Maxwell School News and Commentary

"The restoration of the State Department is critical," says University Professor James Steinberg. "That's particularly important with China because it is such an all-encompassing challenge for the United States. So we need to have our best people and we need to have...a comprehensive approach that makes clear what we can live with with China and what we can't," he says. 

"The Mexican attorney general may follow through on the pretense of investigating Cienfuegos, but nothing will come of it because he is untouchable," says Gladys McCormick, associate professor of history and Jay and Debe Moskowitz Endowed Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations.

Earlier this week, retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn promoted the idea that the U.S. military should oversee a new nationwide presidential election, ordered under martial law by President Donald Trump. Professor Emeritus William C. Banks calls  the idea "preposterous" and adds, "martial law has no place in the United States absent a complete breakdown of civil governing mechanisms."

"We know to expect, clearly from his history, that President-elect Biden will work more closely with Western allies and use international institutions to promote new global initiatives," says Mary Lovely, professor of economics. 

Professor Emeritus William C. Banks assesses that "the world is out there, and our adversaries are all aware... that we're more vulnerable as a nation and national security apparatus than any other time during the last four years." He adds, "without a coordinated effort between the outgoing Trump people and incoming Biden people, things could quickly lose control."

"'Britain at Bay'...might be the single best examination of British politics, society and strategy in these four years that has ever been written," said reviewer Paul Kennedy about Associate Professor of History Alan Allport's book.

"The forces he is up against are much bigger than President Trump and are tectonic in nature. There are a set of forces that push us apart rather than bring us together," says Grant Reeher, professor of political science. But, he adds, "I do think having a period of time for the country to experience the absence of the daily melodrama of the Trump presidency will help."