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
Pick Your Poison: Ignoring Science at Our Own Peril
Throughout human history, our progress has been intimately linked to advances in science. Even in the so-called “dark ages,” the light of learning was turned on the natural world. From those efforts came Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, and Galileo. New understandings of the universe based on observation with new instruments challenged world-views, and the Pope, in one of the great refutations of science in recorded history, forced Galileo to recant his … Read More
Follow the Money
In a conversation about campaign finance reform years ago, a friend and former colleague told me that he believed “money is a form of speech.” The same argument underpinned the majority opinion in the Supreme Court’s ruling on Citizens United and poses a fundamental threat to our democracy. Any question about the corrosive and dangerous effects of money in our electoral system can be resolved with a quick look at … Read More
Who Are We As a People?
Poverty in the United States is destroying lives and making this great nation weaker. In Maryland this past week, Rodney Todd, a single, working-father of seven died, along with all of his children, from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning in their home. Investigators found a generator in the kitchen that was out of gas. Several days earlier, the local utility had disconnected power to the home because a stolen electric meter … Read More
Panelists Discuss the Public’s Perception of Science
The Pell Center’s presentation earlier this month, “Science Under Attack: Politics, Policy, and Science in America” discussed the public’s perception of science, and focused mainly on global warming. The presentation featured Suzanne Shaw, director of communications at the Union of Concerned Scientists and Todd Anthony Bianco, principal policy associate at the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission. Shaw started off by discussing the public’s beliefs and mentioned that most Americans trust … Read More
War and Peace: Iran and Eastern Europe
Barack Obama ran for president in 2008 on the promise that he would end America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and change the tone of American foreign policy. He was motivated by a belief that Iraq was misguided and that the country was weary of war. In addition, many Americans believed that the perception of American belligerence in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, contributed to insecurity around the world. … Read More
Tax Cuts and the Economy
Like other elections before, the 2016 presidential campaign will feature the pros and cons of tax cuts. An article in the Washington Post this week discusses Republican hopeful Marco Rubio’s newly unveiled tax plan, which offers significant cuts to corporations and wealthy individuals, while also increasing tax credits that go to middle class families with children. The Post piece focuses on the political calculus behind the plan – e.g. it … Read More