DEMOCRACY & GOVERNANCE
The more Indigenous nations govern themselves, the more they succeed
Joseph Kalt and Megan Minoka Hill say the evidence is in: When Native nations make their own decisions about what development approaches to take, they consistently out-perform external decision makers like the U.S. Department of Indian Affairs. Kalt, a professor of political economy at the Kennedy School, has been leading the recently renamed Project on Indigenous Governance and Development since the 1980s. Hill is the program’s senior director. In a new episode of HKS PolicyCast, Kalt and Hill say the research has shown that empowered tribal nations not only succeed economically, they also become economic engines for the surrounding regions. Recent gifts of $15 million in new support for the program, including an endowed professorship, will help make understanding best practices in tribal self-government a permanent part of the Kennedy School’s mission.
Also see: The Project on Indigenous Governance and Development announces its 2023 All-Stars Awards in American Indian tribal governance. | | | |
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS & SECURITY
How nuclear ethics have shifted since the Cold War
For more than four decades, Professor Joseph Nye has been pondering the idea of nuclear war policy. He was one of the authors of the influential book Living with Nuclear Weapons, which analyzed the nuclear threat and weighed policy choices. He also authored Nuclear Ethics, which looked closely at the moral, philosophical, and ethical issues of nuclear weapons. His core conclusion: With nuclear weapons an irreversible reality, the biggest challenge is not to eliminate them but to lower the risk of their use. Drawing on the just war theory, he set out a 10-point agenda for “just deterrence.” Given the evolution of nuclear weapons technology, artificial intelligence, and proliferation threats,Nye returned to the subject. His recently published reflection, “Nuclear Ethics Revisited,” concludes that while much has changed in the world since the Cold War, “the basic usability paradox of nuclear deterrence remains the same. As do the ethical dilemmas.”
Also see: Professor Matthew Bunn on why, 60 years on, President Kennedy’s “strategy of peace” must still be heeded. | | | |
WHAT WE'RE READING
Associate Professor Julia Minson says there are better ways to disagree, and she has the tools to help. | | | | | |
PUBLIC FINANCE
The latest debt ceiling fight is a symptom of larger budgetary malaise
“The reason the debt ceiling has precipitated a crisis four times in the last 20 years—2011, 2013, 2017, and 2023—is that the regular Congressional budget process is dysfunctional,” says Senior Lecturer Linda Bilmes. Congressional leaders and the White House averted economic catastrophe by agreeing to lift the debt ceiling just days ahead of what would have been an unprecedented U.S. default. The package included some spending cuts in exchange for a two-year suspension on the amount of money the government can continue to borrow. Bilmes is a public finance and budget expert, and as a former assistant secretary and chief financial officer of the Commerce Department in the Clinton administration, she is a veteran of the 1990s budget battles. In a recent Q&A she spoke about the deal, possible sleepers hidden in the fine print, and budgetary dysfunction. “What stands out most is how much time, energy, and intellectual capital were wasted on simply not driving off a cliff,” Bilmes said. | | | |
WHAT WE'RE HEARING
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As long as you have school boards that are elected, they are going to be seen as an arena whereby you can mobilize, raise, develop, and build your broader political agenda.” | |
—Professor Paul Peterson discusses how education can move forward. | | | | |
ENVIRONMENT & ENERGY
The supply side of decarbonization
Many of the global strategies being proposed for a clean-energy transition have one thing in common: “They focus on bolstering global demand for decarbonization,” Professor Ricardo Hausmann argues in a recent essay. “The supply side, however, is conspicuously absent from the conversation. Every time someone makes a purchase, someone else makes a sale; one person’s spending is another person’s earnings. While the demand-side approach emphasizes buying and spending, it overlooks the crucial dynamics of selling and earning,” Hausmann writes. “This renders the entire endeavor inefficient, unfair, and politically challenging.” He argues that a strategy encompassing both the demand and supply side of decarbonization would “foster much broader coalitions in favor of an accelerated transition.”
Also see: Hausmann and Professor Dan Schrag will lead an executive education course on “economic strategies for a low-carbon world” in August. | | | |
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