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An older man with light hair and a blue suit and white shirt stands in front of a white building and in front of a large crowd of people holding microphones in his direction.

Ceasefires like the one between Iran and Israel often fail – but an agreement with specific conditions is more likely to hold

Donald Heflin, Tufts University

What happens next in US-Iran relations will be informed by the two countries’ shared history

Gregory F. Treverton, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Dozens of protesters wave flags as they march down a street.
Grover Norquist’s lasting influence on the GOP and US economic policy

Gibbs Knotts, Coastal Carolina University and Drew Kurlowski, Coastal Carolina University

A man dressed in a suit speaks behind a U.S. flag.
Blocking exports and raising tariffs is a bad defense against industrial cyber espionage, study shows

William Akoto, American University

US and Chinese flags on top of computer chips superimposed over a world map
Read the latest Politics + Society articles

Immigration

Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship heads to the Supreme Court

Jean Lantz Reisz, University of Southern California

A passport is on top of papers that say birth certificate and two American flags.
The legal limits of Trump’s crackdown on sanctuary cities like Philadelphia

Jennifer J. Lee, Temple University

A group of 10 people stand in front of Philadelphia's City Hall and hold signs in support of sanctuary policies
Supreme Court’s decision on deportations gave both the Trump administration and ACLU reasons to claim a victory − but noncitizens clearly lost

Rebecca Hamlin, UMass Amherst and Paul M. Collins Jr., UMass Amherst

A guard with a gun at a prison gate.
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National politics

People look from a distance at an explosion with large plumes of fire and smoke on a dark night.

US and Iran have a long, complicated history, spanning decades before US strikes on nuclear sites

Jeffrey Fields, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Metro Detroit is growing – but its suburbs are telling a more complicated story

Grigoris Argeros, Eastern Michigan University

People walk around a sign that reads 'ALL THINGS DETROIT: Food Truck Rally'
Smartphones are once again setting the agenda for justice as the Latino community documents ICE actions

Allissa V. Richardson, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

a crowd of protesters face off against a row of police on horseback
What’s the right way to mark Juneteenth? The newest US holiday is confusing Americans

Timothy Welbeck, Temple University

Two dressed-up women in a buggy decorated by flowers and pulled by a white horse.
Noam Chomsky at 96: The linguist, educator, philosopher and public thinker has had a massive intellectual and moral influence

Robert F. Barsky, Vanderbilt University

an older man wearing glasses stands at a lectern
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Democracy and rule of law

What’s a constitutional crisis? Here’s how Trump’s recent moves are challenging the Constitution’s separation of powers

Jeffrey Schmitt, University of Dayton

A map of the United States appears charred and on fire around the edges, on top of a wrinkled brown background that says 'We the People.'
Trump administration sets out to create an America its people have never experienced − one without a meaningful government

Sidney Shapiro, Wake Forest University and Joseph P. Tomain, University of Cincinnati

A person removes a sign from a government building.
A short history of the separation of powers: from Cicero’s Rome to Trump’s America

Vittorio Bufacchi, University College Cork

Bust of Cicero, left, and Donald Trump.
Congress, not the president, decides on government spending − a constitutional law professor explains how the ‘power of the purse’ works

Zachary Price, University of California College of the Law, San Francisco

A dark brown change purse from which coins are spilling.
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US Congress

A dark brown change purse from which coins are spilling.

