“The new normal apparently is a highly turbulent media environment that includes a fair bit of overreaction. In such an environment, it is even more important that the White House vets carefully its big decisions, makes decisions that support a larger strategy, and rolls decisions out in ways that reassure people that vetting and strategic planning took place. The Trump administration is not there yet,” writes political scientist Peter Feaver.
Read More in Foreign PolicyCategory: Politics-Public Policy
Want to Know What Trump Will do? Listen to Him, Not His Cabinet
Political scientist Peter Feaver, a former adviser to President George W. Bush, says the lack of consultation about the refugee order may simply reflect a government that isn’t fully staffed. It’s too soon to tell, he says, where the real power centers of national security lie in the Trump administration. “The bigger picture is that they are slowly developing an interagency process and they are slowly staffing it up, and they have a separate executive action process than has been on a faster timetable and has outpaced the interagency process. I would expect, over time, that the interagency process will catch up.”
Read More at NBC News
Trump’s Flawed Defense of His Immigration Order
“Of course, we should not telegraph that we are launching a commando raid on a terrorist target in advance,” says Sanford School professor David Schanzer, director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security. “However, the chaos, disruption, and injustice caused by the immigration ban that Trump issued demonstrates why unpredictability is usually not a sound basis for national security policy.”
Read More in The Atlantic
Research: How Medicare Could Save Millions
Medicare has long struggled with the most efficient way to reimburse hospitals for the care they provide. Professor Ryan McDevitt, an economist at The Fuqua School of Business, studied stays at long-term care hospitals and found on average they discharge patients based on when they get federal payments rather than for medical reasons. His research also shows an alternative payment system could save Medicare millions of dollars without affecting standards of care.
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NC Lawmakers, Governor Ready for Showdown
“I’m not optimistic, at least at first,” says Pope “Mac” McCorkle, a professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy. “It seems like a very poisonous atmosphere. … Neither side can withstand for too long a growing perception that Raleigh’s just one big mess.”
Read More in The New York Times
The View from the Republican Sideline
“For now, we observe that the dominant lesson of the last 100 years has been just this: When America led in the effort to rally friends and partners from around the world to confront global challenges, it went better for American interests in the long run. And when America retreated in the pursuit of short-term and parochial calculations of national interest, it went much worse for our nation in the long run,” writes political scientist Peter Feaver and a colleague.
Read More in Foreign PolicyPanel Examines Role of Rising Polarization in Trump Victory
A look at how political polarization hardened during the Obama administration and helped enable Donald Trump’s victory showed how Democratic and Republican establishments underestimated the strength of the anger and frustration building in the country. One result: The election of populist leaders is now “a striking pattern in Western democracies,” says Sanford professor Bruce Jentleson.
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Guns in Schools Supporters Gain Traction
Donald Trump takes office today with House Republicans having already filed two proposals for gutting the 1990 Gun Free School Zones Act, which bars guns in and around schools while allowing states and localities to make exceptions for some firearms owners. “It certainly does seem like momentum is building,” says law professor Joseph Blocher, who writes on Second Amendment jurisprudence.
Read More in The Trace
Trump Takes Office Under Appearances Of Unpredictability
Political scientist Peter Feaver, a former national security aide in the Clinton and Bush White Houses, says the jury is still out on Trump’s approach to the world. Maybe, says Feaver, Trump just wants a reset with Russia, not a wholesale realignment, much like other presidents — a difference in degree not in kind.”It’s impossible to say with certainty because he hasn’t made a single presidential decision yet,” Feaver says.
Read More at NPR
Video: Making Sense of Trump’s Views on Putin
Donald Trump’s continued soft stance toward Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, has prompted many questions about how the new administration will relate to its fellow world power. Trump has also questioned NATO’s importance to the United States. In this video, political science professor Peter Feaver reflects on Trump’s views on these and other foreign policy issues.
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Video: Is NATO Pulling Its Fair Share?
Duke political science professor Edmund Malesky discusses whether NATO is pulling its fair share of the defense burden. Malesky shares additional thoughts on the issue in a Washington Post opinion piece. To read it, click here.
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Commutation of Manning’s Sentence a Setback for Transgender Troops
“The message to the troops may well be that transgender soldiers get special, indulgent treatment they did not earn simply because of sympathetic politicos and misguided civilian thinking,” writes law professor Charles Dunlap, a retired Air Force major general. “That is not a formula for transgender soldiers to get authentic respect, real trust and true equal treatment from their comrades-in-arms.”
Read More in Lawfire
