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News February 24, 2026
SPIAccolades — February 2026
Adela Raz, the director of the Afghanistan Policy Lab, has been appointed to the Independent Expert Advisory Panel for the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI).Established by the U.N. General Assembly, MVI measures structural vulnerability and limited resilience among developing countries and serves as a diagnostic tool to guide the development of policy and resource allocation. “Serving on the Independent Expert Advisory Panel for the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index comes with both a responsibility and a commitment,” Raz said. “It is an…
Wolfgang
News February 20, 2026
In Memoriam: Wolfgang Danspeckgruber, 1956-2026
Wolfgang F. Danspeckgruber, an influential researcher, prolific writer, beloved teacher, and seasoned diplomat, as well as the founding director of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs’ Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, passed away peacefully on February 17. He was 70.Danspeckgruber came to Princeton SPIA in 1987 and was a towering figure at the School for nearly four decades. In addition to convening dozens of international conferences at Princeton, he mentored hundreds of students, who benefited greatly from his many connections in the policy world, and led numerous programs and projects.“Wolfgang touched countless…
Amelia Frank-Vitale
News February 17, 2026
Inside Immigration Court
Princeton SPIA’s Research Record series highlights the vast scholarly achievements of our faculty members, whose expertise extends beyond the classroom and into everyday life.If you’d like your work considered for future editions of Research Record, click here and select “research project.”
APL
News February 16, 2026
The Taliban Legal System and the 2026 Criminal Procedural Regulations
When the Taliban resumed power in Afghanistan in August 2021, a central question emerged among Afghans and the international community: How would the Taliban govern the country? What form of governance and legal system would they establish? In the initial days following their takeover, Taliban officials declared that they would strictly follow Sharīʿa (Islamic law) (Shariah, 1997) and that governance would be conducted through an Ulema Council (Shura), similar to their first period in power, with the Amir serving as the Supreme Leader (Lonas, August 19, 2021).Four years later, the Taliban legal system still strictly relies on the decrees issued by the…
Kevin Gover ’78
News February 13, 2026
Policy and Civic Discourse: Princeton Helped Prepare Kevin Gover ’78 for Transformative Public Service
It was the early 1960s and the times they were a-changin’ on the Great Plains in Lawton, Oklahoma — just as they were across the United States, with the Civil Rights Movement shaking the status quo. Kevin Gover was watching and listening, a kid “hanging around the fringes” of movement meetings he attended with his parents. He noticed at these meetings that whenever the lawyers in the room spoke, “everybody listened.” It was just like the rapt courtrooms of the “awesome” fictional criminal-defense attorney Perry Mason, a show he watched without fail on CBS prime time. “To tell you the truth, I had no idea then what lawyers did,” he said. “But I knew I…
Siatta Gray
Community Profile February 11, 2026
#PolicyProfile: Siatta Gray, MPP ’26
“My passion for service is rooted in the belief that geography should never determine destiny — who lives, who thrives, or who gets to dream. Everyone deserves equal access to opportunity, health, and the freedom to become who they want to be. Coming from Liberia, I’ve witnessed firsthand the human cost of policy failures — from 14 years of civil war that shattered every fulcrum of society to the Ebola outbreak that exposed deep systemic inequities. I saw mothers bury children because facilities lack oxygen and families face an impossible trade-off between food or medicine. Those moments taught me that policy is not abstract — it is the difference…
Gellman
News February 11, 2026
Barton Gellman’s ’82 Fight for Truth Enters a New Phase
In the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, Barton Gellman '82 began working on a series of articles in The Atlantic magazine about threats to U.S. democracy. His reporting prompted a reevaluation of his self-image. A stalwart believer in the essential power of information to catalyze debate and hold the powerful to account, he encountered a world of lies, distortion, and misinformation that he felt overwhelmed the tools of his trade."The problem, of course, is that we don't have a shared basis of facts," Gellman said. "People are getting their news from their tribes. There are a lot of people inclined to simply not believe what they read because…
SPIAction Newsletter
News February 06, 2026
SPIAction Newsletter — February 2026
Pursuing Moral Ambition Undergraduate Kyler Zhou ’27 has created the Princeton chapter of the School for Moral Ambition, designed to have students explore positive-impact careers.
