Trending Globally: Politics And Policy

High-profile unionization drives at companies like Amazon, Apple, and Starbucks have focused attention on organized labor in the US in a way unseen in half a century. The attention isn’t without merit: there were more successful union elections in 2022 than in any year since 2005, and public approval for organized labor is the highest it's been in over 50 years.  Yet despite these signs of a growing labor movement, the percentage of Americans belonging to unions is still substantially smaller than it was during the peak of organized labor participation in the 20th century.  So how should one think about the state of organized labor today? On the eve of Labor Day weekend, maybe it’s also worth revisiting why we should care about the state of organized labor in the first place.  On this episode of Trending Globally, you’ll hear from Andrew Schrank, professor of sociology and international and public affairs at Watson and an expert on organized labor, about the past, present, and future of the lab

In March 2020, the Vatican’s Apostolic Archives of Pope Pius XII – also known as the Vatican’s ‘secret archives’ – were opened to scholars from around the world. Historian and Watson Professor David Kertzer was one of those scholars.  What he found there is helping to reframe the role that the Catholic Church – and its then leader, Pope Pius XII – played in World War II.   Pius XII’s legacy is heavily debated. Some people want him to be made a saint. Others call him ‘Hitler’s Pope,’ blaming him for aiding the Nazi regime and ultimately, facilitating the Holocaust.  What David found is a much more complicated story.  He’s put together his research into a gripping new book, The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler. It’s a page-turner of a book, filled with larger-than-life characters, set at a moment in European history when the stakes couldn’t be higher. It’s also completely true.  On this episode of Trending Globally: David Kertzer discusses Pope Piu

In 1973, the Supreme Court made abortion a constitutional right in its Roe v. Wade decision. This June, in a 6-to-3 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court undid that right.  The decision set off shockwaves across the country, and brought up questions not only about reproductive rights, but about the relationship between the Supreme Court and US politics at large.  Dobbs vs. Jackson was only one of several wide-ranging, polarizing decisions of this Supreme Court term. On this episode of Trending Globally, Wendy Schiller, professor of political science and the director of the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy at Watson, helps explain this term’s monumental decisions, and ground them in American politics and history.  At a moment when the reach of the court seems to extend further than ever and its opinions fall on an increasingly divided nation, there’s never been a more important time to assess how our judicial system works – and how it doesn’t.

This past year, Trending Globally has been teaming up with the Costs of War Project to explore the effects of 20 years of America’s post-9/11 wars. Past episodes have explored America’s growing military presence around the world, the refugee crisis these wars have created, and the effects they’ve had on our planet and environment.  This episode takes a closer look at how these wars have changed life in the United States – in cities, towns, and communities across the country. The first part of the episode focuses on a transformation that’s become all too visible in the past few years: the militarization of America’s police. The second part of the episode focuses on a less-visible phenomenon, but one that’s killed more servicepeople and veterans than all 20 years of combat combined.  Guests on this episode: https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/people/contributors/jessica-katzenstein (Dr. Jessica Katzenstein)  https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/people/contributors/thomas-h-ben-suitt-iii (Dr. Ben S

For many politicians, policymakers, and voters, the 2016 election of Donald Trump was a shocking lesson in the massive role tech companies, like Facebook and Twitter, play in our politics.  Since then, their role has only gotten bigger. And as our guest on this episode of Trending Globally explains: that’s a huge problem for democracies around the world.  Frances Haugen worked as a product manager in Facebook’s Civic Integrity Department from 2019-2021. While there she saw firsthand how Facebook’s algorithms are designed to maximize user engagement at all costs, with disastrous effects. In 2021 Frances anonymously leaked tens of thousands of internal documents to The Wall Street Journal, and became known as the ‘Facebook Whistleblower.’ Since then she’s testified before Congress, and helped start a global movement to better understand and regulate ‘Big Tech.’ On this episode of Trending Globally, political economist and Rhodes Center Director Mark Blyth talks with Frances about the problems tech gia

