Politics

As we witness with horror the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, I want to express my sympathy for all who are suffering, and to reiterate the support of the Institute for Advanced Study for its Scholars, Staff, and Friends whose lives have been touched. From the outbreak of the war, the IAS community has rallied to offer logistical assistance to scholars and their families affected by the violence. I am grateful to the Institute staff and our legal services for the expertise they have provided. Please know that we are available in any case of need.

By Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Science:

"Condemnation has mostly been based on an entirely correct reading of international law. The Russian war is an unprovoked attack on a neighbor, an independent and sovereign state. It is clearly illegal. It is also, and this is more important, unjust."

By Adriana Petryna, past Member (2003–04) and Visitor (2006) in the School of Social Science:

"The Russian military’s capture of the Chernobyl nuclear facility in northern Ukraine last week led to heightened levels of both radioactivity and confusion. Since the infamous 1986 explosion at Chernobyl, which sent nuclear materials as high as five miles into the atmosphere and likely condemned far more people than the United Nations’ projected long-term death toll of 4,000, the plant has been radioactive. It’s defunct. Why would the Russian military want it?"

"I do not think that postmodernist and postcolonial analysis does away with metanarratives so much as demand a more searching scrutiny of their assumptions, implications and, in part, often concealed purposes."

On November 30, the far-right pundit Éric Zemmour announced that he would be candidate to the French presidential election. A journalist and polemicist, he was mostly known for his Islamophobic, xenophobic, racist, and sexist public statements.

Writing for the New York Times, 2018–19 Member in the School of Social Science Michael Kazin recalls the civil strife surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention. He argues that the cultural, social, and political divisions of that period,...

Michael Kazin, Member in the School of Social Science, examines the shortcomings of Jimmy Carter's single-term presidency, writing:

“Once Carter moved into the White House, the erstwhile nuclear engineer and peanut producer proved to be an...

Didier Fassin, James D. Wolfensohn Professor in the School of Social Science, examines the "neoliberal authoritarian program" of French president Emmanuel Macron, whose politics were uniquely characterized as "neither left nor right" throughout his...

"China’s rising threat to international freedom and democracy has become a hot topic,” said Teng Biao, a Chinese human rights lawyer and former Visitor in the School of Social Science, in an interview about the country's influence in the West.

Read...

Michael Walzer, Professor Emeritus in the School of Social Science, spoke at the Paris Institute of Political Studies on March 15, 2018, in a talk titled "Freedom and Equality: Can the Two Stand Together?" Exploring the crucial link between freedom...