President Vladimir Putin of Russia may fear that the internet is a CIA project, but unfortunately he is not alone. According to our recently released study about how the Russian public views the internet…
A year after the Maidan revolution of 2014, Ukraine is at a critical juncture. The conflict with Russia has been escalating. Estimates of casualties exceed 5,000, with some reports putting the number at…
If a guy kills three of his neighbors over a parking spot, it’s a local story, maybe a national news brief. Its newsworthiness is predicated on the appalling flimsiness of the casus belli: Some folks are…
When New York Times’ columnist David Carr prepared to apply for a newly created professorship in Boston University’s College of Communication, he realized he’d need a curriculum vitae, the so-called CV…
Charlie Baker is the new Governor of Massachusetts and, doggone it, he likes government. Though this notion is antithetical to most elite Republican office holders, Governor Baker is firmly in the blue…
Until 1950 the Red Cross segregated blood. It was thousands of African-Americans during World War II who forced the Red Cross to include them as donors and helped pave the way for activism of the 1960s.
This past December, Presidents Barack Obama and Raoúl Castro ended over fifty years of economic and political isolation between the US and Cuba with their shock announcement that they intend to re-establish…
Recent events in Paris – the massacre at the editorial offices of Charlie Hebdo in the 11th arrondissement and the hostage situation at a supermarket near Porte de Vincennes – committed by terrorists with…
Longtime New Yorker magazine staff writer Lillian Ross once admonished aspiring reporters not to write about themselves. “As a reporter, serve your subject,” she wrote, “do not serve yourself. Do not…
Dear Prime Minister Cameron, You recently proposed that all internet apps – and their users’ communications – be compelled to make themselves accessible to state authorities. I want to explain why this…
Robert McKersie, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Black History Month provides an opportunity to pull back the curtain and turn the spotlight on individuals who made a difference in the successes of the civil rights movement during the 1960s. I had the…
On January 22 Houthi rebels put pressure on the Yemeni government, causing President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his Cabinet to resign, in what was essentially a soft coup. This most recent Yemeni political…
Not since the 1960s has a sitting President engaged in issues around higher education as frequently as Barack Obama. He’s had little choice. With runaway student debt, diminishing state and federal investments…
Charles Lewis, American University School of Communication
This week’s news brings an important “ah hah” moment. The conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch of Koch Industries and their political network of donors and opaque outside groups are…
Writing on the domestic history of the United States in the twentieth century has been dominated by work on the great reform movements of the era - Populism, Progressivism, and the New Deal. What is striking…
David S. Pedulla, The University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts and Sarah Thebaud, University of California, Santa Barbara
The latter part of the twentieth century saw a dramatic increase in women’s participation in the workforce as well as a rise in ideological support for women’s employment in the United States. However…
In 1943, during the height of World War II, fifteen-year-old Liu Mianhuan was tied up and taken away by Imperial Japanese troops from her village in Yu County, Shanxi Province, China. She was confined…
The recent events in Paris have once again cast doubts on the ability of French intelligence to provide national security. Following the attacks, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls did not hesitate to…
As President Obama celebrates India’s Republic Day on January 26, he will be visiting the largest democracy in the world and one that has more than 160 million Muslim citizens. That’s roughly half the…
Ashok Sharma, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
President Barack Obama will be the first US president to visit India on Republic Day on January 26, as well as the first sitting US president to visit India twice. During his three day symbolic visit President…
In his State of the Union address, the President’s core message was that the US has emerged strong from the twin crises caused by the 2001 terrorist attacks and the 2008 global recession. And the challenge…
Everyday, thousands of students around the world perch themselves in front of computer screens in homes, libraries, coffee shops, and Internet cafes to take a massive open online course (MOOC). It’s no…
Editor’s note: “The state of the union is good,” and the attitude of President Barack Obama in his annual speech to Congress was upbeat. Good economic news and no more election campaigns were the backdrop…
Editor’s note: “The state of the union is good,” and the attitude of President Barack Obama in his annual speech to Congress was upbeat. Good economic news and no more election campaigns were the backdrop…
Muslims in France and the French host population are locked in a discriminatory equilibrium. This is the conclusion, summarized in our soon-to-be published book, of a six-year research program that investigates…