The Conversation

J Edgar Hoover's oversteps: Why FBI directors are forbidden from getting cozy with presidents

Written by Douglas M. Charles, Associate Professor of History, Pennsylvania State University

Former FBI Director James Comey testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington.AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

How are U.S. presidents and FBI directors supposed to communicate?

A new FBI director has recently been nominated, former Assistant Attorney General Christopher Wray. He will certainly be thinking carefully about this question as he awaits confirmation.

For...

Frank Lloyd Wright's Japanese education

Written by Kevin Nute, Professor of Architecture, University of Oregon

On the left, Katsushika Hokusai's 'The Manifestation of the Peak' (1834); on the right, Wright's rendering of the Huntington Hartford Resort project (1947)© The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Taliesin West, Scottsdale, AZ, Author provided

To mark Frank Lloyd Wright’s 150th birthday on June 8, many will pay tribute to the...

US exit from Paris climate accord makes discussing how and whether to engineer the planet even harder

Written by David A. Dana, Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law, Northwestern University

The Paris Agreement could provide a forum for international cooperation on risky, planet-scale engineering to cool the Earth. Tatiana Grozetskaya/Shutterstcok.com

The Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement has invoked condemnation and consternation from many commentators, including many of the United...

What the UK election means for Brexit and America

Written by Charles Hankla, Associate Professor of Political Science, Georgia State University

How each U.K. party leader would drive Brexit is the key issue on voters' minds. AP Photo/Matt Dunham

Despite the many distractions of a full news cycle, it’s time to start paying closer attention to Thursday’s elections in the U.K.

Much has changed since U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May stunned the world in April by calling for snap...

Why have other Gulf states cut ties with Qatar?

Written by David Mednicoff, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Director, Middle Eastern Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst

The skyline of Doha, Qatar.Gregory Hawken Kramer, CC BY-SA

Gulf Arab countries summon images of oil-fueled wealth, luxurious malls and strong Muslim identity. Nasty regional rivalry, diplomatic ruptures and panicked citizens stockpiling groceries don’t usually figure.

So why have Gulf states Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates...

Pittsburgh: A city of two post-industrial tales

Written by Allen Dieterich-Ward, Associate Professor of History, Shippensburg University

Pittsburgh, between its industrial past and a clean, green tech-driven future.Dllu, CC BY-SA

President Donald Trump’s mention of Pittsburgh in his announcement withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on climate evoked the city’s past as an industrial powerhouse. It sparked a furious set of tweets from Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto,...

The other reason to shift away from coal: Air pollution that kills thousands every year

Written by Jay Apt, Professor, Tepper School of Business, Engineering and Public Policy and Co-Director, Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center, Carnegie Mellon University

Cholla power plant near Joseph City, Arizona, photographed on Jan. 16, 2010.PDTillman/Wikipedia, CC BY

When President Donald Trump announced on June 1 that he had decided to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord, he asserted that staying in the pact would prevent our nation from further developing its fossil fuel reserves....

How a growing number of Muslim women clerics are challenging traditional narratives

Written by Rachel Rinaldo, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Colorado

Recent terrorist attacks such as the one in London inevitably lead to coverage of Islamist ideology, Muslim culture and Muslim women’s rights. What is often missing, however, in my view is the fact that within Islam there are many diverse views – change is afoot and not least among women.

Indonesia recently hosted an unusual conference...

How Trump's global health budget endangers Americans

Written by Gerald W. Parker, Director, Pandemic and Biosecurity Policy Program, Scowcroft Institute for International Affairs, Bush School of Government and Public Service, and Associate Dean for Global One Health, College of Veterinary Medicine, Texas A&M Unive

Pandemics – global outbreaks of infectious diseases like the 1918 influenza that killed 40 million people and the 2009 H1N1 virus, which caused up to 203,000 fatalities – are among the greatest threats the world faces. But the Trump administration wants to cut more than US$2 billion in global health funding.

As experts with diverse...

Why restoring morale is important to mental health in difficult times

Written by Joan Cook, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University

City workers in London place flowers in the heart of the city after terrorism killed seven people and wounded 40 others. Tim Ireland/AP

The term demoralization was originally coined in the 1970s by a psychiatrist who was seeing patients that didn’t quite meet full criteria for major depression. Nonetheless, they were suffering – in a...