A new University of 91�Թ� published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals that human-caused climate change is actively worsening this public health crisis, acting alongside structural socioeconomic disparities that already challenge the next generation’s ability to thrive.

“A single degree of warming alters the foundational conditions of child survival.”

Analyzing 16 years of data from 34 African countries, researchers from 91�Թ�’s have found that every 1°C increase in anthropogenic (human-caused) temperature anomalies is directly linked to a 3.45 percent rise in childhood stunting. The finding highlights opportunities to reduce childhood stunting through policy interventions that address socioeconomic inequality while strengthening maternal education, sanitation and household resilience in poorer communities.

The ‘invisible threads’ of climate-driven stunting

“A single degree of warming might sound negligible in a daily weather report, but on a global scale, it alters the foundational conditions of child survival,” said Pulte Family Professor of Development Policy and co-author of the study.

“We are seeing a direct physical translation of global emissions into child undernutrition. When extreme heat limits food availability and drives up prices, young children are the very first to suffer the biological consequences. Their developing brains and bodies simply do not get the fuel they need, cementing a cycle of intergenerational poverty before they even reach their fifth birthday.”

To uncover these trends, the research team used a two-step approach. First, they used the observed daily near-surface temperatures from to map real-world climate variability. Then, they paired these numbers with state-of-the-art climate simulations from the to strip away natural fluctuations and look directly at human-caused warming.

What they discovered was a striking divergence. While general weather variability showed no direct correlation to stunting, human-induced warming showed a clear and statistically significant relationship.

“This isn't an abstract problem for the future,” said a postdoctoral research fellow at the Keough School’s and the study's lead author. “These findings underscore the importance of reducing inequality and investing in education, sanitation and household resilience to protect child health in a warming world.”

For the general public, the mechanism connecting a global emission spike to a toddler's development can seem abstract. The study highlights that global warming acts through “invisible threads,” disrupting local agricultural cycles, altering food yields and leading to localized nutritional deficits that leave families unable to eat adequate meals.

The ‘double whammy’ of local inequality

While climate change directly increases stunting rates overall, the study reveals that structural socioeconomic inequality operates as an equally stubborn, parallel threat. The data revealed that community-level inequality is a consistent predictor of stunting. However, climate change does not strictly use inequality as a “bridge” to cause stunting; rather, the two issues stack on top of one another.

“Climate change is not a standalone threat that exists in a vacuum,” said Agrawal, who directs 91�Թ�’s . “It acts as a threat multiplier on top of existing social fractures. If a community is already deeply unequal, a climate shock — whether it's a heatwave or a sudden drought — acts as an inescapable trap for the poorest children. The wealthy can buffer against a bad harvest by purchasing food elsewhere, but poorer households are pushed completely off the edge, losing income and losing access to basic services simultaneously.”

The study shows that the direct effects of global warming are most pronounced in rural areas and places with low service accessibility. Families living far from cities, with restricted access to clean water, reliable sanitation and healthcare networks, bear the brunt of the shifting climate.

“When you combine low-service access — like a lack of improved sanitation or maternal education — with a sharp temperature anomaly, you get a worst-case scenario,” Pradhan said. “The groups that contributed the least to global emissions are the exact groups whose children are being structurally disadvantaged by stunting.”

Designing a blueprint for the future

The researchers said that their findings provide a clear, integrated roadmap for international aid organizations and local governments. Because environmental stress and structural inequality are deeply interconnected, treating climate adaptation as a purely environmental issue — such as simply building a seawall or distributing heat-tolerant seeds — is bound to fail.

“If we want to protect the next generation, we have to look at the problem through a holistic lens,” Agrawal said. “Any successful climate initiative must simultaneously be a social inequality initiative. Investments in household resilience, maternal primary education, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure are powerful public health interventions that double as climate adaptation tools.”

The researchers also said that empowering mothers through education yields immediate dividends on the ground. Educated mothers are better equipped with the knowledge of optimal nutritional practices and are more likely to seek out medical support during early childhood illnesses. Similarly, reliable access to clean drinking water and sanitation directly reduces repeated infections, a primary biological driver that prevents a child’s body from absorbing nutrients.

Moving forward, Pradhan said the researchers plan to take this macro-level data back into the field.

“While this observational, model-backed data gives us a robust global picture, the next step is establishing deeper causality through long-term, household-level experimental studies,” he said. “Future research should examine how climate change and structural inequalities interact to influence childhood stunting, helping identify interventions that improve child health and resilience in a warming world.”

Elizabeth Ludwig-Borycz, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Michigan’s Center for Health Equity, was also a co-author of the study.

Originally published by Renée LaReau at on June 9.

Media Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

Amid widespread concern that American political discourse has become less substantive and less civil, often devolving into personal insults, the question of why political elites engage in divisive rhetoric has continued to puzzle the public.

A co-authored by University of 91�Թ� political scientist offers a provocative explanation: The answer, quite simply, is media attention.

“The core finding is clear,” Jacob said. “Personal attacks are strongly associated with greater media coverage but show no correlation with fundraising, vote margins, legislative success or personal wealth.”

Developed within the a research initiative studying political division in the U.S. and around the world, the study was published by PNAS Nexus, a publication of the National Academy of Sciences. Its authors introduce the concept of the “conflict entrepreneur” — a legislator who disproportionately levels personal attacks on the integrity, morality or intellect of their peers.

“Usually when we think about conflict in politics, it’s about political parties and candidates disagreeing on issues to discuss them and arrive at a compromise,” said Jacob, assistant professor of democracy and global affairs in the . “But we are seeing an increasing trend that is not about policy anymore. Conflict takes the form of personal attacks, a new communication style that is shaping democratic politics.”

To map the concept of a conflict entrepreneur, the researchers conducted a large-scale descriptive analysis of the 118th U.S. Congress, which convened from January 3, 2023, to January 3, 2025. They linked a dataset of 2.2 million public statements — ranging from floor speeches and press releases to newsletters and social media posts — to records of media coverage, campaign finance and electoral outcomes. Using a large language model, the team systematically distinguished between legitimate “critical debate” on policy and personal attacks on character.

The researchers found an asymmetric pattern: While personal attacks occur in both parties, they are delivered 2.7 times more frequently by Republicans than by Democrats. Personal attacks also occur 1.3 times more frequently in the House of Representatives than in the Senate.

The most striking finding, however, is the disconnect between an antagonistic rhetorical style and traditional political success, Jacob said.

A legislator who devotes just 5 percent of their communication to personal attacks receives a level of cable news coverage comparable to a colleague dedicating 45 percent of their time to substantive policy debate. For context, the paper notes that the 25 most combative members of Congress receive more cable news attention than the 75 least combative members combined. On social media, posts containing personal insults are shared far more frequently than those focusing on critical policy debate, an average of 606 reposts versus 244.

This high visibility in the media, however, appears to exact a legislative price: The more frequently a member of Congress uses personal attacks, the less likely they are to engage in policy discussion. In addition, conflict entrepreneurs are less likely to co-sponsor legislation and receive fewer assignments to prestigious standing committees.

“These findings suggest that politicians are using the attacks as a strategy to become part of the national political debate without relying on conventional means of legislative work and policymaking,” Jacob said.

The study also challenges the assumption that incivility is a reflection of a legislator’s polarized district: The authors found no correlation between a legislator’s use of personal insults and the baseline partisan animosity in their constituency. In fact, many of the most abrasive legislators come from districts with comparatively moderate electorates. This finding suggests that for a small cohort of elites, a politician’s primary career goal is not the traditional trifecta of reelection, policy influence or institutional power, but media celebrity. As a retired member of Congress noted in a quote used in the paper, “The most recent additions to Congress don’t care about policy; they care about getting attention.”

This dynamic, where visibility is decoupled from political accountability, poses a significant threat to democratic norms, according to the researchers. They conclude that the primary incentive structure is maintained by a media attention economy that prioritizes conflict.

“Most of the communications made by legislators are focused on policy,” Jacob said. “But it is fair to say there is an overemphasis by the media, which unduly covers legislators who attack others. This attention incentivizes people to engage in incivility if the only way to break through is with insults.”

