Schar School News June 2022

What Were We Thinking? Selected Schar School Op-Eds (June 2022)

Andrew J Schappert — Thu, 30 Jun 2022 19:28:31 +0000

What Were We Thinking? Selected Schar School Op-Eds (June 2022) Andrew J Schappert Thu, 06/30/2022 - 15:28

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From the National Interest:

Is It Too Late to top the Spread of Autonomous Weapons?

Likewise, China recently unveiled unmanned mother ships capable of launching drone swarms, Russia is working on undersea swarms for anti-submarine warfare, and India has demonstrated a seventy-five-drone swarm capable of autonomously striking soldiers and vehicles.

—Zak Kallenborn

From Asia Times:

End of the Road Looms for Iran Nuclear Deal

So the new geopolitics of the region may persuade Tehran that it can live without the JCPOA, working with Russia and China to block any new punitive measures, and taking small victories in its client states.

—Ellen Laipson

From the Hill:

Will We Be Able to Avoid a Re-Run of 2020?

A majority of Americans don’t want to see either Biden or Trump run for president again.

—Bill Schneider

From the Washington Post:

The Long Road to Overturning Roe Started in Virginia

The Virginia origins of this powerful political movement that transformed the GOP and ultimately overturned a constitutional right are little known.

—Mark J. Rozell

From the Cipher Brief:

Sanction-Stymied Sino-Russian Partnership Undermines Security in the Arctic

Of supreme importance, the U.S. should ensure it possesses the intelligence capabilities necessary to monitor Russian and Chinese developments in the Arctic. It should also have the military capabilities to deter Russia and China from intimidating other Arctic states.

—Master’s Student Carter Coudriet

From the National Interest:

One War Too Many: Will Putin Follow Brezhnev and Nicholas I to Ruin?

There is no guarantee, of course, that the current war in Ukraine will turn out as badly as the Crimean War did for Tsarist Russia or as the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan did for the USSR.

—Mark N. Katz

From the Hill:

Guns, Insurrection, and the Persistence of Trumpism in Republican Identity

The most dramatic outcome of the current investigation would be to uncover evidence that Trump committed a crime. That would make it impossible for him to run for president in 2024, which he gives every indication he is preparing to do.

—Bill Schneider

From the Los Angeles Times:

Can Intermarriage Spare California from America’s Identity Politics?

Relationships and marriages between people from different racial or religious communities blur the boundaries that otherwise separate diverse societies and foil political campaigns and policies that aim to divide. When multiethnic or multi-religious populations mix and intermarry, they are less likely to vilify opponents, making it more likely that partisan fault lines will shift away from racial and religious identities to other sources of affinity — such as policy preferences.

—Justin Gest

From the Washington Post:

How Will Gun Violence Affect the Virginia Midterms?

As bitter as the gun rights vs. gun control debate has become, its ability to swing elections on its own is limited.

—Mark J. Rozell

From La República:

Lo Justo: Buscar a los Desaparecidos

It also establishes the right of the victims to know the truth about the circumstances of the forced disappearance, the evolution and results of the investigation and the fate of the disappeared person.

—Jo-Marie Burt

From SpyTalk:

Suddenly, a Stiff Test in Ukraine

In effect, Putin has put forward his own Stalinist “scorched earth” policy, burning and destroying areas his army has captured. He has ramped up the lethality of his weapons, including the possible use of hyperbaric and phosphorous bombs. These are weapons of both destruction and terror. They are meant to cause military and civilian casualties and inflict total devastation in their wake.

—Ronald Marks

From Middle East Monitor:

Its Gas Pipeline with Egypt Is a Medium-Term Solution to Lebanon’s Energy Crisis

However, given the recent Lebanese Israeli dispute over a gas field in the Mediterranean, Israeli gas is not expected to reach Lebanon soon.

—Umud Shokri

From Utility Dive:

President Biden’s Commitment to Energy Security Needs Certainty on Natural Gas

There is no more critical geopolitical conflict than that with Putin following his genocidal invasion of Ukraine. The impact of this crisis is unprecedented in its impact on global energy security.

