Trending Globally: Politics and Policy

In May, an outbreak of the Ebola virus was officially declared in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Aid groups are warning that it could become the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history . On this episode, Dan Richards spoke with two experts about why this outbreak is uniquely concerning, what the global health community needs to do to respond effectively, and how U.S. international aid p...

On this episode: as part of the Watson School’s programming for Brown University’s Commencement and Reunion Weekend, Dean John Friedman spoke with MS NOW’s Chris Hayes ‘01 about how social media and the attention economy have reshaped American politics, how politicians should react to these seismic changes in political media, and what this means for the 2026 mid-term elections and beyond. Chris Ha...

The war in Iran is entering its third month, and according to the War in Iran Energy Cost Tracker — a new project from the Watson School's Climate Solutions Lab — the war has already cost Americans over 40 billion extra dollars in gas and diesel. But as Jeff Colgan, professor of political science at the Watson School and director of Watson’s Climate Solutions Lab, explains, when it comes to the ef...

How do borders — both the physical barriers and the political realities — shape our society? These questions have long driven the work of Ieva Jusionyte, an anthropologist at the Watson School and director of Watson’s Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies. In the last nine months, Ieva won both a MacArthur Genius grant and a Guggenheim fellowship for her path-breaking work exploring how...

Lithium is an essential ingredient of most modern electronics. It helps to power our phones, our laptops, and increasingly EVs and other key parts of the green transition. As Thea Riofrancos, a political scientist and author of the new book “Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism,” explains, the story of lithium — how it's mined, how it’s refined, and how it makes its way around the world —...

From a once-in-a-century global pandemic, to wars in Europe and the Middle East, to the unchecked rise of AI and social media technologies, we are living in an age of threats against humanity that are profound, fast-moving, and interconnected. On this episode, produced in collaboration with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Dan Richards talks with two experts from very different fields ab...

On this episode, Dan Richards talks with Andrew Schrank, a professor of sociology and international and public affairs at the Watson School, about the legacy of President Biden’s industrial policy — what it achieved, what it failed to achieve, and its continued effect on America’s economy and society. They also explore how President Trump's efforts to shape American industry compare to President B...

On this episode, Dan Richards spoke with Watson School Senior Fellow Stephen Kinzer about the history of U.S. foreign intervention and how it can help us to understand today’s conflict in Iran. Stephen is an award-winning foreign correspondent who spent more than 20 years reporting around the world with the New York Times, and has written multiple books on the history of U.S. intervention abroad,...

On this episode, Watson School Dean and economist John Friedman talks with economist Sebnem Kalemli Ozcan about how U.S. economic policy in the last year has changed the American economy, how those changes have rippled throughout the global economic and financial system, and what it means for America’s place in a rapidly evolving international order. Sebnem Kalemli Ozcan is a professor of economic...

President Trump has issued more executive orders in the first year of his second term than he did in all four years of his first. These orders — which have directed government action on issues ranging from immigration to tariffs to the funding of federal agencies — have been met with hundreds of lawsuits filed in federal court. As a result, our federal court system is shaping U.S. public policy mo...

Violent, organized conflict is a near constant in human history. But why? Often, large-scale conflicts and wars are explained in material or political terms: humans engaging in conflict over land, resources, or ideologies. But as Rose McDermott, the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor of International Relations, sees it, these explanations fail to fully account for war’s existence and p...

When President Trump took office in January, Congress seemed poised to play a supporting role in the story of Trump’s second term. Republicans largely fell in line to support President Trump’s cabinet nominees and much of his broader agenda; it’s been reported that Trump himself has joked that he’s both the President and Speaker of the House.  Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, appeared help...

In October, President Trump and President Xi Jinping met for the first time in Trump’s new presidential term. The meeting ended with commitments from both countries designed to lower trade tensions —– something many observers greeted with relief. But, according to Watson Senior Fellow and Director of the Watson School’s China Initiative Lyle Goldstein, perhaps more noticeable was what was left out...

In August 2022 — just over three years ago — the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law. It represented the largest federal investment in renewable energy and climate action in U.S. history. The bill was a historic victory for the climate movement — and, as it turns out, its high-water mark in the United States for the foreseeable future. Since returning to office, President Trump has withdra...

In 2014, Narendra Modi became India’s Prime Minister, marking the beginning of what many experts and international watchgroups identify as a period of democratic erosion in the country. Since then, a number of other democracies around the world have followed India on this path — including, by many measures, the United States. On this episode, Dan Richards talks with two experts on Indian politics...

Bryce Steinberg is a development economist, which means she studies how lower-income countries grow into more prosperous ones. More specifically, she studies how to help people in low-income countries build their “human capital” — a phrase social scientists use to describe things like getting more formal education, more professional training, or improving your health. As she tells Dan Richards on...

Watson School political scientist Peter Andreas has spent decades studying the global economy — but not the one you read about in the business section, or are taught in Econ 101.  His focus is on the illicit global economy.  He’s written about everything from piracy in colonial America to the smuggling of technology during the Industrial Revolution, to clandestine migration and illegal d...

In his new book “The Art of Coercion,” Watson political scientist Reid Pauly provides a seemingly straightforward definition of coercion: “The practice of convincing a target by the use of threats, to bend to your will.” However, the simplicity of the definition belies the difficulty of doing it effectively – especially in the world of international security and relations. As Pauly explains to Dan...

What’s the role of a university in a democratic society? What responsibility do universities have to foster the public good, and what responsibilities does the public have to support centers of education and research?  These have become some of the most fraught and pressing questions in our current moment. But of course, they’re also timeless questions — ones that are as old as the United Sta...

On July 4th, President Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” into law. The bill cuts trillions of dollars in taxes, and allocates hundreds of billions in new spending. To offset all of this, it calls for over a trillion dollars in cuts to a range of domestic programs.  On this episode, Dan Richards spoke with two experts from the Watson School about the bill: How it will shape America...

On July 1st, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) officially closed its operations. It was the culmination of a months-long effort by the Trump administration to dismantle the agency, which had been in charge of administering U.S. foreign aid for over half a century.  Why did President Trump make the dissolution  of USAID a priority? And what will it mean for th...

On this episode, Dan Richards talks with Mark Blyth about his new book, co-written with Nicoló Fraccaroli, called “Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers.”  Mark and Dan discuss the competing theories for what causes inflation, the merits of each, and how they explain (or fail to explain) the inflation we saw post-pandemic. They also explore why inflation harms some parts of society more tha...

Mexico, like the United States, has a gun violence problem. It has one of the highest murder rates in the world, and most of those murders come from firearms. In 2019, for example, almost 70% of the country's 35,000 murders involved firearms. But unlike the U.S., Mexico doesn’t have tens of thousands of licensed firearms dealers.  It has two.  So how do so many guns make their way into M...

The World Press Freedom Index, which is issued by Reporters without Borders , measures the health of press freedom around the world. They do so along a number of axes, including the economic health of independent media, legal protections for the press and the physical security of journalists. In 2025, the global score on the index was the lowest it’s ever been. On this episode, Dan Richards talks...

Tuesday, April 29, marked the first 100 days of Trump’s second term.  To help make sense of all that’s happened (and a lot has happened), Dan Richards spoke with political scientist and Interim Director of the Watson Institute, Wendy Schiller. They discussed how Trump’s approach to governing has changed since his first term, and how the country, so far, has reacted to those changes. They also...