The Conversation

A brief history of presidential lethargy

Written by Stacy A. Cordery, Professor of History, Iowa State University

A television set turned on in the West Wing of the White House.AP Photo/Susan Walsh

No one doubts the job of president of the United States is stressful and demanding. The chief executive deserves downtime.

But how much is enough, and when is it too much?

These questions came into focus after Axios’ release of President Donald Trump’s...

Senate vote could end US complicity in the Saudi-led genocide in Yemen that spans Obama, Trump administrations

Written by Jeff Bachman, Professorial Lecturer in Human Rights; Director, Ethics, Peace, and Human Rights MA Program, American University School of International Service

Severe malnutrition, like this Yemeni boy experienced, is one of the results of the Yemen conflict. AP/Hani Mohammed

The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to pass legislation to deny further military assistance for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen.

The bipartisan vote for the bill was a repudiation of the Obama and Trump...

Senate vote could end US complicity in the Saudi-led genocide in Yemen

Written by Jeff Bachman, Professorial Lecturer in Human Rights; Director, Ethics, Peace, and Human Rights MA Program, American University School of International Service

Severe malnutrition, like this Yemeni boy experienced, is one of the results of the Yemen conflict. AP/Hani Mohammed

The U.S. House of Representatives has voted overwhelmingly to pass legislation to deny further military assistance for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen.

The bipartisan vote for the bill was a repudiation of the Obama and Trump...

Can Congress or the courts reverse Trump's national emergency?

Written by Chris Edelson, Assistant Professor of Government, American University School of Public Affairs

Trump declared a national emergency in order to build a wall.AP Photo/ Evan Vucci

President Donald Trump declared a national emergency to pay for the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, after Congress, in its new spending bill, denied him the full money to build it.

“We’re talking about an invasion of our country with...

Why Maduro is blocking Venezuela-bound humanitarian aid when so many people in his country need it

Written by Morten Wendelbo, Research Fellow, American University School of Public Affairs

Venezuelan soldiers stand guard on the bridge linking their country and Colombia, under orders to obstruct U.S. humanitarian aid.AP Photo/Fernando Llano

Relations between the United States and Venezuela have been strained since the late Hugo Chávez rose to power two decades ago. They got worse when the Trump administration recognized...

What Green New Deal advocates can learn from the 2009 economic stimulus act

Written by Joseph Aldy, Associate Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

Assembling capacitors for electric automobiles at SBE, Inc. in Barre, Vermont, July 16, 2010. SBE received a $9 million stimulus grant to build electric drive components.AP Photo/Toby Talbot

Congressional Democrats have introduced a “Green New Deal” proposal that calls for a 10-year national mobilization to curb climate change by...

Striking teachers in Denver shut down performance bonuses – here's how that will impact education

Written by Nathan Favero, Assistant Professor of Public Administration & Policy, American University School of Public Affairs

Denver public school teachers went on strike on Feb. 11 and successfully eliminated a controversial bonus-based pay system.David Zalubowski/AP

Editor’s note: Denver teachers reached a tentative deal on Feb. 14 that ended a three-day strike.

Besides raises of 7 to 11 percent, one of the concessions they won was the end of performance-based pay,...

Protecting human heritage on the moon: Don't let 'one small step' become one giant mistake

Written by Michelle Hanlon, Professor of Air and Space Law, University of Mississippi

Neil Armstrong took this photograph of Buzz Aldrin during the Apollo 11 extravehicular activity on the moon.NASA

Why did the hominin cross the plain? We may never know. But anthropologists are pretty sure that a smattering of bare footprints preserved in volcanic ash in Laetoli, Tanzania bear witness to an evolutionary milestone. These small steps,...

How white became the color of suffrage

Written by Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, Visiting Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University

Female members of Congress wore white in a nod to suffragists during the State of the Union.AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

During President Donald Trump’s Feb. 5 State of the Union address, scores of Democratic congresswomen wore white to pay tribute to suffragists and their fight for women’s rights.

In the past, other politicians have done...

An editor and his newspaper helped build white supremacy in Georgia

Written by Kathy Roberts Forde, Associate Professor, Journalism Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Henry W. Grady coined the phrase the ‘New South.’C.W. Mates/Library of Congress

The press is an essential guardrail of democracy. As The Washington Post tells its readers, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”

But the press has not always been a champion of democracy.

In the late 19th century, Henry W. Grady, one of the...