Governance

Professors hear a great deal these days about how hard it is to get our students to listen to, much less to engage with, opinions they dislike. The problem, we are told, is that students are either “snowflakes” with fragile psyches or “authoritarians” who care more about their pet causes than about democratic values such as tolerance, compromise and respect for opposing points of view. Students at Harvard, where I teach, returned from winter break in January to an institution that appeared determined to tackle this problem head-on. An email from the undergraduate dean reminded them that “The purpose of a Harvard education is not to shield you from ideas you dislike or to silence people you disagree with; it is to enable you to confront challenging ideas, interrogate your own beliefs, make up your mind and learn to think for yourself."

Professors Alison Frank Johnson and Stephen M. Walt write:  We cannot cede the responsibility for upholding our own standards of conduct to outside forces — not to politicians, not to donors, not to anyone.

Most post-primary education in Greenland is conducted in Danish. Offering more instruction in Greenlandic would not only improve educational outcomes for Greenlanders, but would further Greenland's capacity to self-govern, says Linda Lyberth Kristiansen.

A future where A.I.s interpret, apply, and enforce most laws at societal scale like this will exponentially magnify problems around fairness, transparency, and freedom, warn Jonathon W. Penney and Bruce Schneier.

Over the last several decades, the U.S.’s domestic semiconductor manufacturing capacity has declined. The CHIPS Act aims to reverse this trend by investing over $50 billion in direct funding and loan subsidies to expand semiconductor research and development and manufacturing in the U.S. This primer focuses on the workforce challenges that will be spurred by this microelectronics industry expansion and proposes how community colleges can play a critical role in addressing these challenges. 

Juliette Kayyem analyses the threat of violence from Trump's supporters: Worrying about whether the base is emboldened is not the correct metric; the thing to watch is whether the number of supporters who are inclined to violence is growing.

Juliette Kayyem explains the significance of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes turning against other extremists in his trial.

Juliette Kayyem writes that due to the sheer prevalence of police brutality in America, public officials have gotten better at managing the shock.

Juliette Kayyem argues why making extremist leaders answer for their actions will deter future violence.

Juliette Kayyem writes that the chaos and delays in saving children in Uvalde, Texas, have also raised skepticism about police-response capacities. According to the FBI, nearly 70 percent of all active-shooter incidents end before police arrive; nearly 37 percent of them end in two minutes or less. In the United States, we are vulnerable to gun violence at any moment.