The researchers’ conclusion is both a warning and a call to action: If left unchecked, the corrosive nature of conflict entrepreneurs may continue to erode democratic discourse.

“Political party leadership and media gatekeepers have a central role to play in shifting the incentive structure,” Jacob said. “It’s time to reward those who advance policy and to stop promoting personal attacks as political entertainment, and the media should reflect on what is truly newsworthy. The health and stability of American democracy depend on it.”

The study was co-authored by Yphtach Lelkes of the University of Pennsylvania and Sean J. Westwood of Dartmouth College.

Originally published by Renée LaReau at on March 17.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, assistant director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

In a published in the journal Science, University of 91�Թ� researchers and argue that fossil fuel systems might be far more fragile than current energy models assume.

“Systems designed to be large and growing behave differently when they shrink,” said Grubert, associate professor of sustainable energy policy at 91�Թ�’s and a faculty affiliate of the Keough School’s “Ignoring this shift puts everything at risk, from the success of green energy to the basic safety and reliability of our power.”

The researchers introduced the concept of “minimum viable scale,” a threshold of production below which a fossil fuel system can no longer function safely or economically. They provided examples of vulnerabilities in three major sectors:

• Petroleum refineries: Most refineries are incapable of operating normally at low capacity and likely have “turndown limits,” or a minimum operational capacity, of roughly 65 to 70 percent. If gasoline demand drops sharply due to electric vehicle adoption, for example, a refinery might become incapable of providing other products such as jet fuel or asphalt.
• Natural gas pipelines: As customers switch to electric heating and cooling, those remaining on the gas grid will have to shoulder the fixed costs of maintaining miles of pipelines. This can create a “death spiral” where rising costs drive customers away.
• Coal generation: The authors highlighted a “managerial constraint” where the fate of coal mines and power plants is inextricably linked. A single plant closure can make a local mine unprofitable. Conversely, a mine closure can leave a power plant without its specific, geographically dependent fuel source, leading to a cascade of failures.

The researchers reported that the decline of fossil fuels is unlikely to follow the smooth, linear path often depicted in hypothetical decarbonization scenarios. Instead, they identified a series of physical, financial and managerial “cliffs” that could trigger localized energy crises, price shocks and safety threats long before fossil fuels are retired. Policymakers have focused intensely on the build-out of green energy while largely ignoring the managed decline of the current systems that still provide 80 percent of global energy — a critical oversight, they said.

“None of these systems were designed with their own obsolescence in mind,” said Lappen, a postdoctoral researcher at the Pulte Institute who studies how energy networks grow and shrink over time. “None of the engineers, founding executives, economists or accountants involved ever imagined a system that would gradually and safely hand off to another.”

The danger, according to the authors, is that these systems are “networks of networks.” If one piece fails — a pipeline, a specialized labor pool or a regulatory body — the entire regional energy support system could dissolve.

“If you are leaving decisions about things staying open or closing to individual operators who are not coordinated in any way, this can be incredibly dangerous,” Grubert said.

How to manage decline

To avoid disruption of services, the researchers argued that the current U.S. approach of bailouts and bankruptcies is inefficient. They recommended four key solutions for policymakers and energy modelers:

• High-resolution modeling: Energy modelers should develop tools that provide high-resolution representation of fossil fuel assets to identify when specific facilities reach their minimum viable scale.
• Coordination across ownership boundaries: Policymakers must establish management structures that coordinate decisions across ownership boundaries to prevent a single failure from triggering a cascade of collapses.
• Public management for public need: As systems become unprofitable, they may require significant new investments to remain safe and reliable in the short term, while still committing to closure. Such decisions should be managed by government entities.
• Guaranteed liabilities: Governments should create mechanisms to guarantee the payment of long-term liabilities — “bills” due at the end of a project such as safely tearing down power plants, cleaning up polluted soil or paying out pensions to workers — to ensure that declining systems are not simply abandoned by private operators.

Without such intervention, the authors warned, the “mid-transition” period to zero carbon energy could be defined by instability. If the decline is unmanaged, the resulting price spikes and reliability issues could undermine public trust in the energy transition itself, potentially stalling progress toward meeting important climate goals.

“We will be more creative and more successful if we think about the process outside the moment of crisis,” Grubert said. “Focusing more attention on the behavior of fossil systems under decline can help put timely solutions into place.”

Originally published by Renée LaReau at on Jan. 29.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

In recent years, Nepal has been heralded as a global leader in community-based forest conservation. By handing over nearly a third of its nationally owned forest to local villagers in the 1980s, the country reversed years of deforestation and effectively between 1992 and 2016. For many in rural Nepal, these forests are a lifeline, providing essential subsistence resources such as firewood for cooking and fodder for livestock.

But from the University of 91�Թ� suggests these environmental successes may exclude Nepal’s most vulnerable groups from their accompanying economic benefits. The National Science Foundation-funded study, published in Nature Sustainability, analyzed data from more than 500,000 households to reveal that while the program has reduced overall rural poverty, it also widened the gap between the country’s social elite and its marginalized populations. Researchers found that the benefits of forest decentralization — ranging from timber sales to microloans — flowed disproportionately to dominant ethnic and caste groups.

“When we hear the success stories, it’s remarkable what Nepal has achieved,” said study co-author 91�Թ� Professor of Sustainable Development in the University’s . “At the same time, the program doesn’t always impact everyone equally and can leave some of the poorest households behind.”

Among the study’s several co-authors are on-the-ground collaborators from ForestAction Nepal and the Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies. The study focuses on the country’s local government-supported forest management groups, which oversee the forests, collect fees and reinvest profits into their communities.

The 'gatekeeper' effect

Nepal’s community forestry program was built with equity in mind. Government guidelines mandate that marginalized groups be represented on executive committees and that 35 percent of forest income be allocated to poverty alleviation programs.

Yet the data reveals a different reality. The researchers found that while the program reduced poverty among historically advantaged groups such as the Brahmin, Chhetri and Newar, the impact on marginalized Dalit or Janajati households was significantly smaller or, in some cases, barely noticeable.

“Caste membership is closely correlated with education, income and economic indicators,” Andersson said. “The ones who gained the most were those in high-caste groups. Lower-caste groups weren’t negatively affected — nobody became worse off — but they were left behind.”

The study points to a “gatekeeper” effect: Members of dominant social groups are often better equipped to navigate the bureaucratic hurdles of forest management.

“If you are richer and have more education, you are more likely to have contacts when it comes to the commercialization of products, for example,” Andersson said. “People who know how to navigate the system will see opportunities when those changes come. They don’t necessarily exploit, but they take advantage, and that increases the gap.”

A growing divide

The research comes at a pivotal moment. Since the study’s primary data was collected, Nepal has and many rural villagers have moved away from forest-dependent livelihoods due to international migration.

Despite these shifts, the problem of “elite capture” — where local leaders monopolize resources — remains a persistent challenge. In areas with the forest program, this wealth gap was about 15 percent larger than in areas that did not have the program at all.

The researchers noted that while the program does not necessarily make marginalized populations worse off, it enriches advantaged groups at a much faster rate, creating a local increase in rural inequality. Andersson compared the policy shift to an “external shock.”

“Similar to when a natural disaster occurs, these kinds of changes tend to widen the gap between those with education and resources and those without those things,” he said.

Reimagining forest conservation

These findings are likely to be of interest to countries beyond Nepal, co-author Nathan Cook said, since community-based natural resource management is a cornerstone of global sustainability efforts.

“The solution is not to abandon decentralization, but to reform it,” said Cook, assistant professor in the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Indianapolis. In the study’s conclusion, the researchers suggested that stricter monitoring of equity provisions and the introduction of targeted payment schemes could help level the playing field.

As Nepal moves toward the commercialization of its forests through newer programs, the risk of excluding poor populations may grow, the researchers said. High-value timber production often prioritizes the needs of the wealthy over subsistence needs — such as firewood or livestock fodder — that marginalized groups rely on for survival.