—Richard Kauzlarich

From War on the Rocks:

Putin’s Lessons for the All-Volunteer Force

The all-volunteer force has started to show its age as it approaches 50, with outdated policies, recruiting practices, and career models that are derived largely from the body of work that established the force in 1973. If left unaddressed, the recruiting problems of today will manifest themselves as capability shortfalls of tomorrow.

—Incoming Fellow Ryan Pallas

From Gulf International Forum:

Iran’s Energy Sector Needs Sanctions Relief and Foreign Investment

Although the negotiations between Iran and the “P5+1” nations in Vienna have stalled, Iranian officials have highlighted Iran’s full return to global oil markets as one way to resolve the ongoing energy crisis, and help Europe’s energy security.

—Umud Shokri

From Newsweek:

How DEI Undermines National Security

Finally, DEI hurts recruiting efforts. While this problem may be intuited from those mentioned above, it is more widespread than many of the counterintelligence threats we currently face.

—Master’s Student Mason Goad

From Modern Warfare Institute:

Seven (Initial) Drone Warfare Lessons from Ukraine

Drone technology, concepts of operation, and counterdrone capabilities are also evolving. But the war in Ukraine is making one thing very clear: drones have a place in modern warfare and any military that hopes to achieve its battlefield objectives needs to pay attention.

—Zak Kallenborn

From Addis Standard (Ethiopia):

Africa and the Russian Invasion of Ukraine

By the same token, Soviet support for African independence and Black majority rule during the Cold War is equivalent to Western support for Ukrainian independence and Ukrainian majority rule inside Ukraine now. It is precisely because Africa threw off European colonial rule in the past that Africans should support Ukraine resist the re-imposition of colonial rule by Russia now.

—Mark N. Katz

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Schar School News June 2022

Achievements & Accolades: Schar School Faculty in the News

Andrew J Schappert — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 18:46:19 +0000

Achievements & Accolades: Schar School Faculty in the News Andrew J Schappert Thu, 06/23/2022 - 14:46

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Schar School faculty members in the news:

Jack A. Goldstone

Goldstone’s Career Achievement Award

Professor of Public Policy Jack A. Goldstone has been awarded the Distinguished Career in Political Sociology Award from the Political Sociology section of the American Sociological Association (ASA). The ASA, founded in 1905, is the national professional membership association for sociologists and others working to advance and promote sociology as a science and a profession.

Goldstone, who holds the Virginia E. and John T. Hazel, Jr. chair at the Schar School, will receive his award in early August in Los Angeles during the ASA’s 117th annual meeting.

Jo-Marie Burt

Burt’s New Leadership Post

Associate Professor of Political Science Jo-Marie Burt has been elected to serve as president of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). LASA is the world's largest professional association for individuals and institutions engaged in the study of Latin America, with more than 13,000 members from more than 75 different countries.

Burt will first serve as vice president until May 2023 before assuming leadership as president. She will also be a member of the LASA executive council during her three-year term as president.

Burt, who has been a member of LASA since graduate school, has served in various offices in the organization’s leadership hierarchy, including co-chair of the 2020 LASA Congress, co-chair of the Committee on Academic Freedom and Human Rights, and was twice elected co-chair of the Peru section of LASA.

LASA's mission is to foster intellectual discussion, research, and teaching on Latin America, the Caribbean, and its people throughout the Americas, promote the interests of its diverse membership, and encourage civic engagement through network building and public debate.

Burt has been an expert witness in several cases of human rights violations before the National Criminal Court of Peru, before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and in immigration courts in the United States involving both asylum cases and cases of suspected war criminals who face extradition or deportation proceedings from the United States. In 2011, the government of Peru recognized her with the Award in Merit, in the Grade of Grand Official, for Distinguished Service in Defense of Democracy, Rule of Law, and Human Rights.

Since 2012 she has been a Senior Fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a research and advocacy organization advancing human rights in the Americas. She was a researcher for the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission and has been an expert witness in several cases of human rights violations before the National Criminal Court of Peru, before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and in immigration courts in the United States involving both asylum cases and cases of suspected war criminals who face extradition or deportation proceedings from the United States. In 2011, the government of Peru recognized her with the Distinguished Service Award in Defense of Democracy, Rule of Law, and Human Rights.

