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Features June 16, 2015
WWS Reacts: How to Fight MERS
Since mid-May, Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) has infected 150 and killed 16 people in South Korea. Now, after months of quarantine, hundreds in the region are being released. We discussed the threat of MERS with Laura Kahn, a research scholar at the Program on Science and Global Security at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Because MERS is an animal virus – it originated with camels in the Middle East – Kahn proposes a "One Health" approach to combating this illness. Q. What is MERS? How does it spread? Kahn: Like SARS, Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is caused by a…
Features June 15, 2015
Video Chat Focuses on Emergency Preparedness vs. Sustainability in Ebola Relief Efforts
Carolyn Rouse, a professor of anthropology at Princeton University, and Kimberly Bonner '08, MPA '12, participated in a live video chat on Wednesday, June 10, to discuss Ebola relief efforts. Bonner has worked on the ground in West Africa.The pair discussed emergency preparedness versus sustainability. The conversation was hosted by Elisabeth Donahue, associate dean for public and external affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.Rouse is a panelist at the upcoming Princeton-Fung Global Forum focused on "Modern Plagues: Lessons Learned from the Ebola Crisis." Register for the conference here. You can view a recording of…
Features June 10, 2015
"Gold-Standard" Clinical Trials Fail to Capture How Personal Behavior Changes Influence Treatment
Double-blind clinical trials for new drugs are considered the "gold standard" of medical research because they're designed to determine the efficacy of a treatment free from doctor and participant bias.But one effect these trials fail to measure is how a medication’s performance can vary based on patients' lifestyle choices, especially if patients change their habits because they are anticipating treatment, according to a new study published in PLOS ONE.A recent meta-analysis of six clinical trials, led by researchers from Princeton University, the California Institute of Technology and Cambridge University, shows that people who felt confident that…
Features June 01, 2015
WWS Reacts: The Freedom Act Passed. Now What?
Unable to reach a deal, Senate leaders let three provisions of the Patriot Act expire on May 31. Two days later, the Senate voted to pass the USA Freedom Act, a substitute bill passed by the House of Representatives, on a 67-to-32 vote. Now, once signed by President Barack Obama, the new Act will put an official end to the government's bulk collection of photo records (known as Section 215). We discussed this provision of the Patriot Act with Barton Gellman '82, an award-winning journalist and visiting lecturer at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Gellman was part of the team of journalists who broke…
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Features May 28, 2015
Students on Cybersecurity Task Force Weigh Policy Options
"Cybersecurity" has been in the American lexicon for decades. The U.S. has typically taken a defensive approach to cyberwarfare, responding to attacks as they occur but leaving preventative strategy to private companies. But recent extensive invasions like the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack, the Target data breach and an attack on the White House network have called national attention to the sharp rise in cyberattacks, exposing the vulnerabilities of millions of Americans."Cybersecurity: Attacks and Consequences," a class offered in the format of a policy task force at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs…
Features May 19, 2015
Kotkin Crafts Comprehensive Portrait of Stalin's Place in the World
The first course historian Stephen Kotkin taught as a member of Princeton University's faculty, "Seminar in the History of Soviet Russia," met for the first time 26 years ago, on Thursday, Sept. 21, 1989. According to the University's course listing, the seminar focused on the "birth of a new society in the throes of revolution" and included a "special focus on the Stalin period," a particular interest of the newly minted assistant professor, who had earned his Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley in 1988 and spent the first half of 1989 in the Soviet Union as part of a research exchange. Fifty-one days after that first class session, on…
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Features May 18, 2015
Hypersegregated Cities Face Tough Road to Change
Baltimore, Maryland, and Ferguson, Missouri, share more than being the sites of racial strife over the past year. Both are part of metropolitan areas where black residents have been hypersegregated for the past four decades, according to Princeton University researchers."Hypersegregation produces high levels of social isolation from mainstream society, but also high concentrations of poverty and disadvantage," said Douglas Massey, the Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs and director of Princeton's Office of Population Research. "If you look at the cityscape of the United States, hypersegregated cities are the places where our…
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Features May 18, 2015
Students Examine How Ongoing Conflicts Influence Diplomacy Techniques