Today, there are over 25 million people living as refugees around the world. Humanitarian crises in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria, and countless other countries have led to this staggering figure. No matter the circumstance, it’s a human tragedy – one which we don't seem to have a plan for how to fix. Failing to provide new homes for refugees isn’t only bad for refugees, according to Watson economist Dany Bahar. It’s also a lost opportunity for the countries that could be accepting them.  That’s because, as Dany explains on this episode of Trending Globally, immigration of all kinds provides profound economic benefits to host countries in a variety of ways. By looking at data from immigration patterns and refugee crises around the world, Dany and his colleagues are making the case that immigration is a consistent boon for countries, as long as host countries provide the right policies to help immigrants thrive.   In the case of the United States, Dany believes that expanding immigration is more t

Last August, the United States pulled out of Afghanistan, ending its longest-ever military engagement. For a moment, it seemed like the US might be entering a period defined more by its domestic agenda than its international entanglements.  But then, of course, Russia invaded Ukraine. The US is getting more involved by the day in this new conflict, and Americans are once again debating what role their military should play in the world.  One central question hovering over this debate: as we try to support Ukraine and its people, can we avoid making the same mistakes we made when intervening in Afghanistan and Iraq?  Watson Senior Fellow Richard Boucher thinks it’s possible. But first, we need to make sure we’re learning the right lessons. And doing that requires looking back even further in our history than Afghanistan. As Richard explains, understanding how the “Vietnam generation” ended up leading the charge into Afghanistan and Iraq has a lot to teach us about the lessons we should take from

On this episode, Trending Globally was thrilled to welcome a special guest host: Glenn Loury, professor of economics at the Watson Institute. In addition to being a celebrated economist, Loury is also one of America’s most insightful and incisive thinkers on race and public policy.  His guest on this episode, Briahna Joy Gray, is a progressive writer and commentator, and former National Press Secretary for the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign. Glenn and Briahna discussed some of the Left’s most prized policy ambitions, including student debt relief, Medicare-for-all, and increasing taxes on America’s wealthiest citizens.  Neither Glenn nor Briahna’s political views fall neatly into America’s two main political parties, so while they don’t see eye to eye on most of the issues, the resulting conversation strays from typical partisan talking points. Instead, you’ll hear two independent thinkers respectfully debating America’s biggest policy problems, sometimes taking positions that cut across

This year, Earth Day marks the beginning of the ninth week of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A geopolitical and military crisis that quickly transformed into an energy crisis, this conflict will have far-reaching repercussions for both humanity and our climate. On this episode, Sarah Baldwin ’87 and Dan Richards talk with experts on the politics, economics, and science of fossil fuel about the relationship between war, technological change, and climate change.  Sarah talks with Jeff Colgan, political scientist and director of the Climate Solutions Lab at Watson, about how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (and the resulting sanctions imposed upon  them) have altered the global fossil fuel market. They also discuss what Jeff sees as the two different ways this crisis could impact our fight against climate change: one that will leave you hopeful, while the other…less so.  In the second half we highlight the work of Deborah Gordon, a senior fellow at Watson and an expert on both the policies and technol

Over the past few years, America’s schools have become a battleground in our national politics. Debates about how we teach history and explore issues of race in school have become flashpoints at every level, from school boards to the Oval Office.  And there’s one phrase that’s become particularly attached to this tension: “critical race theory.”  Those three words have catapulted from the depths of legal academia into the center of partisan politics. But as Danielle Holley-Walker, dean of Howard University Law School and American Council on Education Fellow at Brown University, explains on this episode of Trending Globally, what people today are describing as critical race theory has little to do with its original meaning. And misappropriation of the phrase isn’t just a careless mistake; its use (and misuse) is part of a calculated backlash against social movements that have gained momentum in recent years.  On this episode, Sarah talks with Danielle about how the phrase has transformed from a

