The Conversation

China's efforts to win hearts and minds with aid and investment may make all the difference if there's a cold war with the US

Written by Nader Habibi, Henry J. Leir Professor of Practice in Economics of the Middle East, Brandeis University

Venezuela Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, center, greets the arrival of medical specialists and supplies from China in March.AP Photo/Matias Delacroix

U.S.-China relations are the worst they’ve been in decades – at least since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in June 1989, which led to almost complete international isolation of China.

Some...

How DC Mayor Bowser used graffiti to protect public space

Written by Rebekah Modrak, Professor, University of Michigan

Volunteers helped city workers paint 'Black Lives Matter' on the street near the White House.Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

When President Donald Trump sent heavily armed federal law enforcement officers and unidentified officers in riot gear into Washington, D.C. during the height of protests recently, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser responded by painting...

More people eat frog legs than you think – and humans are harvesting frogs at unsustainable rates

Written by H. Resit Akcakaya, Professor of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)

Anatolian water frogs (_Pelophylax spp_) could become locally extinct in parts of Turkey due to over-harvesting as food. Kerim Çiçek, CC BY-ND

Amphibians such as frogs, toads, newts and salamanders, are the world’s most threatened group of vertebrates. Of the 6,800 species assessed by the International Union for the Conservation...

What colleges and universities can do to improve police-community relations

Written by Brian N. Williams, Associate Professor of Public Policy, University of Virginia

Uriah Davis, left, a graduate student at Oklahoma State University, spoke to Police Chief Jeff Watts outside the Stillwater Police Department in Stillwater, Oklahoma, on June 3, 2020.AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki

In the wake of the death of George Floyd – and the protests that it has sparked around the world – public attention is focused on...

Could China's strategic pork reserve be a model for the US?

Written by David L. Ortega, Associate Professor of Food and Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University

The coronavirus has created a meat shortage in the United States.Sezeryadigar/Getty Images

During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, we became accustomed to face-masked shoppers, social distancing and one-way aisles at the grocery store. But most shocking was the scene at the supermarket meat case.

Some meat processing plants closed or reduced...

How 'Karen' went from a popular baby name to a stand-in for white entitlement

Written by Robin Queen, Professor of Linguistics, English Language and Literatures and Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan

Watch out, Karen coming through.Edward Berthelot/Getty Images

When I read about Amy Cooper, the woman in Central Park who called the police on a black birder because he’d asked her to leash her out-of-control dog, I was horrified.

But, as a sociolinguist who studies and writes about language and discrimination, I was also struck by the name...

Why soldiers might disobey the president's orders to occupy US cities

Written by Marcus Hedahl, Associate Professor of Philosophy, United States Naval Academy

Members of the military wearing U.S. Army Special Forces insignia block protesters near Lafayette Park and the White House on June 3, 2020.Drew Angerer/Getty Images

President Donald Trump has announced he was considering sending the federal military into the streets of numerous American cities – above and beyond those sent to Washington, D.C....

Who killed Sweden's prime minister? 1986 assassination of Olof Palme is finally solved – maybe

Written by Andrew Nestingen, Professor, Department of Scandinavian Studies, University of Washington

The murder weapon in the Palme case was never found.zbruch via Getty Images

It took 34 years, 10,000 interviews and 134 murder confessions, but the assassination of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme has now been solved.

Palme was shot on the Stockholm street Sveavägen – roughly, “Mother Sweden Way” – in February 1986,...

During Floyd protests, media industry reckons with long history of collaboration with law enforcement

Written by Carol A. Stabile, Professor, University of Oregon

Actors Dennis Franz and Jimmy Smits on the set of 'NYPD Blue.'Mitchell Gerber/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

In a recent interview, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison was asked why it’s so difficult to prosecute cases against police officers.

“Just think about all the cop shows you may have watched in your life,” he replied....

Neighborhood-based friendships making a comeback for kids in the age of coronavirus

Written by Julie Wargo Aikins, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute, Wayne State University

A new social world for children may be right outside their front door.Martin Novak/Movement via Getty Images

As the weather has warmed in my Midwestern town, my neighborhood is full of children on bicycles pretending to be riding through the Wild West. I can’t walk down the sidewalk without stepping on chalk drawings or hopscotch boards....