Peter Mandaville

Mandaville’s Book Honored

A book edited by Professor of Government and Politics Peter Mandaville has been selected for inclusion in Oxford University Press’s Islamic Studies collection. The book, Wahhabism and the World: Understanding Saudi Arabia's Global Influence on Islam, contains analysis by leading Islamic and religious studies scholars and is one of the first comprehensive studies on how Saudi Arabia's funding affects religion around the world.

Oxford University Press will feature the book, and four others included in the campaign, in special promotions throughout the summer, with the intention of expanding the works’ reach, engagement, and awareness in the global religion community.

John S. Earle

Earle and Shpak’s Chapter Honored

An article detailing how oligarchs use politics and economics to defend property from seizures written by Professor John S. Earle, PhD alumna Solomiya Shpak, et al., has been named “Best article in the field of Ukrainian history, politics, language, literature, and culture published in 2020-2021” by the American Association for Ukrainian Studies.

Solomiya Shpak

The paper is here. The article, The Oligarch Vanishes: Defensive Ownership, Property Rights, and Political Connections, will be published by the Quarterly Journal of Political Science. The other co-authors are Scott Gehlbach (University of Chicago) and Anton Shirikov (University of Wisconsin, Madison).

Two years after graduating from the Schar School, Shpak was teaching at the Kyiv School of Economics when Russia invaded Ukraine; she and her family crossed several European countries to return to America where she is now a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Micro-Economic Policy Research at the Schar School.

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Schar School News June 2022

Alumni Spotlight: D.C. Police Spokesman Dustin Sternbeck

Andrew J Schappert — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 19:15:34 +0000

Alumni Spotlight: D.C. Police Spokesman Dustin Sternbeck Andrew J Schappert Tue, 06/21/2022 - 15:15

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Metropolitan Police Department Spokesman Dustin Sternbeck: ‘It was great to just have the opportunity to work alongside and learn from industry experts and from the professors, but also from my classmates.’

If the name Dustin Sternbeck, rings a bell, maybe it’s a siren.

Sternbeck serves as director of communications for the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) of the District of Columbia, and as such he is often the voice you hear on the radio or the face you see on TV when high-profile police activity in Washington makes the news.

The MPD is the nation’s sixth-largest police department, with some 4,500 sworn and civilian employees. You can imagine he stays busy.

“That’s the understatement of the year,” said Sternbeck, a 2010 Schar School of Policy and Government graduate who joined the MPD six years ago after holding a similar position in Arlington County. “They warned me when I was interviewing that it's hard to imagine the pace and volume, but man, were they right.”

His job additionally entails serving as communications co-chair for high security events—the Presidential Inauguration, for instance. The position has Sternbeck putting out fire after figurative fire just about each day in a city that has seen a noticeable uptick in crime in the last several years.

It wasn’t that long ago the 41-year-old Sternbeck was putting out fires of a different sort, as a fireman and a public information officer in the Loudoun County Department of Fire, Rescue, and Emergency Management. He worked there when he started pursuing his Master’s in Public Administration degree in the Schar School’s Northern Virginia Public Service Fellows Program in 2010.

Participants in the highly ranked Northern Virginia Public Service Fellows Program—in which the students study and work together toward creating policy to solve a real-life problem—are nominated by their employers and their tuition is paid in full or in part by the agency.

“It was great to just have the opportunity to work alongside and learn from industry experts and from the professors, but also from my classmates,” Sternbeck said of the program. During the course he and the others were exposed to “every facet of local government, so you develop an appreciation for jobs that aren't necessarily within my day-to-day responsibilities.”

The MPA degree prepared the Northern Virginia native with a familiarity and understanding of government hierarchy, budgeting, and “all the different pieces of the puzzle and how they really fit together so that we all ultimately can do what we got into the business for—to serve our communities.”

Sternbeck said he applies some aspect of what he learned in the MPA program each day.

“I owe a lot to that program and I always encourage people to explore options if they're interested in public administration to check that one,” he said. “It’s hard to imagine that there are other better programs in the country.”

