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Students in front of flags
Features June 07, 2018
Undergraduates Consider Future of Syria Under Guidance of Amb. Ryan Crocker
Staffan de Mistura, the United Nations (U.N.) Special Envoy for Syria, warned recently about escalating clashes between regional and international powers over the war-torn country. As Syria’s civil war rages, and strong external interests compete for power in the region, the future of the country remains dangerously unclear. The Syrian crisis was the focus of an undergraduate policy task force at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs this past academic year. At the end of the course, students presented their best policy recommendations at the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs in Washington, D.C. Based on months…
U.S. Senator Cory Booker and students
Features June 01, 2018
Task Force Students Seek Solutions to Mass Incarceration
This spring, Princeton juniors studying mass incarceration in the United States traveled to Washington, D.C., to present to U.S. Sen. Cory Booker their policy findings and recommendations from a semester of research.The 10 students were participants in the policy task force “Rethinking Criminal Justice: Policy Responses to Mass Incarceration,” which was led by Udi Ofer, a visiting lecturer at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.While each student studied a different aspect of incarceration in the United States, which disproportionately affects minorities and other marginalized groups, they collectively identified a key single…
Features May 29, 2018
Redding Awarded 2018 Frisch Medal
Professor Stephen Redding has been named a recipient of the 2018 Frisch Medal award presented biennially by the Econometric Society. The Frisch Medal honors the best applied paper — empirical or theoretical — published in the society’s academic journal, Econometrica, during the previous five years.Redding received the award for his work as a co-author of the 2015 paper, “The Economics of Density: Evidence from the Berlin Wall,” which he wrote with Gabriel Ahlfeldt and Daniel Sturm, both based at the London School of Economics, and Nikolaus Wolf of Humboldt University.The paper uses the division and reunification of Berlin to estimate the forces that…
Jacob N. Shapiro of the Woodrow Wilson School welcomes attendees at the 8th Annual Meeting of the Empirical Studies of Conflict Project. (Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Helsing, United States Institute of Peace)
Features May 23, 2018
Experts Disentangle a Post-ISIS Landscape at Annual Conference
The Empirical Studies of Conflict Project (ESOC) held its 8th Annual Meeting on May 10 in Washington, D.C., drawing academics, experts and policymakers from across the world to discuss global conflict.The conference, which focused on post-conflict stabilization in the Middle East following the decline of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), featured dozens of academics, policymakers and experts focused on global conflict. The event was co-sponsored by the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) and The Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts.“Our annual meeting brings together scholars and officials from the U.S. government,…
Features May 11, 2018
One Day, Four Countries, 30 Years: Students Participate in Grand Strategy Simulation
Princeton University’s Center for International Security Studies (CISS) held its spring Grand Strategy Simulation on April 28. The activity brought together Princeton students from diverse academic backgrounds to take part in an exercise simulating the strategic jostling of the U.S., Russia, China and Turkey over three decades. The goal of the simulation is to create a no-stakes environment in which students can experience some of the pressures and thought processes real policymakers undertake as they make decisions with far-reaching consequences. Students were divided into four teams representing different countries and asked to formulate a grand…
Features May 01, 2018
Reducing Justice System Inequality
Features April 19, 2018
Q&A: Advice and Dissent: Why America Suffers When Economics and Politics Collide
Can America’s failing economic policies be fixed? This answer depends on how willing economists and politicians are to work together, according to a new publication by Princeton’s Alan S. Blinder.In his latest book, Blinder explains how economists sometimes overlook the human costs of best economic policy, while politicians often go to economists to reinforce their own preconceived ideas. But if politicians and economists could better work together, it could result in better policies the country so desperately needs.A renowned economist, Blinder is the Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School…
Features April 19, 2018
WWS Reacts: Cuba’s New President
Miguel Díaz-Canel was named president of Cuba, marking a historic shift in power. This is the first time in nearly six decades a Castro isn’t leading the country. A quieter politician, Díaz-Canel has served as Cuba’s first vice president since 2013. Díaz-Canel succeeds Raul Castro, who is expected to remain head of the Communist Party. We discussed the announcement with Princeton University experts Miguel Centeno and Stanley N. Katz. Centeno is the Musgrave Professor of Sociology and professor of sociology and international affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He’s also chair of Princeton’s Department of…
Features April 18, 2018
Q&A: America's Unifying Role in a Turbulent World
From Korea to Afghanistan, the U.S. military has waged war in pursuit of peace. Yet, have these military interventions — which have cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars — created sustained peace?Amb. Frederick D. Barton, lecturer of public and international affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, attempts to answer this question in a new book: “Peace Works: America's Unifying Role in a Turbulent World.”Mixing stories, history and analysis, Barton draws upon more than three decades of work in global conflict. The book offers a transformative approach to foreign affairs and possible…
Paul Ryan
Features April 11, 2018
WWS Reacts: Paul Ryan’s Retirement and the Republican Party
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan announced he will not seek re-election in November, a move that’s caught some in the Republican party off guard. We discussed the implications of Ryan’s retirement with Nolan McCarty, Susan Dod Brown Professor of Politics and Public Affairs and chair of Princeton University’s Department of Politics, and Brandice Canes-Wrone, Donald E. Stokes Professor of Public and International Affairs and Professor of Politics, both at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. McCarty studies U.S. politics, democratic political institutions and political game theory. He is the author and co-author of several books…
Features April 09, 2018
Experts Call for National and Corporate Action to Combat Disinformation on Social Media
Features April 09, 2018
Move over Fake News: Hostile Neighbors Pose Big Threats to Governance
Propaganda by way of “fake news” is one way a nation can wage war without firing a single shot. Another is through tactics of subversion and coercion, in which a country intentionally keeps neighboring countries weak in order to advance its own foreign policy interests, according to a new study from Princeton University. For example, without taking over any territory in Eastern Ukraine, Russia made Ukraine undesirable and ungovernable by fomenting dissent and aiding in separatism. This is a form of subversion used to disrupt governance in a weak country.The study, published in the journal International Organization, employs a statistical analysis of…
Features April 06, 2018
WWS Reacts: The ISIS Files
Through five trips to Iraq, a team of journalists from The New York Times uncovered a trove of Islamic State documents that explain how the group took control of Iraq and Syria. Taken together, the documents show how ISIS, for a short period of time, established its own government, or caliphate. We discussed their findings with Jacob N. Shapiro, professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Shapiro, who also is the director of the Empirical Studies of Conflict project, studies political violence, economic and political development in conflict zones, security policy…
Photo credit: Chris Austin MPA ’19
Features April 04, 2018
“Practicing What We Preach” — Students Give Back to Isles Youth Institute
“The Woo is a community that is constantly thinking about how to create a better world. And, as we all think about complex global problems in varying fields, there is something to be said about working for the local community around Princeton and reflecting upon the inequalities that exist so close by,” said Swetha Balachandran MPA ’18.Earlier this academic year, Swetha Balachandran MPA ’18 and fellow graduate students continued the Woodrow Wilson School’s close service relationship with Isles Youth Institute, a nonprofit based in Trenton, New Jersey, which supports at-risk youth so they can complete their educations and become self-reliant…
Features March 30, 2018
WWS Reacts: The 2020 Census
President Donald Trump’s plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census has sparked controversy in Washington and beyond. Below, Princeton University scholar Douglas S. Massey answers questions about the census and how this might change the way information is collected. Massey is the Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. His research focuses on international migration, race and housing, discrimination, education, urban poverty and Latin America, especially Mexico. Q. What is the history of the census? Massey: Some may wonder why people are so worked up…