The Conversation

The real IRS scandal has more to do with budget cuts than bias

Written by Philip Hackney, James E. & Betty M. Phillips Professor of Law, Louisiana State University

Members of the tea party movement seen rallying outside the Capitol in 2013. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Conservatives have been seething since 2013 over what they say was an unfair effort by the IRS to scrutinize right-leaning organizations more closely than other groups seeking nonprofit status.

As a report from the Treasury Department’s ins...

Bearing witness to Cambodia's horror, 20 years after Pol Pot's death

Written by George Chigas, Senior Lecturer in Cambodian Studies, University of Massachusetts Lowell

How do survivors find healing? Chum Mey, a survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime, walks past a portrait of Nuon Chea, a former Khmer Rouge leader.AP Photo/Heng Sinith

Twenty years ago, on April 15, 1998, Pol Pot, the leader of Cambodia’s genocidal government during the late 1970s, died in his sleep at the age of 73. Born Saloth Sar, Pol Pot was...

The Trump administration's new migratory bird policy undermines a century of conservation

Written by Amanda Rodewald, Professor and Director of Conservation Science, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University

Tundra swans, which nest in the Arctic and migrate south in fall, alight at Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina.Allie Stewart/USFWS, CC BY

The Trump administration has announced a position on protecting migratory birds that is a drastic pullback from policies in force for the past 100 years.

In 1916, amid the chaos of World War...

US airstrikes in Syria nothing more than theater

Written by James L. Gelvin, Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History, University of California, Los Angeles

Despite outcries from horrified aficionados of Japanese theater, the term “Kabuki” seems to have found a permanent place in the American political lexicon. The term refers to an act that is more a contrived and ritualized posturing than a useful means to an end.

As someone who has written and taught about the Middle East for more than...

Syrian Kabuki

Written by James L. Gelvin, Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History, University of California, Los Angeles

As someone who has written and taught about the Middle East for more than...

Since Boston bombing, terrorists are using new social media to inspire potential attackers

Written by Mia Bloom, Professor of Communication, Georgia State University

Telegram, an encrypted messaging app.vfhnb12 / Shutterstock.com

Five years ago, a deadly attack during the Boston Marathon made America’s nightmare come true: the radicalized boy next door.

The research my colleagues and I conduct at Georgia State University tracks how terrorist organizations expose people – mostly young men – to...

Syria, chemical weapons and the limits of international law

Written by Andrew Bell, Assistant Professor of International Studies, Indiana University

A Syrian soldier films the damage of the Syrian Scientific Research Center which was attacked by U.S., British and French military strikes.AP Photo/Hassan Ammar

Consider this shocking fact: Despite horrific images of yet another reported chemical weapons attack in Syria, the U.S.-led humanitarian intervention to protect civilians on April 13 was...

What to do if you owe the IRS money

Written by Tameka E. Lester, Clinical Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of the Philip C. Cook Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic, Georgia State University

The IRS is friendlier than you think.Shutterstock.com

Tax Day is finally here once more. If you’re getting a refund, lucky you. But if you owe the government money, you may be worried that you have to pay the amount due by the filing deadline of April 17 – even if you asked for an extension.

Owing the IRS – especially when you...

How the new estate tax rules could reduce charitable giving by billions

Written by Patrick Rooney, Executive Associate Dean for Academic Programs, Professor of Economics and Philanthropic Studies, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

What people decide to bequeath to charity depends on many factors, including tax laws.Ocskay Bence/Shutterstock.com

Congress and the Trump administration scaled back the estate tax when they enacted the new tax law.

Although the government didn’t do away with this tax altogether, as many conservatives had long called for, trimming the tax...

What does the Speaker of the House do?

Written by Rachel Caufield, Associate Professor of Political Science, Drake University

Speaker Ryan is leaving the House.AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Rep. Paul Ryan, Republican speaker of the House, announced this week he will retire from Congress.

What does the speaker do?

Second in the line of presidential succession after the vice president, the speaker occupies a central role in our national government.

Most people think the...