Ford School faculty’s national security expertise featured in The Hill
The Hill recently featured Ford School faculty expertise on domestic and international security and counterterrorism. Javed Ali, Towsley Policymaker in Residence at the Ford School, discusses domestic terrorism and the United States’ role in Iranian counterterrorism efforts in op-eds on December 28(link is external) and January 9(link is external), respectively....
U-M to welcome international ‘champions of democracy’ for key debate symposium
In conjunction with hosting a presidential debate next fall, the University of Michigan will welcome representatives from regions across the globe for a symposium on promoting political candidate debates and other key democratic principles and practices in their home countries....
Faculty Findings: Fall 2019
Carl Simon on the spread of HIV, Robert Axelrod on the evolution of cooperation, and Mary Corcoran and Paul Courant on gender wage discrimination....
The road from transport infrastructure to international trade
Between mid-April and early August, Kazu Shibuya (MPP ’88) had already made nine trips from Tokyo to Washington D.C. and he was getting ready for his tenth. It is what his role as deputy minister and leading negotiator for the government of Japan calls for while his country and the United States are in the thick of negotiations to craft a bilateral trade agreement....
Weiser Diplomacy Center launch series makes a big splash
The Ford School’s new Weiser Diplomacy Center officially launched this fall with visits from an all-star lineup of leaders in foreign affairs....
Ali comments on Bolton's exit
While debate ensues over whether President Trump’s national security advisor John Bolton resigned or was fired, the bottom line is: Bolton is out of the White House. This is President Trump’s fourth national security advisor to leave the position—voluntarily or otherwise. “It’s unclear for those of us on the outside precisely what led to this major development,” says Javed Ali, Towsley Policymaker in Residence at the Ford School and former senior director of the Trump Administration’s National Security Council, during an interview with radio station KNX In Depth on September 10....
Ali and Huber (MPP '20) warn of terror threat in CNN op-ed
Marking the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, in a CNN opinion piece Towsley Policymaker in Residence Javed Ali and Ford School student Marcella Huber (MPP ‘20) call for the U.S. to take immediate steps to combat a specific looming terrorist threat. Despite the loss of its physical caliphate and significant battlefield casualties, Ali and Huber warn in “The US needs to act now against the next terrorist incubator” that Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) ideology is building strength in a remote corner of northeast Syria where a 1.5-square-mile complex called al-Hol holds more than 70,000 people being detained by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. Within this population, report Ali and Huber, thousands are becoming radicalized and increasingly committed to the ISIS cause....
Biegun’s talk on denuclearization efforts in North Korea catches international attention
Last week, Stephen Biegun (LSA ’86), U.S. special representative to North Korea, discussed the United States’ denuclearization efforts with North Korea during the Ford School’s Weiser Diplomacy Center launch series. Biegun emphasized the United States’ preparedness to negotiate with Kim Jung Un, stressing that time is running out. He remarked that denuclearization is of worldwide interest and that countries neighboring North Korea specifically play an instrumental role in communicating denuclearization efforts....
Slate of prominent speakers launches Weiser Diplomacy Center
"The Ford School is at the forefront of many of the challenging issues facing our world today, and the Weiser Diplomacy Center will further our ability to tackle such issues," said Michael Barr, the Joan and Sanford Weill Dean of Public Policy. "Bringing Stephen Biegun to speak to students about North Korea negotiations is a perfect example of this." This new hub for the study and practice of diplomacy will bring in leaders in foreign affairs to campus for dialogue with students and the public to strengthen U-M's role as a national leader in international policy education....
New "teach-outs" pay homage to U-M's game-changing Vietnam-era "teach-ins"
On March 24th, 1965 at 8:00 PM, about 3,500 faculty and students at the University of Michigan launched the first ever “teach in,” despite bomb threats and condemnation by the Michigan state legislature and governor. For twelve hours, participants attended lectures, debates, and performances to protest the War in Vietnam. Along the way, they established a model that would be replicated at over 120 campuses across the United States before the end of the war......
Hacking for global health: Tackling wicked problems, like avian influenza, with creativity
"It was a big, late-night conversation. We walked into the room with one view of the world, and we came out completely different, and totally for the better."...
Microfinance breakthrough: Dean Yang uses fingerprints to boost microlending in Malawi
Yang's study is not only addressing a massive challenge in microfinance and international development, it's also providing rigorous empirical evidence of the importance of personal identification for credit market efficiency....