The Conversation

Four key times presidential nominees failed to gain Senate confirmation

Written by Sarah Snyder, Associate Professor, American University School of International Service

Republicans are rushing to begin confirmation hearings for Cabinet appointments even before the FBI has finished its background checks. For President-elect Donald Trump’s opponents, this makes uncovering flaws in his nominees all the more challenging.

As a scholar of U.S. history, I have studied the many cases in which presidential nominees,...

Evidence from states shows why Trump’s brand of Carrier-style dealmaking won't work

Written by Joshua Jansa, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Oklahoma State University

In late November, President-elect Donald Trump announced that he had reached a deal with Carrier to keep about 800 manufacturing jobs in Indiana from moving to Mexico. After the announcement, we learned that the Indiana Economic Development Corporation would give US$7 million in tax credits and grants to Carrier’s parent company in exchange...

How bucking climate change accord would hinder fight against HIV/AIDS

Written by Brian King, Associate Professor, Geography, Pennsylvania State University

South African women trying to soak up stagnant water during the drought in January 2016. Denis Farrell/AP

The potential withdrawal of the United States from the Paris climate agreement has broad implications for society and the environment. While much attention has concentrated upon melting glaciers, rising sea levels and conflicts over scarce...

Rule by the lowest common denominator? It's baked into democracy's design

Written by Firmin DeBrabander, Professor of Philosophy, Maryland Institute College of Art

Thousands of people listen to President-elect Donald Trump speak in Orlando, Florida on Dec. 16, 2016. AP Photo/Willie J. Allen Jr.

The Trump victory, and the general disaster for Democrats this year, was the victory of ignorance, critics moan.

Writing in Foreign Policy, Georgetown’s Jason Brennan called it “the dance of the...

Exxon's Rex Tillerson and the rise of Big Oil in American politics

Written by Brian C. Black, Distinguished Professor of History and Environmental Studies, Pennsylvania State University

In 1945, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, part of a behind-the-scenes policy to ensure access to oil for the U.S. and its allies. National Archives and Records Administration

“How Big Oil Bought the White House and Tried to Steal the Country” is the subtitle of a book that tells the story of a...

Winning over Congress' key members would spell legislative victory for President Trump

Written by Patrick T. Hickey, Assistant Professor of Political Science, West Virginia University

Will a Republican Congress grant President Donald Trump a path to easily confirming his nominees and turning his campaign promises into law? Not necessarily.

The history of congressional-presidential relations suggests that Trump may have difficulty enacting his ambitious agenda into law.

Unified government does not always mean smooth sailing for...

Uncertainty in blood supply chains creating challenges for industry

Written by Anna Nagurney, John F. Smith Memorial Professor of Operations Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst

A blood drive in Florida in 2009. AP Photo/Chris O'Meara

When we talk about supply chains, we may conjure up images of manufacturing plants, warehouses, trucks and shipping docks. There is another, truly unique supply chain for a product vitally important to health care and life, and it is very volatile at the moment: the blood supply chain.

Human...

Who is Betsy DeVos?

Written by Dustin Hornbeck, Ph.D. Student in Educational Leadership and Policy, Miami University

Education Secretary-designate Betsy DeVos speaks in Grand Rapids, Michigan.AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File

After President-elect Donald Trump tapped Betsy DeVos to become the head of the United States Department of Education, her name has spurred a great deal of conversation within the K-12 education community.

Much of this conversation has centered...

Searching deep and dark: Building a Google for the less visible parts of the web

Written by Christian Mattmann, Director, Information Retrieval and Data Science Group and Adjunct Associate Professor, USC and Principal Data Scientist, NASA

A geographical map depicting hotbeds of dark web activity related to illegal products. Larger circles indicate more activity.Christian Mattmann, CC BY-SA

In today’s data-rich world, companies, governments and individuals want to analyze anything and everything they can get their hands on – and the World Wide Web has loads of...

Inside the coal industry's rhetorical playbook

Written by Steve Schwarze, Professor, The University of Montana

A political sign in West Virginia reflects the claim that the Obama administration, by developing policies to reduce carbon emission, was waging a campaign against the industry. Vicki Smith/AP Photo

If citizens have heard anything about the upheaval in the U.S. coal industry, it is probably the insistence that President Obama and the EPA have waged...