Picks of the Week: The Republic Needs Honest Debate, Not Narratives
The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama’s Foreign-Policy Guru | New York Times 10 Problems with that New York Times Magazine Profile of White House Aide Ben Rhodes | New York Magazine How We Advocated for the Iran Deal | Medium Last weekend, the New York Times Magazine published an article about White House Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes. Part hagiography, part hatchet-job, the article by David Samuels has … Read More
Intersectionality and the Presidential Race
Intersectionality is a term which has existed for roughly 35 years, however, most people in the United States have not engaged with the concept outside of a classroom until recent memory. The term resurfaced recently as a reaction to the Flint Water Crisis and through its engagement in debate by the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. As a result, public discourse questioning the legitimacy of intersectional politics … Read More
Picks of the Week: The White House’s New Cybersecurity Action Plan & Budget
Cybersecurity National Action Plan | The White House, The Real Reason to Like the President’s Cybersecurity Plan | Net Politics Opinion: $19 billion alone won’t fix Washington’s cybersecurity problem | Passcode President Barack Obama recently announced the Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP), which would allocate $19 billion for cybersecurity initiatives at federal agencies and would establish a chief information security officer (CISO) for the federal government. The plan, although … Read More
Flint Water Crisis
Citizens have been fighting for their right to clean drinking water in Flint, Michigan since officials announced a switch in the source of the city’s water supply in late April of 2014. Residents of Flint immediately detected a difference in their tap water which was odorous, yellow in color and had improper taste. In response to complaints, officials sampled the water and found that it was contaminated by coliform bacteria. … Read More
Picks of the Week: Creeping Authoritarianism
The Governing Cancer of our Time | The New York Times The best predictor of Trump support isn’t income, education, or age. It’s authoritarianism. | Vox More than five years ago in The Providence Journal, I wrote of a specter haunting America. Then I was concerned about impatience on the left of the political spectrum and my growing sense that authoritarianism was gaining in popularity. I repost those … Read More
Spring 2016 Lecture Series Announced
The first event is a screening of “This Changes Everything” on January 26, 2016
The Legacy: What’s Next for U.S. Policy in the Middle East?
On December 2, 2015, the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy hosted its final lecture of the fall semester titled “The Legacy: What’s Next for U.S. Policy in the Middle East”. The lecture featured two experts from the U.S. Naval War College, Hayat Alvi and Timothy Hoyt and attracted one of the year’s largest crowds despite rainy weather outside. Moderated by Pell Center Executive Director Jim Ludes, the … Read More
New Study Offers Guidance for Expanding Broadband Access
The Internet is a tool that Americans use every day to work, to locate information, to communicate, to shop, and to play. More broadly, access to the Internet can help strengthen communities, improve schools, heighten public safety, and create a more responsive relationship between government and citizens. Perhaps most importantly, many believe that the availability of broadband Internet is a key enabler of economic growth. While many decisions about broadband … Read More
Charleston shooting creates an opportunity to discuss gun control
The Pope’s Call for Action on Climate Change
“Man can’t change the climate.” With those words on the floor of the United States Senate last January, Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma summarized the current Republican consensus on climate change. The Earth is so big, the logic goes, that our insignificant selves could never have an impact big enough to alter the climate. In a 50-49 vote that followed, the Senate said climate change was not caused by human activity. … Read More