For the international community, which has funneled millions into Nepal’s forestry model, the study serves as a sobering reminder, Andersson said.

“A forest can be thriving even as community members managing it are not benefiting from it equally,” he said. “But there’s still potential for programs like Nepal’s to be improved so they alleviate poverty and inequality. Future research and policy work should focus on this goal.”

Originally published by Renée LaReau at on Jan. 20.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

For decades, global efforts to combat climate change and protect biodiversity have relied on a high-tech promise: that satellite-derived maps can tell us exactly where the world's forests are.

But a new study from the University of 91�Թ� reveals that these digital baselines are often in sharp disagreement, creating confusion that threatens to undermine effective climate funding and international development efforts. Because these maps determine everything from carbon storage estimates to the enactment of conservation policies, even small discrepancies can have serious consequences for both people and the planet.

The , co-authored by the Coyle Mission Collegiate Associate Professor at 91�Թ�’s reveals major differences among the world’s most widely used forest datasets. When comparing eight of the most popular datasets, the researchers found that their identification of forest locations concurred only 26 percent of the time.

The problem stems from how different researchers define “forest” and the digital technology they use to view forests, said Miller, a core faculty affiliate of the Keough School’s Pulte Institute for Global Development.

“When land is viewed from the sky, it’s difficult to know at a global scale whether something is a forest or not,” he said. “Some might consider a small patch of trees to be a forest, but for others only a large, dense area of trees will count.”

The study found that the discrepancy among datasets creates major uncertainty, sometimes by a factor of 10. For example, some maps might count a savanna interspersed with trees as forest based on a 10 percent canopy cover threshold, while others require 50 percent. These small definitional differences can flip millions of hectares from “forest” to “non-forest” in an instant.

The researchers used case studies from Brazil, India and Kenya to show how these digital maps affect human lives and global policy challenges. In India, for example, the estimated number of people living in poverty near forests fluctuated from 23 million to 252 million depending solely on which map was used.

A framework for the future

To help policymakers, journalists and others navigate this “digital wilderness,” the researchers created a flowchart to help non-experts determine which data sets are most appropriate for their specific region or goal. Miller said that future work should integrate hybrid data that combines on-the-ground views with satellite data.

“By bridging the gap between satellite technology and on-the-ground reality, we can provide more accurate, inclusive data that truly supports both the planet and the people who protect it,” he said.

Real-world stakes

Miller warned that if forest definitions continue to vary, countries could overestimate — or dangerously underestimate — their carbon sequestration potential.

“It could make a real difference in climate finance commitments and how much vulnerable communities gain,” he said.

Co-author Sarah Castle of the University of Wisconsin–Madison emphasized that accurate data is a prerequisite for trust in global markets for environmental goods like carbon and timber and underscored the need for better standardization and transparency so the global community can agree on common reporting metrics.

“If we cannot establish a reliable baseline for forest area, it undermines trust in nature-based markets and makes it nearly impossible to accurately measure the role forests play in supporting people’s lives and livelihoods,” Castle said.

In addition to Miller and Castle, the study was co-authored by Peter Newton of the University of Colorado Boulder, Johan A. Oldekop of the Global Development Institute and Kathy Baylis of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Funding for the study was provided by and the Keough School’s through the .

Originally published by Renée LaReau at on Jan. 12.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

With natural disasters striking communities across the U.S. at an accelerating pace, the question of how to build homes that can endure them has never been more critical.

New research spanning political science and civil engineering shows that the answer could lie at the intersection of smarter regulatory systems and stronger structures. While neither approach is sufficient on its own, together they offer a promising path toward safer homes.

University of 91�Թ� political scientist  and civil engineering professors from California State University, Sacramento and from the University of Colorado Boulder have identified the building code features that have the biggest impact on hazard resilience and translated those features into tangible, practical building solutions. The findings from their National Science Foundation-funded study were published in the

A dual approach to resilience

Ostermann and Liel say that housing resilience is both a governance issue and a technical problem. Building codes, as written, already contain nearly everything one needs to build safe homes — but in many places, implementation remains a barrier.

“Regulations support the goals of safe, resilient housing, but they can also get in the way,” said Ostermann, associate professor of global affairs and political science at 91�Թ�’s . “We need to understand how culture and local building practices interact with regulatory processes.”

A locally informed approach to regulation was especially important given the site of the study: Anchorage, Alaska. Geographically isolated from the continental U.S., its independent-minded population Even after more than 750 homes were destroyed or damaged by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in 2018, many Alaskans have retained their libertarian-leaning views. In other words, simply strengthening building codes does not guarantee safer construction if the codes are not followed in the first place.

“People everywhere share a desire for safe housing, but communities vary in the degree to which they regulate and enforce building codes,” Ostermann said.

A pragmatic approach to regulation

To gain local expertise on the key features of hazard-resilient housing, the researchers conducted interviews with nearly 40 experts including structural and geotechnical engineers, builders, regulators, inspectors and others. Underlying this approach is a concept Ostermann developed to help governments regulate more effectively in places where traditional, top-down models fail.

“It suggests that we need to understand the context in which we regulate, and that we need to design regulation for that context — which means sometimes doing things that are a little bit weird,” Ostermann said.

The sheer complexity of building code poses a challenge in and of itself.

“If you were to print it out, it's multiple volumes,” Ostermann said. “It’s too big to be comprehended by almost anybody, whether it’s the government using it or a contractor trying to meet the code.”

Because few people can realistically utilize the entire code, Ostermann and Liel argue that local officials and other stakeholders must prioritize a smaller set of features that matter most for hazard safety in their particular environment.

Engineering insights: Why homes fail and how to fix it

Echeverría and Liel’s computational structural engineering analysis showed that many homes in Alaska do not perform well in hazardous conditions because key structural elements are missing due to lack of compliance.

In many two-story homes built over large, open garages — a common design in Alaska — the mass of the second floor sits on a first floor with limited lateral support. “You’re basically missing one side of that box,” Liel said. “That overstrains the other sides and creates a twisting torsion problem, so these homes do not perform as well during an earthquake.”

Echeverría and Liel identified a list of critical structural features that should be prioritized to maximize compliance and hazard resilience:

• Shear walls — walls that are designed to withstand lateral forces such as wind
• Proper framing around garage openings
• Hold-downs — steel connectors that anchor a wall to the foundation and keep it anchored amid shaking

Liel emphasized that these solutions are neither exotic nor expensive, but homeowners and builders often do not recognize their significance. Echeverría and Liel’s findings provided the very list of “critical features” needed to inform Ostermann’s pragmatic regulation.

Ostermann and Liel are studying housing not only in Alaska, but also in Puerto Rico, which is still rebuilding eight years after Hurricane Maria, and Lahaina, Maui, which suffered widespread damage during a 2023 wildfire.

“When communities, engineers, builders and policymakers work together, resilience stops being an abstract ideal and becomes a place people can safely make their home in,” Ostermann said. “If we keep listening, learning and adapting, we can build homes that not only endure the next disaster, but also give families the security and stability they need to plan for the future.”

Originally published by Renée LaReau at on Dec. 5.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

How did this shift occur, and what can other countries learn from Venezuela’s transformation?

A new paper from political scientist at the University of 91�Թ� chronicles the country’s 25-year evolution, during which Hugo Chávez and his successor, Nicolás Maduro, destroyed a system of checks and balances, ended competitive elections, terminated political rights and civil liberties, and harmed or killed scores of political opponents along the way.

“The Venezuelan case provides several lessons for countries whose democracies are just beginning to erode,” Gamboa said. “It shows that you should use all of the institutional spaces you have while you have them. Not leveraging those spaces is a mistake.”

How Hugo Chávez seized power

Venezuela’s democracy began to erode in 1999, when newly elected President Hugo Chávez convened a constitutional assembly to draft a new constitution for the country — a power grab that was carried out without the approval of the National Congress.

