May 15th, 2012

Stanford conference to explore governance and the provision of public goods

The CDDRL Program on Poverty and Governance together with the Center for Latin American Studies will host a conference on May 18-19 to explore how governance impacts the provision of public goods and services throughout the world. Read more »

December 13th, 2006

CISAC civil war experts influence policy debate on Iraq

November's mid-term elections, in which Democrats won a majority in both houses of congress, were widely interpreted as a referendum on the administration's prosecution of the Iraq war. As public debate intensified over an anticipated change of course in Iraq, policymakers, commentators, and reporters turned to CISAC civil war experts James Fearon and David Laitin for insight into the current violence and possible outcomes. News media drew on Fearon's testimony before a house subcommittee in September, echoing his warning about the likely failure of an attempt to partition the country's land or resources among Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds. Some news organizations announced a new policy to call the fighting in Iraq a civil war, citing the opinions of Fearon and Laitin. Laitin appeared on CNN's Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer to discuss the question of whehter Iraq is engaged in a civil war. Fearon discussed the question on NPR's On Point.

• » Iraq: Democracy or Civil War?
• » NPR's On Point: "The civil war in Iraq"
• » CNN's Situation Room: "Civil war in Iraq?"
• » New York Times magazine: "The way we live now: Iraq 2013"

December 12th, 2006

Uncle Sam's lonely predicament: Op-ed by CISAC's David Laitin

Among the most publicized recommendations of the Iraq Study Group is that the United States talk with its adversaries Iran and Syria in seeking peace in the Middle East. Talking with its allies may be a more difficult proposition, CISAC's David Laitin asserts in this New York Newsday op-ed. The Bush administration has alienated once-strong U.S. allies, and winning back their trust could take years, Laitin writes.

• » Newsday: "Uncle Sam's lonely predicament"

August 18th, 2006

CISAC researchers consulted on civil war causes

The commonplace assumption that a more homogeneous society is a more peaceful society certainly sounds reasonable. But a growing body of work suggests this thinking is false. CISAC civil war experts James D. Fearon and David Laitin came to a startling finding, in their sweeping 2003 study: "it appears not to be true that a greater degree of ethnic or religious diversity--or indeed any particular cultural demography--by itself makes a country more prone to civil war." Read more »

December 8th, 2004

"Misunderestimating" terrorism

As the war on terrorism continues, statistics on terrorist attacks are becoming as important as the unemployment rate or the GDP. Yet the terrorism reports produced by the U.S. government do not have nearly as much credibility as its economic statistics, because there are no safeguards to ensure that the data are as accurate as possible and free from political manipulation. Alan B. Kreuger and David Laitin outline a solution. Read more »