The war in Ukraine has upended what many of us thought we knew about the world today. Whether we’re thinking about Russia and Europe or China and Taiwan, it seems like the range of possible outcomes in conflicts around the world has expanded in unsettling ways.  In the midst of all this, Watson Senior Fellow Chas Freeman thinks there’s one key concept we’d all benefit from getting reacquainted with: ‘spheres of influence.’ Chas Freeman is one of America’s leading experts on US-China relations, and a wide-ranging thinker on international affairs, diplomacy, and statecraft.  On this episode Chas talks with Watson Director Ed Steinfeld about how thinking in terms of ‘spheres of influence’ could help us better understand the world. In fact, it goes beyond just understanding the world. Chas thinks that concept of ‘spheres of influence’ – with a little tweaking – could actually help global superpowers like the US and China navigate and de-escalate conflicts of the future.  https://watson.brown.edu/ne

Fiona Hill became a household name in 2019, as a witness during President Trump’s first impeachment hearing. But before all that, she was an intelligence analyst specializing in Russia and Europe for Presidents Obama and Bush. And she watched closely as economic stagnation and inequality in Russia fueled populism and authoritarianism.  As her new book explains, a similar trajectory has been playing out in her birthplace in the North of England, and in her new home – the United States.  The book, titled ‘There Is Nothing For You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21st Century,’ combines a personal history with a global history, and in the process explains the social and economic forces that lead to anti-democratic movements.   This episode was originally broadcast on the Rhodes Center Podcast, another show from the Watson Institute that’s hosted by political economist Mark Blyth. It was recorded in late February, so some references to the conflict in Ukraine may be a little out of date by the

This past November, Daniel Ortega was reelected as president of Nicaragua. He ensured his victory by imprisoning his political opponents and launching the largest crackdown on political dissent in the country in decades. This was just the most recent step in his multi-decade effort to transform Nicaragua from a budding democracy into an authoritarian regime.  What can’t be forgotten is that just one year ago this horrific turn didn’t seem inevitable. On this episode, Dan Richards talks with two experts on the subject: one is a senior fellow at the Watson Institute, the other an activist in Nicaraguan politics who is currently living in exile. They explain how Nicaragua got to its current state of extreme repression, and what might be done to change it.   This is also a story with a special connection to the Watson Institute, which hosted a conference in 2019 marking the https://watson.brown.edu/nicaragua (40th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution). Both of the guests on this episode were at

In this episode you’ll hear from Ieva Jusionyte, an anthropologist and associate professor of international security and anthropology at the Watson Institute. In addition to teaching and research, she also has a side job – as a licensed EMT.  In May 2015 she combined these two passions. She moved to Nogales, AZ, to study emergency responders on the US-Mexico border. For two years she studied life along this border, and worked on it as an EMT herself.  What she found became the subject of her book, ‘https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520297180/threshold (Threshold: Emergency Responders on the U.S.-Mexico Border).’ In it, she explores how the US-Mexico border – as a legal boundary, an idea, and a physical space – changes emergency response, and what these changes reveal about how borders affect people who live near them.  https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520297180/threshold (Learn more about and purchase Ieva’s book.)  https://watson.brown.edu/news/podcasts (Learn more about the Watson Institu

Over the past few months, Russian President Vladimir Putin has built up a massive  military presence on Russia’s border with Ukraine.  As a result, pundits, politicians, and casual observers of the news have all been asking the same questions: would President Putin actually invade Ukraine? And if so, what would that mean for the rest of the world?  These are fair questions, of course. But Michael Kennedy, our guest on this week’s episode of Trending Globally, thinks this framing might actually obscure more than it illuminates. Michael is a professor of sociology at the Watson Institute and an expert on social transformation in Eastern Europe in the post-Cold War era. He’s written and taught extensively on Ukraine, and on this episode he helps make sense of this crisis that defies easy explanation.  Despite the complexity of the situation, there’s one thing Michael wants us all to see clearly right now: the stakes of this crisis – for the Ukraine, the US, and democracies around the world –