Yet even after this power grab, the anti-Chavista coalition still controlled media outlets, exerted influence over the armed forces and the state-owned oil company, held seats in the legislature, received support from courts and oversight agencies, and had the ability to mobilize Venezuelans into the streets. Despite a significant presence within democratic institutions, the opposition chose instead to resist the erosion of democracy through radical strategies: a 2002 coup and the 2003 oil strike to push Chávez to resign.

These strategies cost the opposition important bureaucratic and state resources because they gave Chávez the reason he needed to purge the military, fire oil company managers, and use oil revenues to buy domestic and international support, Gamboa said.

“Using tactics like coups, boycotts or strikes can be effective ways to protest a government, but they can backfire when you leverage them against a popular and democratically elected president.”

By 2006, the anti-Chavista coalition had lost most of the institutional resources that had previously been available, such as an independent media, and Chávez had asserted more power by appointing loyalists to oversight agencies and the country’s courts. And yet, the opposition won back some elected offices in 2008 and 2015 and was able to use those elected offices to highlight some government abuses.

“We see from these successes that when you use institutions, there can be a good payoff,” Gamboa said.

Opposing Nicolás Maduro

Gamboa’s analysis showed that in recent years, even operating amid tight constraints, the opposition movement created opportunities to push against autocratization — for example, through Venezuela’s 2024 presidential elections. Though incumbent Nicolás Maduro declared victory amid widespread accusations of fraud, and despite several countries — including the U.S. — denouncing official results, opposition leader María Corina Machado announced that tallies from more than 70 percent of the country’s voting stations showed that Maduro’s opponent, Edmundo González, had received 3.5 million more votes than the president.

“No one expected Venezuela to have elections,” Gamboa said. “The opposition competed even though their ability to compete was diminished, and they won even though the odds of winning were very small. Yes, the regime clamped down, but it’s significant that the opposition was able to express itself in an electoral space.”

While the 2024 election results suggest that winning an electoral contest is possible in a highly authoritarian environment, Gamboa said, an election win is not enough to guarantee a transition to democracy.

“If the opposition chose to leverage both institutional and non-institutional strategies and use them together, that would probably be more powerful,” she said.

The author of “Resisting Backsliding: Opposition Strategies Against the Erosion of Democracy,” Gamboa has studied Venezuela since 2013. Her published in a special issue of the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science on democratic erosion, was informed by extensive fieldwork that included interviews and archival research.

Overall, Gamboa said, the case of Venezuela shows that democratic backsliding is a highly uncertain process, and more research on newer forms of autocratization and opposition strategies is needed. She is currently working on a book related to these issues, focusing on how regime type affects opposition strategies and their effectiveness.

“In the past two decades, we have seen a significant decline in democracy across the world,” she said. “Democracies have eroded into authoritarian regimes, and formerly weak autocracies have become more entrenched. For opposition movements in both of these cases, Venezuela offers lessons and hope.”

Originally published by Renée LaReau at on March 21.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

Why do people living in democratic countries vote for political candidates who openly violate democratic standards? A new study by a University of 91�Թ� researcher found that diverse understandings of democracy among voters can lead to votes for authoritarian-leaning political leaders.

“A considerable variety in democratic views leads part of the electorate to overlook violations of democratic norms such as minority rights protection or restraints on executive power,” said , assistant professor of democracy and global affairs at 91�Թ�’s . “These varied attitudes represent an important vulnerability for the democratic system as they can enable authoritarian political candidates to access and retain power.”

The , which was published in the British Journal of Political Science, found that voters' differing conceptions of democracy shape their ability to recognize democratic violations and, in turn, affect their voting choices.

Jacob and co-authors Natasha Wunsch of the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and Laurenz Derksen of ETH Zurich conducted a candidate choice experiment in Poland, a democracy where elections remain competitive despite some democratic backsliding over the past several years. (Democratic backsliding occurs when existing democracies slip backward toward autocracy and is currently taking place in every region of the world.)

The researchers found that respondents who supported democracy in principle but adhered less strongly to liberal democratic norms, such as minority rights protection and constraints on executive power, tolerated democratic violations more readily.

“Where liberal democratic commitment is weak or unevenly distributed across the electorate, voters cannot reliably act as safeguards against democratic backsliding,” Jacob said.

Conversely, voters who subscribed more strongly to a liberal understanding were more likely to vote against non-liberal candidates, even those from their own political party.

Jacob said that additional survey-based research and qualitative approaches such as focus groups may provide further insights into citizens’ divergent understandings of democracy. To counter further democratic backsliding, the researchers recommend extensive and deliberate investment in civic education of citizens that highlights how each individual benefits from democratic governance, especially in more recent democracies.

“Democracy education often features big, abstract ideas, but it’s just as important to show people how civil liberties, power-sharing and the rule of law directly benefit them — and to remind them that their votes play a crucial role in keeping those values alive.”

The study was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Originally published by Renée LaReau at on March 17.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

“If public criticism by a human rights group, known as shaming, could be perceived as racist, it could threaten these organizations’ impartial, unbiased reputations,” said  associate professor of global affairs at the University of 91�Թ�’s . “Maintaining a reputation for fairness is critical for enabling these organizations’ important work: raising funds, recruiting volunteers and mobilizing Americans to pressure their representatives against human rights violations.”

������ published in the American Journal of Political Science, Búzás and Lotem Bassan-Nygate of Harvard University found that when shaming by human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, included anti-racist cues denouncing racism, survey respondents perceived the shaming as less racist. For example, a February 2022 Amnesty report labeling Israel an “apartheid state” but condemning antisemitism and clarifying that its criticism was aimed at the government, not Jewish people, reduced perceptions of racism by 5 percent when compared to a report with no anti-racist cues.

“Human rights organizations should seriously consider emulating Amnesty’s use of anti-racist cues in shaming messages,” Búzás said. “Although shaming with such cues is slightly less effective at mobilizing the public against human rights violators than shaming without cues, the price seems worth paying to lower perceptions of racism.”

The researchers conducted two U.S. survey experiments involving nearly 7,000 respondents and interviews with 11 individuals from the prominent human rights organizations Amnesty International, Oxfam and Human Rights Watch. Survey results showed that shaming of the Israeli and Chinese governments for human rights violations reduced support for the governments themselves but did not increase antisemitism or anti-Asian sentiment.

“If shamers face a racial dilemma, it is less about how to shame without fueling racism, and more about how to shame without appearing racist,” said Búzás, though he noted that more research is needed to explore the issue of fueling racism among diasporas.

The researchers also investigated “countershaming” — when targeted governments accuse human rights organizations of racism — and found that governments can partially win back foreign support by making accusations of racism.

In the case of China, for example, racial countershaming by the Chinese government increased overall support by nearly 3 percent, almost completely eliminating the adverse effects of shaming.

Búzas recently shared the study’s findings with several prominent human rights organizations in a meeting at the . Future research on this topic should explore additional tactics for minimizing perceptions of racism beyond anti-racist cues, Búzás said.

“These cues are just one instrument,” he said. “Organizations could also look into internal reform such as diversifying their staff and their boards, creating strong accountability mechanisms and embracing inclusive organizational cultures. This question of developing and protecting a good reputation came up repeatedly and deserves more sustained study. Ultimately, however, human rights organizations should strive to become genuinely anti-racist organizations, rather than simply engage in superficial reputation management.”

Research was funded by the  and the Keough School of Global Affairs.

Originally published by Renée LaReau at on Dec. 20.

“Black men who want to go to work, school, appointments, visit others, or do any of the other things that people use public transport for, find the experience to be degrading rather than liberating,” said assistant professor of racial justice and conflict transformation in the Keough School at the University of 91�Թ�. “Any hostile encounter in a public space is stressful, but it’s magnified when you are trapped in a space until a vehicle stops.”

, co-authored with Derrick Brooms of Morehouse College, was published in the journal Sociology of Race and Ethnicity.

The researchers conducted ethnographic observations on Chicago-area buses and trains between 2010 and 2022, choosing routes that, according to census data, traversed racially and economically diverse areas of the city and suburbs, including downtown Chicago. They traveled at varied times of day and amid diverse weather conditions.