Congress, not the president, decides on government spending − a constitutional law professor explains how the ‘power of the purse’ works

Zachary Price, University of California College of the Law, San Francisco

Job of homeland security secretary is to adapt almost continuously to pressures from the department, the public and the world at large

Frank J. Cilluffo, Auburn University

An overhead view of a crowd of people passing through lines and lanes at an airport.
Wildland firefighters face a big pay cut if Congress doesn’t act − that’s taking a toll on a workforce already under stress

Robin Verble, Missouri University of Science and Technology

A crew from Idaho carries equipment as they walk down a smoky road while working a fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in California in 2021.
Trump’s agenda will face hurdles in Congress, despite the Republican ‘trifecta’ of winning the House, Senate and White House

Charlie Hunt, Boise State University

A dark sky with a large white building that has a spire on it, behind a traffic light.
Many wealthy members of Congress are descendants of rich slaveholders − study demonstrates the enduring legacy of slavery

Neil K R Sehgal, University of Pennsylvania and Ashwini Sehgal, Case Western Reserve University

A statue of Jefferson Davis on display on Capitol Hill.
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Race and equity

Anti-DEI guidance from Trump administration misinterprets the law and guts educators’ free speech rights

Paul M. Collins Jr., UMass Amherst and Rebecca Hamlin, UMass Amherst

A man standing at a blank whiteboard, in a classroom.
Philadelphia continues long history of Black-led protest meetings aimed at fighting racial inequity and prejudice

Linn Washington, Jr., Temple University

Over a hundred people, many raising their fists in the air, sit in rows of chairs in a large room
60 years of progress in expanding rights is being rolled back by Trump − a pattern that’s all too familiar in US history

Philip Klinkner, Hamilton College and Rogers M. Smith, University of Pennsylvania

A melting American flag, with a woman standing near it.
Anti-LGBTQ+ policies harm the health of not only LGBTQ+ people, but all Americans

Nathaniel M. Tran, University of Illinois Chicago

Large group of people gathered before the U.S. Supreme Court, some holding rainbow and trans flags; a line of police in tactical gear stand in the foreground
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State politics

From opposing robber barons to the New Deal to desegregation to DOGE, state attorneys general have long taken on Washington

Austin Sarat, Amherst College

Abstract image of figures playing tug of war with a rope
Coastal economies rely on NOAA, from Maine to Florida, Texas and Alaska – even if they don’t realize it

Christine Keiner, Rochester Institute of Technology

Fishing boats at the Fishermens Terminal, the Homeport to the North Pacific Fishing Fleet, in Seattle in 2022.
Philadelphia continues long history of Black-led protest meetings aimed at fighting racial inequity and prejudice

Linn Washington, Jr., Temple University

Over a hundred people, many raising their fists in the air, sit in rows of chairs in a large room
As Pennsylvania inches toward legalizing recreational cannabis, lawmakers propose selling it in state-owned dispensaries similar to state liquor stores

Daniel J. Mallinson, Penn State

Close-up of hand holding open black plastic container filled with cannabis buds
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Middle East

Israel’s bombing of Gaza caused untold environmental damage − recovery will take effort and time

Lesley Joseph, University of South Carolina

Destroyed buildings and rubble.
Syria’s mass graves: Accounting for the dead and disappeared is crucial for the nation to heal

Stefan Schmitt, Florida International University

Two people in hazmat suits carry a body bag.
Map wars in the Middle East: How cartographers charted and helped shape a regional conflict

Christine Leuenberger, Cornell University

An old map shows different sections in various colors.
Palestinians have long resisted resettlement – Trump’s plan to ‘clean out’ Gaza won’t change that

Maha Nassar, University of Arizona

Two men in suits stand at podiums talking to each other.
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Around the world

What is isolationism? The history and politics of an often-maligned foreign policy concept

Andrew Latham, Macalester College

A globe has a USA flag coming out of it.
The only ‘winner’ here is Putin: Ukraine unites in response to Trump-Zelenskyy spat and resigns itself to new reality

Lena Surzhko Harned, Penn State

Seated men and women talk while surrounded by cameras and microphones.
As the Kremlin eyes a thaw with the White House, Russia’s pro-war hawks aren’t too happy

Adam Lenton, Wake Forest University

A man in a black suit shakes hands with a man in a winter coat.
Is a united European voice possible in the age of Trump, Putin and far-right politics? Germany’s new leader intends to find out

Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager, Colorado State University

A man in a blue suit talks into a microphone.

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