Larry Bartels, the Donald E. Stokes Professor of Public and International Affairs and director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at the Woodrow Wilson School, has authored the book Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age (Princeton University Press, Russell Sage Foundation, 2008). The book debunks many myths about politics in contemporary America, utilizing evidence of the widening gap between the rich and the poor to shed light on the workings of American democracy.

Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and Professor of Economics and Public Affairs Alan Blinder testified before the U.S. Senate Budget Committee in January on the economic stimulus plan that was before the Senate.

In early February, Professor of Astrophysical Sciences and International Affairs Christopher Chyba spoke at the University of Texas. His talk was titled, “The Possibility of Life Elsewhere in the Universe.” The event was organized by the Space Studies Board of the National Academies and The University of Texas at Austin Astronomy Program.

Wolfgang Danspeckgruber, director of the Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination (LISD), in November chaired the Liechtenstein Colloquium on State building in Afghanistan at the EU headquarters in Brussels, and convened the third advisory board meeting for the Princeton Encyclopedia of Self-determination in London. Also in November he met with experts in Iranian affairs and terrorism at St. Andrews University, Scotland to present the latest LISD findings on related matters. In January, he spoke at the Gulf Research Center Meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to discuss confidence and security-building measures in the Gulf region, and in February he presented the concluding paper on “Self Determination Today—Perception, Security, and Great Power Politics” at the Historische Kolleg of the Bavarian Academy of Science in Munich, Germany.

Lecturer of Public and International Affairs Mickey Edwards participated in the panel “What is a Conservative Foreign Policy?” at the American Conservative Union’s 35th annual conference. He also held a book signing at the event for his new book, Reclaiming Conservatism: How a Great American Political Movement Got Lost—And How It Can Find Its Way Back (Oxford University Press, 2008).

An article by LISD associate research scholar Beth English, “‘I Have...A Lot of Work to Do’: Cotton Mill Work and Women’s Culture in Matoaca, Virginia, 1885–95” was published in the Organization of American Historians’ The Best American History Essays of 2008 (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2008). The OAH annually selects and republishes ten exceptional peer-reviewed articles in the anthology.

Professor of Politics and International Affairs Aaron Friedberg attended the Wehrkunde conference on security policy held in Munich, Germany, which convened various defense and foreign ministers, heads of state, and members of Congress. He attended as a member of the U.S. delegation, headed this year by Senators Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

John Ikenberry, Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs, co-edited the book The United States and Northeast Asia: Debates, Issues, and New Order (Rowman and Littlefield, 2008) with Chung-in Moon. The book is a compilation of essays that explore the power transitions in Northeast Asia represented by China’s rise, Japan’s quest for a normal state, North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, South Korea’s projection into a middle power, and U.S. strategic realignments.

Richard F. Keevey, director of the Policy Research Institute for the Region and lecturer in public affairs published an article titled, “Maximizing Federal Performance with State and Local Partners,” in the book Performance Management and Budgeting: How Governments Can Learn from Experience (M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2007). He also has become an author for NJ Voices, the blog of the Newark Star-Ledger. Keevey, who posts regularly on the site, already has included pieces on such topics as eminent domain and school funding. To view his ongoing contributions, visit www.nj.com/njvoices/. Keevey also has been elected by the the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) as a Fellow. Established in 1967, NAPA is an independent, non-partisan organization chartered by Congress to assist federal, state, and local governments in improving their effectiveness and accountability. NAPA Fellows consist of current and former public managers and scholars, business executives and labor leaders, cabinet officers, members of Congress, governors, mayors, state legislators, and diplomats, all of whom lend their guidance and expertise to NAPA’s ongoing portfolio of research projects. The principal criterion for selection as a Fellow is “a sustained and outstanding contribution to the field of public administration through public service or scholarship.”

Professor of International Affairs Robert Keohane gave the Castle Lectures at Yale University from October-November 2007 on the subject of “Institutional Design and Power.” In September, he presented the keynote address “Global Governance and Legitimacy,” at the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation at the University of Warwick in the U.K., and in December presented a keynote on multilateral institutions and climate change at the Department of Political Science, Oxford University.