The B-2 Spirit, known as the ‘Stealth Bomber,’ is one of the most advanced aircrafts in the US military. It has a fuel efficiency of about 4.2 gallons per mile. (That’s not a typo; it’s less than one mile per gallon.) Burning a full tank of gas in a B-2 releases roughly 250 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That’s more than 50 times what the average car releases in an entire year.  And that’s just for one trip, for one plane in the US military – the world’s largest institutional consumer of fossil fuel.  “The size of that consumption is kind of hard to get your head around,” says Neta Crawford on this episode of Trending Globally.  Neta Crawford is a professor of political science at Boston University and co-founder of the Costs of War project, which is housed at the Watson Institute. The project works to uncover the financial, human, political, and environmental costs of America’s post-9/11 wars. This year Trending Globally has teamed up with the Costs of War project to explor

It’s been 12 months since a mob of American citizens, driven by the false belief that the presidential election had been stolen from Donald Trump, attacked the US Capitol. The insurrectionists couldn’t overturn the election results, but they did make us question basic assumptions about the state of American democracy.   On this episode, host Sarah Baldwin ‘87 and producer Dan Richards talked with experts at Watson and Brown about the attack. They asked scholars of political science and international affairs: what did the insurrection teach us about the state of American politics? How has it changed us? And, perhaps most important: what do we need to do to protect our institutions going forward? Guests featured on this episode: Wendy Schiller, Professor of Political Science and Director of the A. Alfred Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy Juliet Hooker, Professor of Political Science at Brown University  Rose McDermott, Professor of International Relations at the Watson Institute St

In 1996, Keith Harper began to work on a lawsuit against the US government. It was a class action suit filed by Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Confederacy in Montana. She claimed something that many people had long known to be true, but that had never been directly addressed in the US legal system: the US government owed many, many Native Americans a lot of money. Keith Harper - who is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation - became a lead prosecutor for the plaintiff class, which grew to include hundreds of thousands of Native Americans. The case, known as Cobell v. Salazar, became one of the largest class action suits in US history. It awarded a total of $3.4 billion dollars to Native Americans across the country.  But as Keith explained to Sarah on this week’s episode of Trending Globally:  “It was an important milestone. But we should recognize, it was a mere measure of justice, and not full justice.” Keith would go on to serve as the US Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council under Presi

While there’s a lot to be thankful for this fall and winter (such as an effective Covid-19 vaccine) many Americans are still living in the middle of a crisis when it comes to housing. It’s one that’s been brewing for far longer than the pandemic -- and looks like it will outlast it, too.  Too many Americans live in unstable housing, or go for stretches of time without any home at all. It’s one of our most embarrassing shortcomings as a country, and addressing it has proven to be one of our most vexing policy problems.  This week we’re rereleasing one of our favorite episodes on the topic: part three of Less to Lean On, a series on housing in America that Trending Globally produced in collaboration with the media collective Signs of Providence. This particular episode follows one woman as she tries to navigate the world of affordable housing in Rhode Island. Her story reveals the complex web of forces that keep so many Americans from finding stable housing, and why it’s disastrous not just for indivi

On November 16, a $1 trillion infrastructure bill was signed into law by President Biden, marking the biggest investment in the country’s infrastructure in decades. At the same time, an even larger social spending bill sits in a state of limbo in Congress, with no resolution in sight.   What happens in the US Congress over the next few months should matter to everyone, not just the political hobbyists. With proposed government spending on everything from fighting climate change to supporting new industries in the US, the success or failure of President Biden’s legislative agenda will have a huge effect not just in America, but around the world.  On this episode Sarah Baldwin ’87 and Dan Richards talk with two experts to get a sense of how President Biden’s agenda has been making its way through Congress, and how the process fits into the bigger picture of US electoral politics.  Guests: Carrie Nordlund is assistant dean for undergraduate programs at Brown University, and co-host, with Mark