The researchers observed repeated avoidance of Black male passengers by non-Black passengers, which included behaviors such as ignoring a request for directions, moving away or averting eye contact. They also noted surveillance behaviors by authority figures such as police in train stations.

“Being treated as undesirable or as a cause for fear is harmful to Black men, especially because these incidents often play out in front of other people,” said Purifoye, who is a core faculty member of the Keough School’s . “Black men are simultaneously hyper-visible and invisible — visible as potential problems yet invisible as citizens with rights, as human beings with feelings or as persons deserving civility in public spaces.”

The researchers also found that Black male transit personnel faced repeated hostile behaviors such as challenges to their authority and criticism for doing their jobs, especially during large-scale special events such as parades, concerts and sporting events.

“Black men’s status as transit personnel or security does not shield them from racial animus,” Purifoye said. “These types of stressors in everyday life not only have implications for their health and well-being but also can impact their dispositions, relationships and sense of self, which in turn impacts their families and communities.”

Purifoye has shared the study’s findings with Chicago’s Regional Transportation Authority. She is a member of its steering committee that works to implement transit service that is safer, more frequent, reliable and affordable for riders. Based on study results, Purifoye recommends that Chicago’s transit boards adopt policies that add or increase security for transit personnel, regardless of their routes, and provide more funding for security. Purifoye also advises adopting clear policies that protect all passengers and personnel from any form of harassment, she said, while ensuring that policies do not include measures — such as hyper-surveillance or police dogs — that have historically been used against Black populations.

Purifoye said the study revealed a need for further research on how negative interactions on public transportation inform conditions that leave Black men at risk in public. The research was funded by the Midwest Sociological Society and is part of a larger ongoing project that examines social interactions on public transportation across race, class and gender groups.

Originally published by Renée LaReau at on Nov. 14.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

But how should Lahaina residents rebuild, knowing that fires or other natural disasters could strike again? assistant professor of global affairs in the at the University of 91�Թ�, studies housing resilience and is investigating this question with support from the National Science Foundation.

Working with , a University of Colorado Boulder professor of civil, environmental and architectural engineering, and a team of 91�Թ� and Colorado students, Ostermann conducted extensive fieldwork in Maui with the goal of helping residents rebuild homes that are more resilient to natural disasters.

“Few aspects of life are more important to people than their homes,” Ostermann said. “By improving compliance with hazard-resilient building practices through effective interventions, we can better protect homes and human life.”

In June, the researchers interviewed more than 50 homeowners, builders, regulators and other government officials. The researchers asked residents about how the fires changed their opinions on housing and government regulation.

“Usually a big event like this crystallizes certain ideas for people,” Ostermann said. “That’s the politics of it. If people suddenly care about how houses are built, that can change norms.”

After compiling and analyzing their data, the researchers will create market- and knowledge-based solutions — such as information sheets on factors that improve housing resilience — to share with homeowners, real estate agents and homebuyers.

Their findings will be translated into quantitative data that will inform evidence-based interventions to share with the people of Maui. Liel, a structural engineer, brings expertise in building materials and methods and how climate impacts them. Ostermann, a political scientist and lawyer, brings expertise in knowledge-based strategies — specifically, how these strategies can increase community compliance with regulations such as building codes without government coercion. She also looks at how that research can translate into actionable policy recommendations.

“If you connect self-interest with the right information, creating incentive-based systems, you can create more hazard-resilient housing without creating more regulation,” she said.

One homeowner interviewed by the researchers was a real estate agent who lived in Lahaina with her husband and two teenage daughters. When the fires destroyed the family’s home, they relocated to a townhome in Kaanapali, an area 10 minutes north of Lahaina. (As part of the project, researchers agreed to not reveal participants’ names.)

Because the house was insured, the homeowner is rebuilding, but the fires have impacted their approach. The homeowner and the architect are consulting California building codes, which incorporate safeguards against fire damage. In their current neighborhood, she and the neighbors have initiated the five-step process to become a Firewise community, a program of the National Fire Protection Association that helps neighborhoods establish not only an emergency response plan, but also standards for safer building, home maintenance and landscaping practices.

“The importance of what this homeowner is doing cannot be overstated,” Ostermann said. “The changing of norms doesn’t have to be regulatory or code-driven. Demonstration effect — when one group of people changes their behavior and others learn about it and consider changing their own behavior — is very powerful. As a resident and realtor, their actions hold incredible potential.”

Another homeowner who is taking part in Ostermann’s research is a carpenter and longtime Maui resident who, alongside his wife and 7-year-old son, moved to FEMA-funded housing in Kihei after his home burned. As a member of a carpenters’ union, he said the fires haven’t changed his thoughts on building materials, but they have changed his commitment to political participation at the local level.

“I have not been a regular voter,” he said. “But I want to vote now. I see how important it is to get involved in decisions about housing.”

“Many people see building codes or regulation more generally as being technical, dry and far removed from their lives,” Ostermann said. “Disasters often make clear how these seemingly unimportant rules can mean the difference between life and death, or between having housing or not. They are a blueprint for resilience, but they have costs as well in terms of construction time and expense, among others, and as a result, they can be deeply political.”

Ostermann and Liel’s Maui study is part of a larger National Science Foundation-funded project on housing resilience that originally included Alaska and Puerto Rico. Alaska experienced an earthquake in 2018 and several high-wind events that resulted in significant damage, while Puerto Rico was struck by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 and earthquakes in 2014 and 2020.

When the Maui fires occurred, the National Science Foundation contacted Ostermann and Liel and offered them an emergency grant to conduct interviews on Maui. Concerned about magnifying the personal trauma experienced by fire victims, the researchers opted to delay the research until Lahaina residents had more time to heal.

“We wanted to give people a breather and let them find a stable situation,” Ostermann said.

Essential to the project is a team of student research assistants, including five 91�Թ� undergraduates representing a variety of majors ranging from to psychology to mechanical engineering. Global affairs major Tavin Martin is currently identifying and collating key terms from the researchers’ Maui interviews and will prepare them for quantitative analysis alongside interview data from Puerto Rico and Alaska.

“These undergrads are being given an opportunity to perform at the highest level possible,” Ostermann said.

Another student who stepped up to help in Maui is Bona Park, a mechanical engineering major from Oahu, who volunteered to connect the researchers with local fire victims she knew through the 91�Թ� Club of Hawaii. Park made the initial contact with the victims, scheduled interview appointments and then flew to Maui from Oahu to participate in several days of interviews.

“We couldn’t have done the project in this way without Bona,” Ostermann said. “When it comes to making inroads in the community, we wouldn’t have had the time. Bona enabled us to start interviews with an authentic connection that made it easy.”

Though housing resilience lies at the heart of the Maui research project, Ostermann and Liel said the fieldwork has led them to think about community resilience.

“I felt more optimistic leaving than I expected,” Liel said. “There are so many good people in Maui; there is so much care being shown to others and so much interest in theories about which houses survived. I left with an overall feeling that the future Lahaina might be more resilient.”

“I found Lahaina to be incredibly inspiring,” Ostermann said. “Housing is an important community asset, but it is the community itself that matters most for its own resilience. In Lahaina, I witnessed a willingness to experiment and a desire for the community to find a way forward that works well for all. This is what resilience is made of. I think we would all do well to take inspiration from the Lahaina community.”

Originally published by Renée LaReau at on Aug. 8.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

Forests can reduce hunger in rural households while also capturing carbon and advancing sustainability goals for low- and middle-income countries, according to new research by University of 91�Թ� experts.

Households in Liberia that participated in forest-based activities — including collecting and processing timber, hunting bushmeat or gathering edible plants — reduced their food scarcity by 84 percent, according to . The research was conducted by associate professor of environmental policy at 91�Թ�’s , and co-author Festus Amadu, a former 91�Թ� postdoctoral researcher who is now assistant professor of climate policy at Florida Gulf Coast University.

“Previous research has shown that forests benefit people, but now we have evidence on a national scale,” Miller said. “Forests are a vital source of food security for forest-adjacent households in Liberia, the most forested country in West Africa.”