Daniel Kurtzer, the S. Daniel Abraham Professor in Middle Eastern Policy Studies, co-authored the book Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East, published in February by the U.S. Institute of Peace Press. Co-authored with Scott Lasensky, the book represents the results of a year-long study group chaired by Kurtzer that interviewed more than 100 current and former policymakers to understand what the United States needs to do to help negotiate Middle East peace. He also had an article “Israel—La politique étrangère: entre défis et risques, choix et opportunités" (“Israeli Foreign Policy: Challenges, Risks, Choices and Opportunities”) in the November-December #28 issue of the French journal Questions internationals. In November, he made a presentation on U.S.-Arab relations at the World Economic Forum’s Arab Business Council in Cairo, and in January he presented papers on the U.S. role in Middle East negotiations at a conference in Israel focused on how to reach an agreement within a year; the U.S. and Europe in the Middle East at the Kronberg Conference in Germany; and on Final Status Issues in the Peace Negotiations at the Herzliya Conference in Israel. In March, he delivered the summary and conclusions at a conference in Doha, Qatar on framing the economic future of the Middle East, and in May he will attend a conference, convened by Israeli President Shimon Peres, on the subject of the future of Israel and the Jewish people.

In February Jason Lyall, assistant professor of politics and international affairs, presented “Paths of Ruin: How Identity Shapes Military Effectiveness in Modern War” at the University of Chicago’s Program on International Security Policy (PISP) Workshop, and presented the lecture “How Ethnicity Shapes Insurgent Violence” at the Davis Center for Eurasian Studies at Harvard, at Cornell’s Peace Studies Program, and at the Order, Conflict, and Violence Seminar at Yale University. In mid-March, he spoke at the “Reconsidering Counterinsurgency” Working Group at the Sante Fe Institute, New Mexico.

Hughes-Rogers Professor of Economics and Public Affairs Christina Paxson, and Theodore A. Wells ‘29 Professor of Economics and Public Affairs Cecilia Rouse, have been awarded a National Institutes of Health grant to continue their study of the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the educational attainment, labor market outcomes, and mental and physical health of a group of low-income parents who lived in New Orleans prior to the hurricane.

Markus Prior’s book, Post-Broadcast Democracy: How Media Choice Increases Inequality in Political Involvement and Polarizes Elections (Cambridge University Press, 2007), was cited in the article, “The Closing of the American Mind” in the December 22, 2007 issue of Newsweek. According to author Evan Thomas, Post-Broadcast Democracy “offers the clearest and most insightful explanation of why American politics has become more polarized.”

In January 2008, the N.J. Governor’s Commission on Rationalizing Healthcare Resources, chaired by James Madison Professor of Political Economy and professor of economics and public affairs Uwe Reinhardt, released its final report on how to improve New Jersey’s healthcare system at a press conference at the School. The report, which was commissioned by the N.J. Department of Health and Senior Services, outlines recommendations to monitor acute-care hospitals and create an “early warning system” to identify in advance those in financial distress to ensure the public’s access to quality healthcare.

Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Public Affairs and the University Center for Human Values Kim L. Scheppele presented a paper “The Practical Realization of Social Rights by Constitutional Courts” at the Tenth Annual Forum on Constitutional Jurisprudence in October 2007. The event was organized by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in Moscow. She also gave the Constitution Day lecture in September 2007 at Swarthmore College, titled “Small Emergencies: Why the American Constitution Has Lasted This Long.”

A new study by Tim Searchinger, a visiting research scholar with the Program on Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy, published by Science magazine, finds that biofuels that use cropland are likely to increase greenhouse gases because previous analyses of biofuels ignored a crucial factor—the use of land.

Burton Singer, Charles and Marie Robertson Professor of Public and International Affairs and professor of demography and public affairs, is among three distinguished scientists that have been appointed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to the National Advisory Council on Aging.

In the December 2007 issue of the Journal of Mammalogy, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Public Affairs David Wilcove, and colleagues at the World Wildlife Fund, published a paper entitled “Persistance of Large Mammal Faunas as Indicators of Global Human Impacts.” In it, they identify the percentage of the earth’s land area that still retains all of the large mammal species that were present in the year 1500. (The presence of large mammals such as bison or wolves is often an indication of a healthy or undisturbed ecosystem.) They estimate that less than 21% of the earth’s land area still retains a complete representation of large mammals. In certain parts of the world, most notably southeastern Asia, less than 1% of the land area retains a complete assemblage of large mammals, with one or more species having been extirpated in the other 99%.

Professor of History and Public Affairs Julian Zelizer co-edited the book Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s (Harvard University Press, 2008), with Bruce Schulman of Boston University. The book is a compilation of essays that examine the 1970s, the time between the liberal 1960s and Reagan’s ‘80s, a significant moral and cultural turning point in which the conservative movement became the motive force driving politics for the ensuing three decades. Zelizer contributed a chapter to the book about President Jimmy Carter and the politics of national security. He also published a special issue of the Journal of Policy History that focused on the Constitution and Public Policy History, which he also co-edited with Schulman. With Professor Meg Jacobs (MIT), he presented an essay on the Reagan Revolution at the University of Santa Barbara. The paper is based on a book they are co-writing on the subject.