Zachary Selden focuses on US national security and alliances with an emphasis on the transatlantic relationship. His first book, Economic Sanctions as Instruments of American Foreign Policy (Praeger,1999) examines the use of sanctions and provides a framework for understanding when and why they succeed or fail in furthering American national interests. In Alignment, Alliance, and American Grand Strategy (University of Michigan Press, 2016), he...
The buzzword of the first Trump administration was “Great Power Competition.” That was also a lie.
Can human-rights organizations avoid accusations of racism when they criticize certain governments? Can they avoid fueling racism? Zoltán I. Búzás and Lotem Bassan-Nygate test the effectiveness of tactics to counter racism when trying to shame perpetrators.
Lotem Bassan-Nygate is an assistant professor of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School. She was previously a postdoctoral research associate at the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University and a predoctoral research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Middle East Initiative. Her research lies at the intersection of international relations, political psychology, and experimental methods. Lotem’s work has appeared...
Zoltán I. Búzás is an associate professor at the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. He is also the founder of the International Race and Rights Lab. Zoltán's research examines questions pertaining to international relations, human rights, and race. His work is published or forthcoming in the American Journal of Political Science, International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, European Journal of...
Tim Heinkelmann-Wild is a Senior Researcher and Lecturer at LMU Munich’s Geschwister-Scholl-Institute of Political Science. His research focuses on the relationship of international institutions, power, and order. He obtained his dissertation at LMU Munich and was a Junior Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Nuffield College and the Department of Politics and International Relations. His research appeared in journals such as RIO, ISQ,...
Benjamin Dassler is Principal Investigator of the project “The Politics of Contender Institutions in International Regime Complexes (POLCON)” funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) at LMU Munich. His research focuses on global governance, the contestation of international institutions, and international regime complexes. He is the author of the book “The Institutional Topology of International Regime Complexes”, published by Oxford...
Donald Trump’s second term in office is causing great concern about the future of the Liberal International Order (ILO) in Western capitals and headquarters of international organizations (IOs). Over the course of the last months, Trump fundamentally attacked international institutions such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Paris Agreement, and the World Trade Organization (WTO). The blueprints for his second administration...
With the news avalanche that is Trump, it’s hard to keep track of all the outrageous things he says and does. With his recent very vocal attempts at land grabs (that we are not entirely sure will stay rhetorical) that are already being normalized in both right-wing and mainstream media, it’s important to look back at what is at the heart of Trump’s political philosophy that he himself doesn't realize. Breaking Point Carnival is hardly the term...
Things have been rough for Canada. It's engulfed in political turmoil, as Justin Trudeau steps down from leadership and the country braces for a contentious election. Incoming US President Donald Trump has decided to pick on the country, threatening ruinous (to both sides) tariffs and either claiming Canada is the 51st state or that he will make it so. The best that US liberals can do, however, is make jokes about wanting to be part of Canada....
US President Jimmy Carter's funeral is being held today in Washington, DC at the National Cathedral. Since he passed away shortly after Christmas, tributes have abounded about a man once derided as a weak one-term President. After leaving the Presidency, however, he became a powerful voice for good, leading peacebuilding and election monitoring efforts, and supporting humanitarian projects like Habitat for Humanity. And, importantly to me, he...
Amid the annual deluge of end-of-year lists, I started to think about what readings generated the best classroom discussions I have overseen in the past calendar year. That list of readings is below, but I first need to provide some context. I teach seven courses per year—three each in Wartburg’s Fall and Winter Terms and one in our May Term. These include courses in Security Studies and American Politics as well as general education seminars...