Miller and Amadu analyzed data from a 2019 survey by the Liberian government and the World Bank. Miller, a former World Bank senior forestry specialist, helped design the survey, which collected data from nearly 3,000 households living near forests across all 15 counties in Liberia. The researchers found that when households reported engaging in forest-based activities, they also reported food insecurity for almost three fewer months out of the year.

Food insecurity is severe in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including Liberia, where most rural households do not have access to enough food to meet their daily calorie intake requirements for the whole year, Miller said. Causes of this food insecurity include extreme weather events, political instability, and poor agricultural productivity caused by natural resource depletion. Existing research shows that forests may be more resilient to some of these stresses, making them increasingly vital for reducing food insecurity in countries such as Liberia, where forests comprise 69 percent of its land area.

“Forests do a lot of things for us as human beings, and yet their manifold contributions are not systematically studied and documented,” Miller said. “While forests will never substitute for agriculture on any large scale, they can serve as an important food source, particularly in lean times.”

Miller said the study’s methodology — using forest-specific data acquired on a national scale — could be applied to other forest-rich, economically poor countries in West Africa and elsewhere to further understand how forests can mitigate food insecurity.

“Forests can and should be considered by national governments in other countries not only for their climate and environmental benefits, but for their potential to support human development and well-being,” he said.

The research was supported by the network, which Miller leads, with funding from , the and the Keough School.

In future studies, Miller and Amadu will examine how forest governance, particularly at the community level, affects how people living near forests can benefit from them. Miller also said the study’s findings have important policy implications and could be used by policymakers focused on forest management and conservation.

“The benefits that forests create for the citizens of a country are yet another reason why forests are worth managing well and conserving,” Miller said. “When you have empirical evidence at the national level, it becomes relevant not only in scholarship but also for the policy realm.”

Originally published by Renée LaReau at on July 22.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

“The state level has independent importance in the U.S.-China relationship — it’s not just a reflection of what’s happening at the national level,” said Jaros, associate professor of global affairs in the at the University of 91�Թ�. “The actions taken by state and local officials — and their Chinese counterparts — not only affect their own communities, but also play a key role in shaping the overall U.S.-China relationship.”

While the U.S. Constitution clearly states that foreign policy is the responsibility of the federal government, it also leaves space for cities and states to have international relationships and even to enter into certain kinds of agreements, Jaros said.

Known as subnational diplomacy or paradiplomacy, state-level relations with China are the focus of by Jaros and Sara Newland of Smith College, published in Publius: The Journal of Federalism, a publication of Oxford University Press.

Jaros and Newland, who were recently awarded a grant from The Henry Luce Foundation to fund this work, found that states vary widely in how they engage with China and range from confrontation to cooperation or a combination of the two.

“Broadly speaking, our data analysis shows some states that are clearly pro-engagement,” said Jaros, who currently serves as a visiting senior fellow for U.S.-China subnational relations for the in Washington, D.C. “They feel that it is still appropriate to have at least some forms of business cooperation with China and may pursue climate cooperation, tourism cooperation or educational partnerships.”

To assess states’ engagement with China, Jaros and Newland tracked changing patterns of state-level U.S.-China relations using an original dataset on cooperative and confrontational policies across all 50 U.S. states.

Of the 50 states, California serves as a leading example of a state that has continued to adopt policies that foster people-to-people contact with China, Jaros said. For example, Gov. Gavin Newsom made a high-profile trip to China in October 2023 to advance climate partnerships and economic changes, laying the groundwork for Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to San Francisco the following month. Florida and Texas lie at the other end of the spectrum, Jaros said, adopting confrontational policies that curb contact between state institutions (such as government or universities) and China. Florida, for example, now restricts Chinese citizens’ and businesses’ abilities to purchase land or real estate in the state, and Gov. Ron DeSantis has publicly articulated his concern that the Communist party is infiltrating Florida’s institutions.

In Indiana, the picture is more complicated, according to Jaros and Newland’s in-depth case study of the state, which was included in the research.

“Until 2022, Indiana engaged fairly regularly with official Chinese counterparts, even as concerns and criticisms from some quarters increased,” Jaros said. “While some forms of low-key economic and educational cooperation are continuing today, many areas that once seemed appropriate or safe are now seen by Indiana officials as off-limits or dangerous.”

For years, Indiana has pursued state-level cooperation with China, as the state is home to several major corporations, including leading pharmaceutical and engineering companies, that see the Chinese market as crucial to their overall strategy. In addition, numerous small businesses see China as a crucial part of their supply chain, relying on it as a sizable export market.

And yet, last year, Indiana state legislators voted to divest the state’s pension fund from China, and the state has banned new sister city relationships with China. In 2021, state Attorney General Todd Rokita launched an investigation into Valparaiso University’s Confucius Institute, alleging that it functioned as a propaganda arm for the Chinese Communist Party.

Jaros has met with the State Department’s Subnational Diplomacy Unit about his work, and he and Newland are studying how the federal government can help U.S. states and cities coordinate knowledge-sharing and also how it can provide useful information to lower levels of government.

In his capacity as a Truman fellow, Jaros is also expanding the research to include city-level diplomacy. This summer, he and Newland, who is also a Truman fellow, will meet with city officials, chamber of commerce members and other local groups in Los Angeles; Hartford, Connecticut; Des Moines, Iowa; and Jacksonville, Florida.

“We will solicit views from the local level both for their own sake and also to bring some of it back to share with policymakers in Washington, to help them have a better awareness of how what they are doing affects local communities,” Jaros said.

A fellow of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations’ Public Intellectuals Program, Jaros regularly briefs state and local officials on the U.S.-China relationship. In April, he delivered a presentation at the committee’s subnational symposium, held in coordination with the University of Michigan.

Jaros said the next stage of the research includes examining the consequences of what is happening at the state level, including its policy implications.

“We see policy impacts at several different levels: city, state and federal,” he said. “This work has implications for how cities and states think about what kinds of interactions with China are appropriate right now and what kinds of caution are needed.”

Originally published by Renée LaReau at on June 21.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

The peace studies and sustainable development programs will enable doctoral students in the Keough School to examine from different perspectives the intersection of poverty, the environment, violent conflict and peace. Both programs will enroll students beginning in fall 2025.

“The creation of these new programs marks a milestone in the history of the Keough School,” said , the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough School. “We now have a critical mass of highly talented and accomplished faculty who are qualified to educate and train researchers, teachers and thought leaders in these crucial areas of sustainable development and peace.”

The Ph.D. program in sustainable development will address the existential threat posed by rapid environmental change and its impact on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations.

“Sustainability is commonly defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” Appleby said. “It focuses on ensuring well-being across three interconnected dimensions: environmental, economic and social.”

The program will train students to be experts in one of three areas: climate change mitigation and adaptation, environmental governance or development policy. The plight and participation of the most vulnerable members of society, especially in the Global South, will be a common theme.

Program highlights include a semester-long course that will enable students to develop research that is both scientifically sound and policy-relevant. They will do so by engaging with organizations whose work intersects with academic and policy arenas, such as the Nature Conservancy, the World Resources Institute, USAID, the U.S. Department of State, the United Nations, the World Bank, regional development banks and other organizations.

The program will draw upon the expertise of several of the Keough School’s international institutes, including the ,�� and , all of which have experience conducting translational research — applied scholarship directed to outcomes that directly benefit people.

The new Ph.D. peace studies program is geared toward highly accomplished professionals with backgrounds in fields such as conflict resolution, education or human rights who wish to bring professional and interdisciplinary knowledge into their doctoral research and immerse themselves solely in the field of peace studies.

The “stand-alone” peace studies doctoral program will welcome candidates who are not seeking to be credentialed in a single discipline but who will draw on the disciplines and practices most relevant to their specific area of expertise within the field of peace studies.

“The new program will offer an additional way for graduate students to engage in peace studies research at 91�Թ� at the highest level,” said Caroline Hughes, director of doctoral studies and the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., Chair in Peace Studies at the Keough School’s Kroc Institute. “It will complement the school’s existing joint doctoral program, which has been enormously successful.”

