of President Trump, tribalism has reached new and dizzying heights — the “basket of deplorables” vs. “liberal elites.” Many of us feel sickened. And we’re right to worry. Tribal thinking is not just inherently undemocratic — it’s perilous,” writes Dirk Philipsen, associate research professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy.
Read More in The Hill
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