CMC In The News

Prof. Andrew Sinclair was interviewed by The New York Times about California’s election system, which allows all candidates from all political parties to be listed on the same ballot. The top two vote-getters then face off in the general election regardless of party affiliation. The Times asked Prof. Sinclair if California’s “open” primary system is a possible solution to hyperpartisanship.

“I think it’s probably the case that it can produce more moderate legislators,” Prof. Sinclair said. “But it’s hard to sort out, and there’s a fairly robust debate about it.”

Prof. Hilary Appel, an expert on Russian Politics and West and East European Politics, was interviewed by Spectrum News 1 SoCal about the Russian-Ukraine War, how long the war may last, the role of the US, and Putin’s health.

In his Cutting-Edge Leadership column for Psychology Today, Prof. Ronald E. Riggio discussed grit and its relationship to leadership. “For leaders, it’s not enough to just possess grit,” he said, “they need to also develop the ability to inspire and motivate others.”

Multiple media outlets published news stories about the George R. Roberts ’66 P’93 $140 million gift, detailing how the gift will fund new construction and double the campus footprint, while highlighting Roberts’ philanthropy. In addition to Forbes, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Bloomberg, Inside Higher Education, and the Orange County Register ran stories about the gift.

Eleanor Clift quoted Prof. Jack Pitney in a The Daily Beast op-ed about how the Democrats are finally learning to fight the GOP’s fire with fire: “They’re clearly latching on to libertarian rhetoric trying to limit the power of the government. That may win them more support than some invocation of ‘woke’ values.”

Prof. Jack Pitney was quoted in a Washington Examiner story about the Democrats’ mask mandate dilemma. Even if the Justice Department wins its appeal of a federal court’s decision to strike down the CDC’s public transportation mask mandate, the fact that the TSA stopped enforcing it will make it difficult to reverse. “Reimposing a mandate after it has been lifted is likely to be unpopular,” he said. “People dislike uncertainty and inconsistency.”

Prof. Lily Geismer was interviewed by The Nation about her new book, Left Behind: The Democrats’ Failed Attempt to Solve Inequality. In regard to the Clinton administration’s small, market-based reforms as solutions to poverty and inequality, Geismer said: “In the end, these micro-solutions both reinforce the power of the market—because they’re based on the techniques of consulting and especially of the emerging high-tech sector—and at the same time they don’t require much expenditure of political or economic capital. They don’t require rich and powerful people to give very much over.”

In a Los Angeles Times opinion piece, Prof. Minxin Pei explored the costs of deglobalization for China in a world divided by Putin’s war: reduced access to major Western markets, loss of access to the technologies it needs to build a knowledge economy, and the loss of efficiency gains from dynamic competition. “Although the coming deglobalization process will leave everyone worse off, China stands to lose the most,” he said. Taipei Times and The Japan Times also published this piece.

In this New York Times opinion piece, Prof. Jon Shields, co-director of CMC’s Open Academy, explains how he gets students to engage in open inquiry with a mix of classroom norms and guidelines. “While robust defenses of free expression and debate, like the ‘Chicago Principles’ ... are important,” he writes, “they do little to soften the climate of fear that has gripped our campuses.” This is because they “neglect the concrete social norms necessary to facilitate and regulate the collective search for truth in college classrooms.”

Prof. Hilary Appel was interviewed on CNBC to assess the ceasefire negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, as well as security guarantees sought from NATO by Ukraine President Zelenskyy. “There is no way that the security guarantees that he hopes to get from the existing NATO member states and other countries are the least bit realistic,” she said.

In a Nikkei Asia op-ed, Prof. Minxin Pei suggested a strategy for preventing war in East Asia, looking at what the United States, China, and Taiwan can learn from the war in Ukraine. “While it is unlikely that the three protagonists can reach a new political understanding in an environment of enmity and distrust, they still need to intensify diplomatic efforts to know what each other’s bottom line is and find a new modus vivendi,” he said.

Prof. Angela Vossmeyer’s co-authored study “Stock Volatility and the War Puzzle” was cited in an op-ed in MarketWatch about the stock market’s prospects as a result of the war in Ukraine. The National Bureau of Economic Research circulated the study, which said that stock market volatility has been “33 percent lower during major wars and periods of conflict since 1921.” Columnist Mark Hulbert said about the authors: “They at least partially solved the puzzle, finding that increased defense spending during wars and military conflicts leads corporate profits to become more predictable. That in turn translates to lower stock market volatility and risk.”

In his Cutting-Edge Leadership column for Psychology Today, Prof. Ronald E. Riggio explained why punitive leaders are destined to fail. “Effective leaders use positive reinforcement to motivate followers,” he said. “Offering rewards for good and productive behavior is a much better strategy. It focuses on what team members are doing right, and encourages that, rather than focusing on stopping what they are doing wrong.”

Prof. George Thomas reviewed Noah Feldman’s “The Broken Constitution,” a book about how President Abraham Lincoln remade the U.S. Constitution.

In an op-ed for The Japan Times, Prof. Minxin Pei warned that the war in Ukraine could trigger a nuclear arms race in Asia. “By bolstering the case for more nuclear weapons in Asia, Putin’s war in Ukraine could decimate what little is left of the region’s strategic stability,” he said. “This not only poses an existential threat to Asia; it would also deliver yet another blow to the global nonproliferation regime, making it even harder to prevent the spread of such weapons in other regions.”