Uzra Zeya (SFS’89) recounts over two decades time serving in the US State Department, and the now very different makeup of the State Department, under the Trump administration for Politico. Zeya expressed her concerns that it no longer reflected “women and men of all backgrounds”, and the potential of the Department remaining “88.8 percent white and more than two-thirds male.”
SFS Professor Charles Kupchan explains the tentative plan between Kosovo and Serbia in the New York Times to engage in a “land swap” in an attempt to bring peace and stability to the area. Kupchan believes the US and Europe should get behind this plan, should Kosovo and Serbia be able to work it out, and begin to support the two nations throughout the process.
SFS Professor Marilyn McMorrow reflects on hearing a letter attempting to forgive and forget bishops accused of sexual assault, and proposes a public penance plan of six months in the real world, doing work and reflecting, in order to “recover an urgent and deeper sense of God”, and possibly even “for starting anew”.
For The Washington Post‘s Monkey Cage blog, Professor Erik Voeten and his co-authors analyzed levels of confidence other countries have had in the U.S. president, comparing the Trump administration to the Bush and Obama administrations. Looking this data, they find that “these figures illustrate the current anxiety about the future of the U.S.-led Western liberal order.”
In an op-ed in Foreign Affairs, Professor Daniel Nexon presents the case for “an Internationalist Left,” explaining the benefits of a united, “neo-progressive” foreign policy platform.
Professor Daniel Byman contextualizes the tension between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah in his recent op-ed published on Lawfare, discussing the various political and military factors that have kept the conflict from boiling over to a full-fledged war. Byman notes, however, that “as happened in 2006, miscalculation and provocations might lead to unexpected escalation.”
