The Scholars' Circle

Ever since Russia attacked Ukraine, there have been predictions that the normative order against aggressive war was under threat. Then the US and Israel attacked Iran. Numerous scholars have predicted this would encourage China to attack Taiwan. The normative restrictions on war are loosening and the US is distracted and hence not able to help defend Taiwan. But two clear developments challenge this prediction. Russia, after 4 full years of war, is not likely to win this war anytime soon. And the US, despite the President’s continual assertions that it has won the war, clearly has not. Technology such as drone warfare might be a reason. Defensive tactics could be another. So on today’s show, we will explore the future of warfare in light of the Russian and American wars and their current lack of success. [ dur: 1h18m ] Yvonne Chiu is a Jeane Kirkpatrick Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and serves on the board of directors for the International Society for Military Ethics. She is the author of “Strategic Ambiguity Out of Balance: Updating an Outdated Taiwan Policy” in The Strategy Bridge. David McCourt, Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Davis. He is the author of The Dragon Defined: How Washington, Canberra, and London Reimagined China. Ricardo A. Crespo is Associate Professor of Political Science and the chair of the Political Economy Department at Grossmont College. He is the author of “Currency Warfare and Cyberwarfare” in Comparative Politics, and “Currency Warfare and Just War” in the Journal of Military Ethics. Robert Williams Professor of Political Science at Pepperdine University. He is the author of Seeking Security in an Insecure World, with Dan Caldwell. We recorded live in front of an audience at the International Studies Association’s West Regional meetings in Pasadena, California. This program is produced by Doug Becker, Maria Armoudian, Ankine Aghassian, Anna Lapin and Sudd Dongre. Politics and Activism, Governance / Law, War / Weapons, Diplomacy, Militarism, Russia, Ukraine, United States, China, Iran

Data drives politics. But politics drive data. That is to say, we make political decisions based on data, often selected from mountains of available information. How we gather data is an inherently political process and nowhere is this more clear than when the US collects information about its population, which is mandated by the Constitution every ten years. Today, we will interview Danah Boyd on her new book, Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census. and delve into the politics of the census. [ dur:58mins. ] Danah Boyd is the Geri Gay Professor of Communication at Cornell University, where she works on topics at the intersection of technology and society. She is also the founder of the research institute Data & Society and the author of It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. This program is produced by Doug Becker, Maria Armoudian, Ankine Aghassian, Anna Lapin and Sudd Dongre. Politics and Activism, Democracy, Civil Servants, Policy making, US

On August 26, 2026, massive floods swept through Nepal and Tibet. As of today, September 3, over 1,200 people are recorded dead and as many as 4,200 are still missing. A landslide reported to be an equivalent 5.2 earthquake hit the Nepal/China border in the Himalayan Mountains, triggering a massive glacial collapse that led to severe flooding. So, on today’s show, we will explore glacial collapse and their causes as well as the extent to which this disaster functions as a harbinger of escalating environmental risk. [ dur: 58mins. ] Umesh Haritashya is Director of the Sustainability Program and Professor of Earth, Environment and Sustainability at the University of Dayton, Ohio. He is the co-author of “Modeling lake outburst and downstream hazard assessment of the Lower Barun glacial lake, Nepal Himalaya”. Mathias Vuille is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University at Albany, SUNY. He is the co-author of “Rapid decline of snow and ice in the tropical Andes-Impacts, uncertainties and challenges ahead.” Bethan Davies is Professor of Glaciology in the Department of Geography at Newcastle University. She is the co-author of “Glacier changes in Langtang Catchment, Central Nepalese Himalaya from the Little Ice Age (∼1815 CE) to 2023 CE.” This program is produced by Doug Becker, Maria Armoudian, Ankine Aghassian, Anna Lapin and Sudd Dongre. Environment, Politics and Activism, Science / Technology, Climate Change, Nepal, China, Himalaya Mountains