The school’s long-standing administered by the Kroc Institute, educates and trains students in peace research and their choice of discipline — anthropology, history, political science, theology, psychology or sociology. Created in 2008, the program’s 43 graduates are employed in prestigious academic positions at Emory University, Fordham University, Boston College, Chapman University, Pepperdine University and other institutions, while other graduates are engaged in educational administration, research or peacebuilding practice.

Created in response to increasing recognition of the role of peace studies expertise in addressing global challenges, the new program will pair the scholarship of peace studies with the interdisciplinary approaches preferred by policymakers and practitioners. Students will be trained and prepared to disseminate their research findings both among the communities they have researched and also in policy forums with capacity to initiate positive change.

“Equipped with state-of-the-art training, graduates of the new program will return to and enrich global networks of scholarship, policy and practice,” Hughes said.

Students will benefit from expertise at the Kroc Institute, one of the world’s most acclaimed and influential centers for the study of peace and conflict, as well as from the other international institutes within the Keough School and 91�Թ� more broadly.

To learn more about the Ph.D. in sustainable development, contact keough-admissions@nd.edu. To learn more about the Ph.D. in peace studies, contact krocphd@nd.edu.

Originally published by Renée LaReau at  on March 27.

“For China, nations and regions in the Global South are a major priority, and we should be paying more attention to them in addition to monitoring China’s great power rivalry with the United States,” said , associate professor of politics in the Keough School. “The rivalry between China and the U.S. is part of the story, but not the whole story.”

Eisenman researches China’s economic and geopolitical strategies in the Global South, which collectively includes Southeast Asia, South Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. These regions have become an essential component of China’s external engagement and foreign policy in recent years, Eisenman said.

Eisenman and other 91�Թ� scholars including the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough School; , assistant professor of global affairs; and associate professor of political science, will participate in the two-day panel discussion “ at the Atlantic Council on Feb. 21-22 in Washington, D.C. The event will also feature prominent experts from the U.S. Department of State, USAID and Freedom House, as well as experts from across the Global South such as Joseph Asunka, CEO of Afrobarometer, a prominent pan-African research network that provides data on the views of Africans to inform development and policy decision-making.

Two recent events signal China’s expanding geopolitical ambitions, Eisenman said. Most recently, as the U.S. faced pushback for its support of Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip, China aligned itself with countries such as Brazil, India, Pakistan and South Africa, all of which condemned Israel’s actions. And in March 2023, China brokered a détente between Saudi Arabia and Iran following seven years of open hostility and nonexistent diplomatic ties between the two countries. Eisenman said these events reveal China’s expanding geopolitical interests beyond places like Africa, the largest beneficiary of Chinese investment in recent years.

“In many ways, China’s investment in places like Africa has peaked and is unlikely to return to those levels,” he said. “What is increasing are the engagements of the Communist Party of China and the People’s Liberation Army with their counterparts in the Global South. We’re seeing an expansion in the political and security arena in ways that should draw our attention.”

To shed light on these and other emerging trends, the Keough School’s and the have formed the a multi-year partnership that is co-directed by Eisenman and David Shullman, who leads the council’s . This joint effort convenes policymakers, academics and local partners to study and coordinate local responses to China’s strategic intentions and impacts in the Global South. The initiative also aims to produce rigorous academic and policy publications, convene leading experts and offer mentoring opportunities for 91�Թ� students and experts from the Global South. Founded in 2022, the initiative aims to become the premier global resource for understanding China in the Global South.

The Atlantic Council event will be the largest that the China-Global South Initiative has hosted, according to Eisenman. “The scope of this event reflects the tremendous support of the Keough School and the Atlantic Council for this initiative,” he said. “With top U.S. officials joining attendees from all around the Global South, including the Philippines, Colombia, Ghana and more, we believe it will generate critical insights not only for future research, but for future policy strategies as well.”

Eisenman is the co-author (with David Shinn) of “” (Columbia University Press, 2023), which focuses on political and security relations between China and Africa, explains the tactics and methods that China uses to build relations with African countries, and contextualizes and interprets them within Beijing’s larger geostrategy.

Originally published by Renée LaReau at  on Feb. 8.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

Beginning in January, Reifenberg will spend four months collaborating with faculty across disciplines at the pontifical university, one of the oldest and most widely recognized educational institutions in Latin America.

“Our goal is to create innovative opportunities for students to engage in real-world, team-based problem solving that addresses some of the complex global challenges we face today in areas such as education, health or community development,” Reifenberg said.

Reifenberg developed a series of courses based on this approach as co-director of the Keough School’s from 2015 to 2021, and also as an instructor for several 91�Թ� undergraduate courses.

At UC, Reifenberg will work with faculty representing the natural sciences and mathematics, the social sciences, and arts and humanities. Together, they plan to build upon work with the university’s current partner organizations and also with individuals from outside the university community.

“We’ll explore models for initiatives that enable students, partners and the communities they serve to bring their best selves — creative, resourceful, authentic, purposeful and impactful — to make concrete contributions to the work at hand,” said Reifenberg, whose teaching focuses on international development carried out through accompaniment, a partnership rooted in a recognition of shared human dignity and care for all dimensions of the human person. While at UC, Reifenberg also plans to explore and write about the concepts of accompaniment and experiential learning in the Chilean context.

Reifenberg has extensive experience living and working in Chile. Before coming to 91�Թ� in 2010, he founded and directed the regional office of Harvard University’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies in Santiago, Chile, one of several roles he held while working at Harvard for 20 years. He is the author of “” and serves on the boards of Partners in Health and also Education Bridge in South Sudan. He holds a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, an M.S. in print journalism from Boston University and a B.A. in philosophy from 91�Թ�.

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, associate director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

Originally published by Renée LaReau at on Sept. 5.

Santos will co-teach a master’s-level course titled “From Colombia to Global Peacebuilding,” which will explore, analyze and reflect on the peace process between the Colombian government and Colombia’s Revolutionary Armed Forces, or FARC. Under Santos’ guidance, students will learn how peacebuilding processes can support conflict transformation efforts in countries worldwide. Santos will also serve as a guest lecturer in an introductory undergraduate course in global affairs.

The historic Colombian Peace Agreement was signed on Nov. 24, 2016, while Santos was in office, and is celebrated as a major turning point in ending the country’s 52-year armed conflict. Santos was the sole recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the longest armed conflict in the Western Hemisphere. In his Nobel Peace Prize speech, Santos directly acknowledged the Keough School’s which through the 2016 peace agreement was given primary responsibility for technical verification and monitoring of implementation of the accord through the This designation is the first time a university-based research center has played such a direct role in supporting the implementation of a peace agreement and the first time researchers have measured the implementation of a peace accord in real time.

Before serving as president, Santos served as minister of foreign trade and was elected to the Colombian Congress as the presidential designate (similar to the role of vice president in the United States). He also served as minister of finance and minister of defense. Prior to serving in government roles, Santos was a deputy publisher and journalist with the Colombian publication El Tiempo. He won the King of Spain Prize for Journalism for a series of articles looking at corruption amid the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua.

“President Santos is a major influential figure in peacebuilding around the world today,” said director of the Peace Accords Matrix and associate professor of the practice in the Keough School of Global Affairs. “By ending the longest war in Latin America through the signing of the 2016 Colombian peace accord, he now serves as a role model for addressing war and violence worldwide. We are delighted that he will be sharing his insights on peacebuilding with the 91�Թ� community, including the Keough School students who come from countries around the globe.”

“The naming of President Santos as the Keough School’s inaugural distinguished policy fellow extends 91�Թ�’s engagement with world leaders, in this case with a champion of peace through negotiated settlement, the rebuilding of war-torn society and the redress of grievances and injustices wherever possible,” said the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough School of Global Affairs. “It is a great honor for us to welcome President Santos to the Keough School and to 91�Թ�.”

