Maxwell School News and Commentary

"Attracting GSCs to India is actually very hard work, without having any attractive catchphrase. There is no strategy other than considerable additional investment and effort into infrastructure and skill-building, tackling power bottlenecks, reforms in labour and land regulations and keeping protectionist forces at bay," writes Devashish Mitra, professor of economics and Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs.

Yingyi Ma, associate professor of sociology, assesses that Trump's executive order suspending the entry of foreign workers seeking H1-B visas "seriously undermines American leadership in fields such as technology and medicine where skilled immigrants serve as the backbone."

"If Democrats are taking more precautions because of the coronavirus, we may see them not turn out as much as they would have without the pandemic," says Shana Gadarian, associate professor of political science.

"Walking away from situations that challenge U.S. interests, as Trump has done with Hong Kong, only to hide behind a wall of ever higher barriers, will only serve to leave China unchecked and America increasingly alone," writes Professor Mary Lovely.

Those of an older generation, whether in China or the U.S., generally prefer to circumvent discussion of politics and socioeconomic issues, says Yingyi Ma, associate professor of sociology. "They have memories of the Cultural Revolution and they understand how divisive and how difficult it was and how much destruction it caused," she says.

"At this point, it is just completely baffling to me,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science, of President Trump's decision to hold his campaign rally in Tulsa, the site of one of the worst racial massacres in modern U.S. history back in 1921. "He is going all-in on ‘Law and Order’ and rejecting the very premise of the protests and sticking it in your eye."

"By 'abolish the police,' I mean building a world where we do not rely on anti-Black, white supremacist institutions of order to regulate society," says Jenn Jackson, assistant professor of political science.

"I think for a growing number of white Americans you are seeing more attention paid to the longer-term reasons that racial inequality persists in America," says Steven White, assistant professor of political science. "I guess the question is whether these changes in public opinion will last," he says. "Is this the beginning of a really substantial shift?"