Governance

Congress is weighing a big idea as it bargains over the next stimulus package: a bipartisan proposal to expand national-service programs to create jobs, help contain the coronavirus pandemic and begin to unify a divided country.

This plan would be a powerful tonic for some of what’s ailing the United States. It’s evocative of the New Deal programs that helped the United States through the Great Depression. And it’s supported by a star-studded group of Republicans and Democrats, including many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans from both parties who are backed by the bipartisan political action group With Honor.

After the emergence of the respiratory virus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), many exposure and environmental health scientists promptly recognized the potentially catastrophic public health ramifications of concurrent infectious and air pollution-mediated disease. Nevertheless, much of this attention has been focused on outdoor interactions. Each year, 3.8 million people worldwide prematurely die from illnesses attributable to indoor air. Hence, poor household indoor air quality is a long-standing public health issue with even greater relevance now that many individuals are spending more time at home.

The authors write that the demonstrations following the killing of George Floyd represent the largest sustained mobilization in the United States in their lifetimes. They detail the new geography of activism.

The Security and Global Health Project is proud to present a weekly web series with Security Mom Juliette Kayyem and Medicine Mom Dr. Margaret Bourdeaux. Each week, our experts will answer your questions from quarantine and give you advice on staying sane and sanitary in a global crisis. We hope you'll join our Moms every Tuesday, and if you have a question that you want answered, tweet with #QuestionsFromQuarantine.

If Joe Biden defeats Donald Trump in November, the question he will face is not whether to restore the liberal international order. It is whether the United States can work with an inner core of allies to promote democracy and human rights while cooperating with a broader set of states to manage the rules-based international institutions needed to face transnational threats.

Joseph Nye, Jr.'s Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump skillfully examines modern American presidents and ethics.

The intelligence finding that Russia was most likely paying a bounty for the lives of American soldiers in Afghanistan has evoked a strange silence from President Trump and his top national security officials on the question of what to do about the Kremlin’s wave of aggression.

Mr. Trump insists he never saw the intelligence, though it was part of the President’s Daily Brief just days before a peace deal was signed with the Taliban in February.

Jamaji C. Nwanaji-Enwerem's team demonstrated that the presence of dioxins is associated with the increased methylation aging of sperm. Methylation aging — or epigenetic clocking — has been shown to be a strong predictor of numerous diseases, mortality, and even offspring health. By discovering this link, Dr. Nwanaji-Enwerem helps to further quantify the negative impact of environmental toxins on sperm health.

Bruce Schneier writes that efficient systems have limited ability to deal with system-wide economic shocks: shocks that have been coming with increased frequency. These shocks are caused by global pandemics, climate change, financial crises, and political crises. In order to be secure against these crises and more, redundancy, diversity, and overcapacity need to be added back into certain systems.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright joins longtime colleague and friend Ambassador Nicholas Burns for a conversation about her life, the dangers facing modern democracies, and America’s role in what she calls “a brand new world.” Reflecting on her childhood in London during the Blitz, her journey to America as a refugee, and her long career as a diplomat, Secretary Albright is facing the current crises and ongoing work with outspoken determination. “It took me a long time to find my voice,” she says,”I’m not going to shut up now.” A self-described worried optimist and grateful American, Albright offers an urgent message for the unprecedented times we are living in.