collection of students and faculty in classrooms
News February 05, 2026
Princeton SPIA Shapes AI Policy Dialogue
As artificial intelligence reshapes how people interact with technology, policymakers are racing to set ground rules for how it should operate. The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs is aiding that effort through numerous initiatives to inform lawmakers of the latest research on AI and educate current and future public servants about policy challenges and innovation opportunities.“AI is clearly transformative technology, and Princeton SPIA is leading the conversation on the policy implications of its innovative potential,” Dean Amaney Jamal said.In what can seem like a game of whack-a-mole, new challenges arise daily with AI.The…
SGS students and faculty sitting in classroom. Photo: Princeton School on Science and Global Security, 2024.
News February 04, 2026
Carnegie Corporation Awards $800,000 Core Support Grant to SGS
The Program on Science and Global Security (SGS) is pleased to report the award of a two-year $800,000 core support grant by Carnegie Corporation of New York. The grant will support SGS in scientific and technical research, critical policy analysis, education, and outreach to enable and advance national and international policies for nuclear disarmament, arms control, and nonproliferation to support a safer and more peaceful world.SGS has received Carnegie Corporation since the 1980s. The previous core-support grant from Carnegie was received in 2024. Over this time, and supported by this new Carnegie grant, SGS will continue its scientific and policy…
Jake Shapiro
News February 03, 2026
Moderating Text-to-Image Content
Princeton SPIA’s Research Record series highlights the vast scholarly achievements of our faculty members, whose expertise extends beyond the classroom and into everyday life.If you’d like your work considered for future editions of Research Record, click here and select “research project.”
students
News January 29, 2026
Two Princeton seniors and one Oxford student named Sachs Scholars
Princeton seniors Sukaina Shivji and Laura Zhang, and University of Oxford student Darina Andriychenko Leonenko have been named recipients of the Daniel M. Sachs Class of 1960 Graduating Scholarship, one of Princeton University’s highest awards.Shivji has been named as the Sachs Global Scholar and Zhang has been named as the Sachs Scholar at Worcester College at the University of Oxford. Andriychenko Leonenko will spend next academic year as a Sachs Visiting Scholar at Princeton.The Sachs Scholarship is intended to broaden the global experience of its recipients by providing them with the opportunity to study, work or travel abroad after graduation…
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News January 29, 2026
SPIAccolades — January 2026
Frederick D. Barton, a lecturer at Princeton SPIA and former U.S. ambassador to to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, delivered the keynote address at the 52nd Yale Model United Nations on Jan. 16. More than 2,000 high school students from 35 countries attended the four-day gathering.Barton’s remarks focused on the importance of supporting a peaceful world and the U.N.’s role in it. He drew on his experience as U.N. deputy high commissioner for refugees, when he traveled to Guinea and helped provide essential services to 300,000 refugees…
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News January 26, 2026
Undergraduate Kyler Zhou Shares a Morally Ambitious Message Through New Campus Initiative
Kyler Zhou’s evening commute home began with the same expectations it does each day — a little bit of traffic and a good podcast. However, what caught him by surprise on this particular June trip was that by the end of the 40-minute journey, his worldview would change, and he had to share it with the Princeton community.Zhou’s podcast of choice that day was The Interview from The New York Times. On it, host David Marchese spoke with historian and author Rutger Bregman — described as a "Dutch wunderkind of new ideas" by The Guardian. It was the podcast’s title — “Rutger Bregman Wants to Save Elites From Their Wasted Lives” — that grabbed Zhou’s…
Princeton campus
News January 23, 2026
SPIA Alumna Kalena Blake '24 Named Schwarzman Scholar
Princeton Class of 2026 members Margaret Miao and Alex Tseng and recent alumni Gustavo Blanco-Quiroga, Kalena Blake and Alison Lee have been named Schwarzman Scholars and will attend a one-year, fully funded master’s degree program in global affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing.This year’s Princeton winners are among 150 incoming Schwarzman Scholars representing 40 countries and 83 universities. Since the graduate fellowship was established in 2013, “Schwarzman Scholars alumni have demonstrated immense leadership capacity, trailblazing in a number of industries and collaborating to tackle pressing issues all around the world,” according to the…