On April 27, the “Diplomacy and Chronic Conflicts” undergraduate policy task force presented its research and recommendations at the United Nations and The United States Mission to the United Nations, both in New York City. Led by Daniel Kurtzer, S. Daniel Abraham Visiting Professor of Middle East Policy Studies and lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and former U.S. ambassador to Egypt and to Israel, the seminar looked at case studies in which ongoing conflicts challenged classic diplomacy techniques. “Our trip to the U.N. gave us incredible insights into the inner workings of the diplomacy we’d only previously…
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Features May 14, 2015
Snowden Participates in Live, Online Discussion at Princeton
On May 2, more than 350 people gathered at the Friend Center at Princeton University to watch a live discussion between and journalist Barton Gellman '82, a visiting professor at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and Edward Snowden, former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who was charged espionage after leaking documents about NSA intelligence programs. Snowden participated in the conversation, which was webcast live, by way of a Google Hangout from Russia, the country that granted him asylum.The event was sponsored by the Center for Information Technology, the Program in Law and Public Affairs and the…
Features May 11, 2015
Felten Joins White House as Deputy Chief Technology Officer
Edward Felten, a Princeton University computer scientist who is a leading expert on computer security, has been named U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer in the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).Felten, who is Princeton's Robert E. Kahn Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs, came to the University in 1993 and since 2006 has held a joint appointment with the Department of Computer Science and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. In 2005, he was named director of Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP), which is supported by the Wilson School and School of Engineering…
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Features May 11, 2015
Video Chat Highlights Ebola Response, Lessons Learned
Raphael Frankfurter, a 2013 Princeton graduate and executive director of the nonprofit group Wellbody Alliance, participated in a live video chat Thursday, May 7, to discuss the group's response to Ebola in Sierra Leone and the lessons learned from the outbreak.Frankfurter spoke with João Biehl, the Susan Dod Brown Professor of Anthropology and co-director of Princeton's Program in Global Health and Health Policy. The conversation was hosted by Elisabeth Donahue, associate dean for public and external affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Frankfurter and Biehl are panelists at the upcoming Princeton-Fung Global…
Features May 07, 2015
A Deadly Shadow: Measles May Weaken Immune System Up to Three Years
The measles virus can cause serious disease in children by temporarily suppressing their immune systems. This vulnerability was previously thought to last a month or two, however, a new study shows that children may in fact live in the immunological shadow of measles for up to three years, leaving them highly susceptible to a host of other deadly diseases.Published in the journal Science, the study, led by researchers from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, provides epidemiologic evidence that measles may throw the body into a much longer-term state of …
Features May 05, 2015
WooCast: The History of Plagues
Epidemics. Throughout history, they have obliterated populations and shattered economies. Crippling the public with fear, epidemics have disrupted society, politics and cultures. Some epidemics have been so deadly, so expansive that they've literally transformed our historical landscape. Whether it was the Justinian Plague of the 6th century, the Black Death in the Middle Ages or HIV/AIDS in modern Africa, past plagues provide us with powerful lessons for the future. Now, as we grapple with the ongoing Ebola crisis – which has taken over 10,000 lives – we must not only look forward. We need to look back. We need to ask: What approach does Ebola…
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Features May 04, 2015
Gift Establishes Kahneman and Treisman Center for Behavioral Science and Public Policy at Princeton
A $10 million gift will create the Daniel Kahneman and Anne Treisman Center for Behavioral Science and Public Policy at Princeton, enabling the University to strengthen its leading role in this emerging field and improve the development of effective policymaking.The donation comes from a Princeton parent who wishes to remain anonymous. He has long been an admirer of the work of Kahneman, a Nobel laureate, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University and a professor of psychology and public affairs emeritus; and Treisman, Princeton's James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Psychology Emerita.During the past 15…
Features April 30, 2015
Creating a Network of "Builders"
"Making government work."On the surface, the phrase seems simple. For a government to run efficiently, it needs to take the right steps — a strategic political dance. But perfecting the choreography, knowing which steps to take and when, poses challenges for governments across the world, especially in hard-to-reach places.That's why this spring semester Jennifer Widner, professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, introduced an online version of her course "Making Government Work in Hard Places." Offered alongside Widner's traditional graduate-level course with 19…