Faculty Research

Professor Nooruddin and his colleagues conducted a study in rural Bihar, India, where they asked 3,800 people what they would rather have: cash or infrastructure (public health, roads fixed, etc.). What they found was that over 80% of respondents preferred public health over cash, and that 35% preferred cash over fixing roads; “these results come in the wake of rising interest in basic universal income in democracies around the world, including India and the United States.”

The Russia and Eurasia Program in the Fletcher School at Tufts University has awarded their first ever U.S.-Russia Relations Book Prize to SFS Professor, Dr. Angela Stent. The award recognizes an outstanding book on historical or contemporary foreign policy discourse pertaining to the past or present of U.S.-Russia relations.

The Washington Post discussed CERES Director Dr. Angela Stent’s new book, “Putin’s World: Against the West and with the Rest,” in an article published last week. The most important takeaway was that Professor Stent highlights the way Russia conducts diplomacy. It has diplomatic relations with Syria, Turkey, Israel, Shia Muslim-majority countries, as well as Sunni Muslim-majority countries, India, and China, among others: “Stent expertly walks readers through Moscow’s relations with every region in the world, avoiding the hysteria that warps discussion of the country.”

Professor Sarah Stewart is one of the researchers trying to detect life on Mars, and they are attempting to use nanopore sequencing technology to do so. This type of technology allows researchers to sequence RNA and DNA (and other polymers) with a single molecule. “Targets with harsher radiation environments, like Europa, would require improved radiation resistance via additional shielding or design refinements,” they wrote.

Professor Betsi Stephens’s book, South Korea’s Demographic Dividend: Echoes of the Past or Prologue to the Future, “describes the societal issues related to low fertility.” Professor Stephens writes that it is imperative that South Korean president Moon Jae-in to work on increasing birth rates, since the short term effects are economic (slowing down the economy), and the long term effects are societal (taking care of the elderly).

David Edelstein, Associate Professor of International Affairs in the Center for Security Studies, published an essay about the future of great power politics and the potential for conflict as part of a policy roundtable following a Perry World House colloquium. As the U.S. is in relative decline and Russia and China become more assertive, Edelstein says, “the implications are likely to be more competition and, indeed, the possibility of great power war.”

A new report from Beyond Parallel of the Center for Strategic and International Studies has identified an undeclared North Korean ballistic missile base, Sino-ri. Professor Victor Cha is one of the authors on the report. “While diplomacy is critical, and should be the primary way to resolve the North Korean nuclear problem, any future agreement must take account of all of the operational missile base facilities that are a threat to U.S. and South Korean security,” the report states.

SFS Professor Joel Simmons published an article in the journal “Economics & Politics.” Simmons examines an older argument which claims that culture, as opposed to oil wealth, is the reason behind female labor supply. Rather, he argues that “oil wealth reduces the demand for female labor by hurting the export‐oriented industries that employ female labor intensively.”

Professor Emily Mendenhall published research exploring “how international donor policies cultivate a form of biological sub-citizenship for those with diabetes in Kenya.”

Professor Victor Cha recently published research identifying “13, out of an estimated total of 20, undeclared North Korean missile operating bases” for “short-range ballistic missiles.” The report noted that “North Korea’s decommissioning of the Sohae satellite launch facility, while gaining much media attention, obscures the military threat to U.S. forces and South Korea from this and other undeclared ballistic missile bases.”

This Washington Post article summarizes the findings of research published by Professor Marko Klašnja, who used poverty rates and average years of schooling completed in areas surrounding religious missions to show that the benefits of education last longer than the lifetime of the generations who directly receive it.

Professor Michael Green received the silver medal in the Council on Foreign Relations’ seventeenth annual Arthur Ross Book Award for “By More Than Providence: Grand Strategy and American Power in the Asia Pacific Since 1783.”

James Millward, professor of intersocietal history, in the Journal of Social History, discusses the historical development of the Sitar and its music in order to argue for the neglected importance to historical studies of music as a central aspect of human culture. He uses the instrument to analyze the “Silk Road” as a a phenomenon of cultural exchange and early globalization.