The Conversation

Government-funded buyouts after disasters are slow and inequitable – here's how that could change

Written by A.R. Siders, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University

Devastation from Hurricane Michael in Mexico Beach, Florida, Oct. 12, 2018. Residents whose homes have suffered major damage in multiple storms could eventually be offered buyouts, but the process can take several years. AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

Destructive storms like Hurricanes Florence and Michael prompt difficult conversations about whether to...

Trump sees opportunity in Venezuela's humanitarian crisis as midterms approach

Written by Marco Aponte-Moreno, Assistant Professor of Global Business, St Mary's College of California

President Donald Trump has spoken forcefully about the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, calling it a “human tragedy” at the United Nations General Assembly in September.

Venezuela’s humanitarian crisis – which began in late 2014, when a drop in oil prices deprived the government of its primary income source – has...

Blockchains won't fix internet voting security – and could make it worse

Written by Ari Juels, Professor of Computer Science, Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute, Cornell Tech, and Co-Director, Initiative for CryptoCurrencies and Contracts (IC3), Cornell University

An e-ballot is less secure than one on paper.SvetaZi/Shutterstock.com

Looking to modernize voting practices, speed waiting times at the polls, increase voter turnout and generally make voting more convenient, many government officials – and some companies hawking voting systems – are looking to an emerging technology called a...

What Thomas Jefferson, Donald Trump and the American people think about freedom of the press

Written by Jill Darling, Survey Director, University of Southern California – Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

“No government ought to be without censors and where the press is free no one ever will,” wrote Thomas Jefferson to George Washington.

It is a powerful description of press freedom and the crucial role of the press in a democracy.

Here Jefferson sees the press as “censors” in the ancient Roman sense: They guard against the...

Would a Space Force mean the end of NASA?

Written by Wendy Whitman Cobb, Associate Professor of Political Science, Cameron University

Crowds watch as the space shuttle Discovery lifts off from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. AP Photo/Phil Sandlin

Space, that final frontier, is something that catches the attention of a country naturally inclined to believe in ideas like “Manifest Destiny” and American exceptionalism. But how well does a Space Force fit...

Why health apps are like the Wild West, with Apple just riding into town

Written by Michael L. Millenson, Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University

Jeff Williams, chief operating officer of Apple, talks about the Apple Watch 4 and its ability to detect irregularities in heartbeat on Sept. 12, 2018 in Cupertino, California.Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Photo

The heart rate monitor built into the new Apple Watch has sparked sharp debate over its risks and benefits, even though the feature was cleared by...

How Turkey and Saudi Arabia became frenemies – and why the Khashoggi case could change that

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

Things between Saudi Crown Prince Salman and Turkish President Erdogan have become rather tense.AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici

The Oct. 2 disappearance of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi at his country’s consulate in Istanbul has put a spotlight on the deteriorating relations between Turkey and the Persian Gulf kingdom.

Articles based on ano...

Partisanship runs deep in America - even among 'independents'

Written by Christopher Devine, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Dayton

Dolly the elephant and Dottie the donkey.AP Photo/Bob Schutz

In voting, it doesn’t really matter which party you register with on paper.

Besides, 18 states don’t even register voters by party. What really matters is what political scientists like myself call your “political identity” – your psychological attachment to...

The Violence Against Women Act is unlikely to reduce intimate partner violence – here's why

Written by Leigh Goodmark, Professor of Law, University of Maryland, Baltimore

Most dollars spent on fighting domestic violence go to the criminal justice system.Shutterstock/Fure

The Violence Against Women Act, the federal government’s signature legislation aimed at responding to domestic violence, rape, sexual assault and stalking, expired at the end of September.

Legislative wrangling over the act’s provisions...

America's archaeology data keeps disappearing -- even though the law says the government is supposed to preserve it

Written by Keith Kintigh, Professor, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University

A fragment of an ancestral Pueblo jar dating to c. A.D. 1150.Keith Kintigh, Arizona State University, CC BY

Archaeology – the name conjures up images of someone carefully sifting the sands for traces of the past and then meticulously putting those relics in a museum. But today’s archaeology is not just about retrieving artifacts and...