Governance

The 1970 Clean Air Act established the basic architecture of the U.S. air pollution control system: It was the first environmental law to give the federal government a serious regulatory role, and it became a model for many subsequent environmental laws in the United States and abroad. In this article, the authors describe the evolution of air pollution control policy under this legislation with particular attention to the types of policy instruments used.

In a new essay published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, HKS Professor Robert Stavins and MIT Sloan School of Management Professor Emeritus Richard Schmalensee argue that economists and policymakers alike will need to re-frame their thinking for addressing the nation’s current environmental challenges, including climate change, to overcome the tremendous political hurdles that now exist.

In an article published Oct. 23 in Sciences Advances, "The Science of Contemporary Street Protest: New Efforts in the United States," HKS Professor Erica Chenoweth, UConn Professor Jeremy Pressman, and their colleagues outline the challenges and limitations associated with studying protests scientifically on a large scale.

Since the inauguration of Donald Trump, there has been substantial and ongoing protest against the Administration. Street demonstrations are some of the most visible forms of opposition to the Administration and its policies. This article reviews the two most central methods for studying street protest on a large scale: building comprehensive event databases and conducting field surveys of participants at demonstrations. After discussing the broader development of these methods, this article provides a detailed assessment of recent and ongoing projects studying the current wave of contention.

In this interview, former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy discusses her many years of experience in community health, statewide government, and at the EPA, where she focused on initiatives relating to public health and the environment, including work on domestic climate policy, and the historic 2016 Paris Climate Agreement, in which more than 150 countries committed to reducing their greenhouse-gas emissions.

Stephen Walt summarizes his analysis of how impeachment proceedings will affect the foreign policy of Donald Trump: His administration's decisions will be erratic, ill-considered, and ineffective—in other words, business as usual.

Stephen Walt writes that U.S. president needs the public's trust to conduct foreign policy and details why Donald Trump has forfeited it.

Stephen Walt writes that getting a new nuclear deal with Iran won't be easy—but the U.S. president's utter lack of principle could help guide the way.

Chuck Freilich writes that Israelis voted to save their democracy. But the country may soon face a severe constitutional crisis if Netanyahu, facing political failure and criminal prosecution, adopts Nixon-style desperate measures.

Shaughnessy and Joel Clement, Senior Fellow at the Union of Concerned Scientists and former Director of the Office of Policy Analysis at the U.S. Department of the Interior, talk about blowing the whistle on former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke for his efforts to purge the agency of government scientists working to address climate change in the Trump Administration.