Founded in 2014, 91�Թ�’s advances through research, policy and practice; transformative educational programs; and partnerships for global engagement. The Keough School addresses some of the world’s greatest challenges, with particular emphasis on the design and implementation of effective and ethical responses to poverty, war, disease, political oppression, environmental degradation and other threats to dignity and human flourishing. Through its academic programs the school educates and trains global affairs professionals, preparing students for effective and ethical professional leadership in governments, nongovernmental organizations and the private sector.

The Duffey Career Development Program will prepare graduate and undergraduate students to compete successfully for professional opportunities and positions that require the skills and knowledge acquired in their Keough School and 91�Թ� education. 

“This generous gift from Tom and Molly ensures that our graduates, who are blessed with the values and intellect to change the world, launch their careers with every advantage in a competitive marketplace,” , the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough School, said. “The Duffey Career Development Program will serve students during a critical time of professional and personal discernment as they determine how and where to maximize the impact of their efforts to build a more just, peaceful and secure world.” 

The Duffeys’ gift will fund the appointment of an experienced career development team with the vision and ability to offer relevant resources and guidance in an ever-changing workforce environment. The new team will work closely with the University’s Meruelo Family Center for Career Development and the 91�Թ� Alumni Association to expand 91�Թ�’s network of alumni and potential employers in the nonprofit, public and private sectors, and to create postgraduate internships and fellowships designed to help students transition from their Keough School studies to successful careers.

Tom Duffey is a 1979 91�Թ� graduate and Molly is a 1979 graduate of Saint Mary’s College. They were married in 1980 at 91�Թ�’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart and have three sons: Ryan, Matt and Keenan, who is a 2012 91�Թ� graduate. The Duffeys made a gift to support the opening of the Keough School’s Washington office, and Tom is a member of the school’s advisory council. 

“The Duffeys have been a blessing to this new school, and Tom has been a wise adviser to me and to the other deans and staff. I will always be grateful for their friendship, support and encouragement,” Appleby said.

“Molly and I are thrilled and honored to play a small role in support of the Keough School of Global Affairs,” Tom Duffey said. “Dean Scott Appleby, the staff and the faculty of the Keough School are building something very special at 91�Թ�. The Keough School attracts incredible young men and women from all over the world who are passionately committed to making a positive difference in the world. We hope the creation of a formal career development center will establish the guidance mechanisms and outside organizational relationships necessary to help Keough graduates identify and pursue career paths that align with their passion and interest.”

Founded in 2014, 91�Թ�’s Keough School of Global Affairs advances integral human development through research, policy and practice; transformative educational programs; and partnerships for global engagement. The Keough School educates and trains global affairs professionals, preparing students for effective and ethical professional leadership in governments, nongovernmental organizations and the private sector. The school offers academic programs at every level — undergraduate, master’s and doctoral.

“This exciting interdisciplinary program of study was created in response to consistent and growing interest from students,” said , the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough School. “91�Թ� students want to learn how to navigate the interconnected, multicultural world they will face upon graduation — and how to address daunting global challenges that include climate change, resource wars and ungovernable flows of migrants and refugees.”

The new major will culminate in a Bachelor of Arts degree in global affairs. Curricular highlights include a cross-cultural experience, an interdisciplinary seminar that models how to integrate and apply knowledge from various disciplines and apply it to global issues, and an ethics seminar that will analyze how moral reasoning functions in professional and public settings relevant to global affairs.

“An exemplary liberal arts education produces independent thinkers with the capacity to maintain a broad outlook, see connections and integrate the subjects and methods best suited for enlightened and humane decision-making,” Appleby said. “The Keough School faculty is prepared to foster these capacities in undergraduates, who can now make the school their primary academic home.”

The major builds upon the diverse expertise of — trained in disciplines and subdisciplines such as global politics, cultural anthropology, social psychology, human rights, peace studies, environmental policy, development economics, social and theological ethics, religion, social entrepreneurship, international organizations and global trade — as well as supplemental majors, minors and co-curricular and extracurricular opportunities in the Keough School’s nine international institutes. The new major also is a key part of 91�Թ�’s plan to become more fully international and engaged with the worlds of policy and practice.

The Keough School of Global Affairs was founded in 2014. In keeping with 91�Թ�’s mission to place scholarship in service to the common good, the Keough School advances through research, policy and practice; transformative educational programs; and partnerships for global engagement. The Keough School builds on the strengths of nine institutes and a Global Policy Initiative focused on international research, scholarship and education at 91�Թ�.

To learn more, visit .

“Don and Mickie Keough are towering figures in 91�Թ� history, by virtue of their visionary leadership, generous benefaction and commitment to the University’s mission,” University President , said. “With the creation of the Keough Family Fellowships program by their daughters and sons, the great Keough legacy continues. 91�Թ� is blessed by their support, and I am deeply grateful to this family which has been so dear to me.”

The flagship program of the Keough School, the epitomizes 91�Թ�’s commitment to educating a new generation of skilled, ethical leaders dedicated to fostering human dignity worldwide. With 58 countries represented and more than 60 percent of its students coming from outside of the United States, the program’s international makeup creates a rich and vibrant learning community. Since the Keough School opened in 2017, the program has produced 108 alumni and currently enrolls 78 graduate students.

“The Keough School’s MGA program provides exceptionally gifted students, many from low-income countries and modest backgrounds, a first-rate professional education grounded in a moral commitment to help enhance the lives and livelihoods of the most vulnerable,” the Marilyn Keough Dean of the school, said. “Yet again the extraordinary Keough family has embraced and helped fulfill 91�Թ�’s mission of academic excellence in service to the common good, this time by guaranteeing that a calling to serve others need not come with a burden of insurmountable graduate school debt.”

The newly established Keough Family Fellowships continue the long and storied legacy of Don and Marilyn Keough, who both received honorary degrees from 91�Թ�. Don passed away in 2015 and Mickie a year later.

Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished business executives in American history, Don served as the president, chief operating officer and director of the Coca-Cola Co. from 1981 to 1993. During his tenure, he oversaw one of the company’s most dramatic periods of international expansion. In 1986, he was elected chairman of 91�Թ�’s Board of Trustees, a position he held for six years, and in 1997 he was named a Life Trustee of the University. He also was the recipient of the 1993 Laetare Medal, the University’s highest honor.

“Our parents saw in 91�Թ� a commitment to the shared ideal of forming leaders of consequence who can build a better, more humane world,” Clarke Keough said on behalf of the family. “My siblings and I are humbled to see Dad and Mom’s vision come alive in the school that bears our family name, and these fellowships will carry on their legacy through the women and men willing to dedicate their talents, careers and creativity to build such a world in the 21st century.” 

For decades, the Keough family has been instrumental in bringing the world to 91�Թ� and taking 91�Թ� to the world. Their tremendous generosity has gone toward the Keough School of Global Affairs and its home on campus, Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., Hall; the Marilyn Keough residence hall; Malloy Hall, housing the Departments of Theology and Philosophy; three library collections; and the restoration of O’Connell House in Dublin. They also have endowed the , several fellowships, the Keough School deanship and multiple faculty chairs — two in Irish studies and three that are known as Keough-Hesburgh professorships, which are awarded to scholars who both are world-class leaders in their field of expertise and demonstrate a commitment to the Catholic mission of 91�Թ�.

Don and Mickie have six children — Kathleen Keough Soto; Shayla Keough Rumely, a 1976 graduate; Michael (1978) and Patrick Keough (1979); Eileen Keough Millard (1984) and Clarke Keough (1985). Shayla is a member of the University’s Board of Fellows and a Trustee, and Michael, Patrick, Clarke and Eileen serve on 91�Թ� advisory councils.  

The Keough School of Global Affairs advances integral human development through research, policy and practice; transformative educational programs; and partnerships for global engagement, building on the strengths of nine institutes and centers. It offers academic opportunities at both the graduate and undergraduate level, including a master’s degree and a supplementary major in global affairs.

The two-year Master of Global Affairs program prepares professionals for skilled, effective leadership and careers in government, nongovernmental and civil society organizations, and the private sector. It integrates rigorous professional training with extended, global fieldwork and close engagement with policymakers, multidisciplinary faculty and students from around the world working to address global challenges.