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Master’s in Public Administration

Schar School News June 2022

Young Women’s Leadership Program Resumes; Applications Accepted Until June 30

Andrew J Schappert — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 14:00:56 +0000

Young Women’s Leadership Program Resumes; Applications Accepted Until June 30 Andrew J Schappert Wed, 06/15/2022 - 10:00

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Former U.S. Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) at the U.S. Capitol with participants in the Young Women’s Leadership Program.

Former U.S. Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) and ��AV’s Schar School of Policy and Government announce the resumption of the Young Women’s Leadership Program (YWLP) for 2022. The summer program for young women in junior high and high school is in partnership with George Mason and the Schar School.

Applications will be accepted through June 30 and questions regarding the program may be addressed to Comstock.ywlp@gmail.com.

The nonpartisan program is free to those who enroll.

The Young Women’s Leadership Program was founded by Comstock in 2013 when she served in the Virginia House of Delegates; the program continued as she served two terms in Congress representing Northern Virginia’s 10th District.

The program was founded to engage young women in grades 7 to 12 to help expand their education and career opportunities and maximize their personal potential by participating in informative sessions and panels with leading women in a variety of fields, including government, business, technology, medicine, the military, law enforcement, media, philanthropy, and more.

The idea behind the program is to “introduce young students to women leaders in our community in their work settings, with the mission of ‘if you can see it, you can be it,” Comstock said.

In 2019 some 115 young women participated in the program. The program was suspended for two years due to pandemic closures.

“I look forward to resuming the leadership program this summer for young women in our community and inspiring them to set ambitious education and career goals while providing them with opportunities to interact with a variety of women leaders in important professions that help them inform their life, education, and career goals,” Comstock said. “I have been blessed with the friendship and mentorship of so many amazing women leaders and I look forward to helping lift up the next generation of women leaders by bringing them together.”

“We look forward to former Congresswoman Comstock continuing her Young Women’s Leadership Program this summer,” said Mark J. Rozell, dean of the Schar School. “The program brings together many talented women leaders who will inspire the next generation of young women.”

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Schar School News June 2022

Barbara Comstock

What Were We Thinking? Selected Schar School Op-Eds (May 2022)

Andrew J Schappert — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 14:12:06 +0000

What Were We Thinking? Selected Schar School Op-Eds (May 2022) Andrew J Schappert Wed, 06/01/2022 - 10:12

In This Story

From the Washington Post:

The Flawed Math Behind Elon Musk’s Twitter Deal

If Musk’s overvalued and rapidly declining currency — his Tesla stock — is one glaring problem with the Twitter deal, another is that he’s using it to overpay for a company that has lost money for the past two years as user growth has slowed.

—Steven Pearlstein

From the Washington Post:

The Leaked Abortion Opinion Could Lift Virginia Democrats

Twenty-five weeks remain to see whether abortion persists as a red-hot election issue or whether the Ukraine war, the economy, runaway inflation or perhaps a new coronavirus surge elbows it aside.

—Mark J. Rozell

From El Faro:

Guatemalan Judge Under Threat After Ordering Trial in 1980s ‘Death Squad Dossier’ Case

A short, bookish man, Miguel Ángel Gálvez does not seem like much of a threat to anyone. But as an independent judge, he has taken on some of Guatemala’s most powerful individuals.

—Jo-Marie Burt and Paulo Estrada

From the Hill:

‘His Brother Was Worse’—The Rise of a Post-Putin Russia

The siloviki are being embarrassed by what appears to be a “paper tiger” Russian military. They are enraged to the very marrow of their bones—and they will seek revenge.

—Ronald Marks

From the Conversation:

Ukraine Receives Weapons Support from Around the World

The international military support for Ukraine is preventing Russia from holding land and establishing air superiority. If this continues, Russia will need to figure out a different way to wage war, one in which it can take and hold Ukrainian territory.

—Jordan Cohen

From the Hill:

Recession Is the Real Danger for Democrats

Democrats do not tolerate recessions.

—Bill Schneider

From the Hill:

Executive Privilege for Ex-Presidents? Not This Time

President Biden, in so refusing to act to stonewall Congress, did well to uphold the value of transparency in our constitutional democracy. But he also acted as president to refuse a privilege assertion by his predecessor.

