How can the U.S. increase security along the southern border without building a wall? Stephen Kelly, a visiting professor of the practice in the Sanford School of Public Policy, says more cooperation between law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border is key.
Listen on Policy 360Category: Trump Administration
Trump Taps New National Security Adviser
Political scientist Peter Feaver, a scholar on civil-military ties, says he expects Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster to take a skeptical view of Russia, seeing Moscow as a dubious partner and major potential threat to U.S. security. And Feaver says he expects a similar skepticism toward Iran, whose support for proxy groups across the Middle East many senior military officials say has gone unchecked.
Read More in The Washington PostEnergy Discussions Live on as EPA Rule Faces Death
If there’s an enduring upside to U.S. EPA’s doomed Clean Power Plan, it’s that it spurred some much-needed discussions about energy on the state level, says Brian Murray, director for economic analysis at Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. “There really was not much going on in terms of coordination and dialogue between energy and environmental regulators at the state level before all this.”
Read More at E&E NewsTrump’s Repeal of Stream Rule Hurts Climate, Species
When he rolled back a regulation to protect streams from mining pollution last week, President Donald Trump made good on his promise to ease up on coal mining. “This repeal is ignoring a lot of the recent science that clearly documents a lot of these downstream impacts,” says biology professor Emily Bernhardt, who has studied the ecological effects of coal mining.
Read More at Inside Climate News
Good Luck Making America Safe Again Without Mexican Military
“Most Americans don’t remember that we invaded Mexico at least three times, and forced it to give up nearly half of the territory they won in their independence from Spain,” says public policy professor Stephen Kelly, who served as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico from 2004 to 2006. “Nowhere is that feeling of invasion, that Mexico has been robbed and violated, more strongly felt than in the Mexican army.”
Read More in McClatchyThe Most Dangerous Job in Washington
“A national security adviser has to successfully manage three key constituencies: First and foremost his relationships with the president, but also his relations with other senior officials in the West Wing, and with Cabinet officials in various agencies,” says Peter Feaver, who served on the National Security Council under President George W. Bush.
Read More in PoliticoTrump, an Outsider Demanding Loyalty, Struggles to Fill Top Posts
“The problem is that with each successive episode, it raises the stakes for the next one,” says political scientist Peter Feaver, who was a strategic planning adviser to President George W. Bush. “It’s going to be hard for the next outsider to accept the national security job and not request the ability to make personnel changes.”
Read More in The New York TimesSupreme Court Nominee Neil Gorsuch and the Rise of Originalism
“People like (Bork and Scalia) have really succeeded in persuading everyone from the right to the left that we ought to do more historical research in constitutional interpretation than maybe we did under the Warren court,” says law professor Ernest Young. “Everyone is pretty much persuaded that history counts, (but) very few people think that only history matters.”
Read More in The Christian Science MonitorTrump Focus Misses Growing Risk From Right-Wing Extremism
Focusing solely on Islamic extremism “would be a huge mistake,” says David Schanzer, director of Duke’s Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security. He says programs meant to counter extremism “were a hard sell for the Muslim community even before” the election and that Muslim communities see them “as a form of surveillance.”
Read More in Foreign PolicyInside CEO, Consumer Activism In Trump Era
Donald Trump represents the ultimate intersection of business and politics, and within that crisscross sits a new type of business activism. Corporate CEOs have been vocal about the president’s action on immigrants and refugees. Aaron Chatterji, associate professor at The Fuqua School of Business, is interviewed about the trend.
Listen on WFAEPresident Trump’s Evolving Foreign Policy
Under a month into Donald Trump’s presidency, his national security adviser Mike Flynn resigned, the dance with Russia has been constant since Trump took office and relations with Mexico and China have been strained. Sanford School professor David Schanzer talks about the foreign policy implications.
Listen on Minnesota Public Radio
Trump and Terrorism: Finding a Way Forward
“The United States will soon reach a crossroads in its struggle against terrorism,” writes political scientist Peter Feaver and a colleague. “The international coalition fighting the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) has driven the group out of much of the territory it once held and, sooner or later, will militarily defeat it by destroying its core in Iraq and Syria. But military victory over ISIS will not end the global war on terrorism that the United States has waged since 9/11.”
Read More in Foreign Policy