Ali warns of national security implications of COVID-19 response
The response to the spread of COVID-19 has not only “revealed deep shortcomings in America’s emergency preparedness and national medical response systems,” but also has broader implications for national security(link is external), according to Ford School Towsley Policymaker in Residence Javed Ali. As the nation’s attention is focused on fighting the pandemic, domestic and foreign adversaries could seize on the moment, as an opportunity to conduct “attacks against physical targets, undermine public confidence in government through disinformation and propaganda, disrupt medical and public health response efforts or create further economic uncertainty through commodity or currency manipulations,” he wrote in The Hill on March 13....
Former White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough visits the Ford School
"On February 26, the Ford School welcomed Denis McDonough, former White House Chief of Staff for President Obama for an armchair conversation on “New Frontiers: Labor, Immigration and Foreign Policy,” with John Ciorciari, associate professor at the Ford School. The conversation covered topics from international economic policy to advice for rising policymakers. Michigan Daily covered the event in an article published on February 26."...
Annual DC career trip fosters connections between students and alumni
The Ford School held its annual DC career trip with record student attendance (55 graduate students) and alumni participation (140). A Ford School tradition, this year’s Washington, DC experience provided students with several opportunities to engage alumni and other professionals working in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. On Thursday evening, the Ford School reception was kicked off with a lecture by Professor John Ciorciari on “The Path Forward in Afghanistan,” followed by a robust networking reception at the Council on Foreign Relations....
Ambassador Susan Rice visits the Ford School on MLK Jr. Day
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Ford School hosted Ambassador Susan Rice, former United Nations Ambassador and former U.S. National Security Advisor, for a conversation with Dean Michael S. Barr on her new memoir Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For....
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....