—Mark J. Rozell and Mitchel A. Sollenberger

From Homeland Security Today:

Emerging Cocaine Trafficking Routes Between Latin America and Middle East Fuel Drug Trade Expansion

Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that Latin American cocaine traffickers will continue to use Turkey as a passageway to other countries for the sale of illicit drugs and that Middle Eastern and European countries will continue to be targets for a seemingly endless supply of cocaine.

—Mahmut Cengiz

From the Hill:

Trumpism Versus Reaganism

On the surface, there’s not much ideological difference between the Reagan Republican Party and the Trump Republican Party. Both are staunchly conservative. The difference is in the personal style and tactics of the men.

—Bill Schneider

From the Washington Post:

Youngkin Wades Into National Politics at His Own Peril

Only Virginia forbids sitting governors from seeking reelection. Virginians don’t think four years is too long for a governor to stay focused on governing.

—Mark J. Rozell

From Instick Media:

Cyber and Space Command: The New Geographical Pivot of History?

The maintenance of the liberal international order will require the United States to reconcile two competing ideas: space as a “war-fighting domain” and space as a place for “peaceful and scientific” exploration, as mandated by the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. It’s time for governments, lawyers, and scholars to deliver the appropriate guidance.

—Joanna Rozpedowski

From the Washington Post:

A Former Fed Chair Still Wants the Punch Bowl—and a High-Proof Punch

Unfortunately for Bernanke, however, his book arrives just as this new framework is being put to the test, with an inflationary spiral taking hold, an economic slowdown on the horizon, and tech and crypto bubbles starting to burst.

—Steven Pearlstein

From City & County:

The MSP Downstream Cyberthreat Paradox: Understanding the City and County Connection

This backdoor-type cyber-attack has been problematic for public entities—especially local governments whose defenses are not geared towards such intrusions. Afterall, the service provider is considered a trusted source.

—Alan Shark

From the National Interest:

How the United States Fell Behind in Climate Leadership

The underrecognized cause is polarization over environmental regulations. The drastic impact of 1970s environmental laws on the economy aroused antagonism in the business community. Conflict over environmental policy widened to political polarization between environmentalists and U.S. industry and their respective political supporters in the 1980s.

—Frank T. Manheim

From the Hill:

Will the Supreme Court’s Conservatives Save Biden in the Midterms?

Democrats are hoping the abortion issue will be the exceptional circumstance that saves their majorities this year. They are counting on angry pro-choice voters to flood the polls in order to keep Republicans from passing a nationwide abortion ban.

—Bill Schneider

From OpinoJuris:

Why Does the United States Continue to Oppose International Courts?

Whether the constitutional tradition of the United States recognizes the supremacy of international treaty law over domestic laws is a matter of intellectual contestation and legal dispute.

—Joanna Rozpedowski

From the Diplomat:

When the CCP Thought Taiwan Should Be Independent

The problem with Beijing’s position is twofold: first, it has no solid historical basis, and second, historically speaking it is relatively recent. Thus it is not as “principled” and “consistent” as it is portrayed to be.

—Gerrit van der Wees

From the National Interest:

The Middle East and the Manipulation of Great Power Competition

Washington must fundamentally rethink its approach to the Middle East as the United States enters into a new era of great power competition with Russia and China.

—Jon Hoffman

From Homeland Security Today:

Sweden, Finland, and NATO: Pawns in Erdogan’s Bid for Re-Election Amid a Tattered Domestic Economy?

The world is quite familiar with Erdogan’s politics, which are based on seeking leverage to protect his own interests rather than the interests of the country as a whole and to maintain his position in the government.

—Mahmut Cegniz

From the Washington Post:

Virginia Protests Pit Freedom of Speech Against Judicial Independence

It’s an untenable dilemma that American politics has created for itself by subjecting jurists to rigid ideological litmus tests. It has corroded our collaborative lawmaking process and eroded American respect for its highest court’s impartiality, perhaps irreparably.

—Mark J. Rozell

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Schar School News June 2022