From the Editors Archives - Page 144 of 171

Education

The Intellectual Integrity of Our Spaces

The Proposed Boycott of International Academic Conferences

February 3, 2017 • by Claire Potter

This morning it was brought to my attention that this boycott, and the AHA's response to the executive order itself, was being discussed on an AHA members' forum as an offense to US academic freedom. I do not have the right to reproduce what was said on a private forum, ...

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The Supreme Law of the Land

Standing Rock and the Dakota Access Pipeline

February 3, 2017 • by Jeffrey Ostler and Nick Estes

Donald Trump’s election only enhanced the sense that the fight is not won. Not only has Trump held financial interest in the pipeline (and likely still does), he is a friend of the fossil fuel industry and has never shown respect for American Indian nations. Pipeline advocates have challenged the Standing ...

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A “No!” to Gorsuch is a “Yes!” to Democracy

Democrats must oppose Neil Gorsuch for SCOTUS

February 1, 2017 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Democrats must oppose Gorsuch, on principle but also because of the pragmatics of starting to organize real opposition to Trumpism and to mobilize Democratic constituencies and reinvigorate the party. Indeed, every Democratic Senator who questions him at his confirmation hearings should ask him these three questions: (1) do you believe that the ...

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Compromising with Trump

Democracy Lessons from Havel and Michnik

February 1, 2017 • by Joshua Cherniss

Some critics of Trump have called for intransigent resistance; others have counseled openness to compromise in the hopes of taming or co-opting the administration. Even those who doubt that President Trump will prove to be the pragmatic problem-solver he and some supporters have promised must recognize the hunger to believe such promises. President ...

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Fortress America

The state of exception and Trump’s politics of forgetting

January 31, 2017 • by Siobhan Kattago

As Timothy Snyder reminds us, Trump’s policy to "Make America Great Again" harkens back not only to the protectionism of the 1930s, but also to America First, the conservative group in the 1940s who opposed US intervention into World War II. Trump’s promise to make America great again is one of ...

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Global Studies at The New School on the Executive Order banning Refugees

A Personal Message from the Chair

January 31, 2017 • by Jonathan Bach

The President’s executive order from January 27, 2017 barred entry to whole populations from select countries to the United States (initially including U.S. legal permanent residents). It is a watershed in post-World War II U.S. policy and history and a turning point in U.S. relations with the world. It must ...

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“Hamilton” and the Women’s March

A response to David Brooks

January 30, 2017 • by Renee Romano

He concludes his piece by offering the musical Hamilton as an example of what a more useful politics might look like. As Brooks writes, the march didn’t come close to offering a vision that can “rebind” the polity. “The musical ‘Hamilton’ is a lot closer.” His praise of Hamilton reflects that ...

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Trump’s Executive Order

Banning Immigration and Refugee Admissions

January 29, 2017 • by T. Alexander Aleinikoff

Now Mr. Trump declares that no more Syrian refugees will be brought to the United States. And he has, by the stroke of a pen, cut President Obama’s commitment of 110,000 refugee admissions this year to just 50,000 -- the lowest number in a decade. All this at a time ...

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The Trump Executive Orders on Immigration Enforcement

How a wilfull disregard for facts has produced disastrous policy

January 28, 2017 • by T. Alexander Aleinikoff

The problem, of course, is how to move from premises to policies, and the particular problem for Mr. Trump is a fundamental misunderstanding of the current facts on the ground. Let’s start with the facts. Since the beginning of his campaign for President, Mr. Trump has painted a picture of a ...

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What Makes Something a Robot?

An Interview with John M. Jordan

January 27, 2017 • by Zed Adams

Zed Adams: In your book, you point out that although it’s easy to identify instances of robots, it’s hard to give a general definition of what makes something a robot. This is intriguing, because it seems like we know what differentiates robots and, say, humans -- at least until we’re ...

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Thoughts on Putin and Trump

Democratic “Interference,” and the Transnational Contest for “Democracy”

January 26, 2017 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

This second response has obvious merit. The US government historically has very deliberately interfered with elections elsewhere on numerous occasions, many of which involved efforts to undermine perceived “enemies” and to promote “friends” even if they were “our sons-of-a-bitch,” as President Franklin Roosevelt famously said of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somozo ...

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Populism and Freudian Mass Psychology

Three Paradoxes

January 26, 2017 • by Eli Zaretsky

Paradox one: Populism is generally described as irrational, emotional, intolerant of opposing viewpoints, and so forth, yet the main populist insight, namely that the system is rigged against the ordinary person, is correct. On the main question, in other words, populism is far more rational than the putatively rational dominant ...