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September 2020

commentary

Counting the Costs: Improving Disaster Recovery Cost Estimation
Estimating the cost of disasters is a complex process. Disaster recovery is complicated even further during this new era of COVID-19, when extra precautions must be taken. How can we estimate costs quickly and reliably, thus improving the flow of dollars back into the community?
Sep 30, 2020

commentary

Laid Off More, Hired Less: Black Workers in the COVID-19 Recession
As the U.S. economy tries to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic, companies are adding workers to their teams, yet one group is being picked last: Black workers. Getting back into a job later could do lasting harm to millions of Black Americans' incomes and wealth accumulation for years.
Sep 29, 2020
commentary

North Korea Has Agreed to Denuclearization. Trump Could Try to Make It Happen
President Trump came into office determined to rein in the North Korean nuclear weapons program, but it has become quite clear that North Korea has no intention of giving it up. How might the United States bring North Korea into compliance with its denuclearization commitments?
Sep 28, 2020
commentary

When It Comes to U.S. Health Systems—Diversity Matters
Health care systems are a powerful and relatively well-resourced stakeholder in the effort to eliminate inequities both among the health workforce and among patient populations. The deliberate practice of increasing diversity within the workplace may have the power to create significant, positive impacts on workplace culture and patient care.
Sep 25, 2020
commentary

Taiwan’s KMT May Have a Serious '1992 Consensus' Problem
The 1992 Consensus is an agreement between the Kuomintang opposition party in Taiwan and mainland Chinese authorities on the existence of only “One China.” Maintaining the 1992 Consensus as the cornerstone of the Kuomintang's platform has not helped the party's cause, and more importantly, has probably done the opposite.
Sep 25, 2020
commentary

It May Be Time to Rethink the Design of Jobs to Deliver Good Health for Workers
Even before the COVID-19 crisis, the impact of poorly designed jobs on the health of workers was drawing attention. Now may be the time to fundamentally rethink the design of jobs so that they promote good health and lessen poor health and its costs.
Sep 25, 2020
commentary

Managing the Challenge of Workforce Presenteeism in the COVID-19 Crisis
Presenteeism occurs when people work when in suboptimal health. Both presenteeism and absenteeism are key influences on workplace productivity, but presenteeism is by far the most significant. It's vital that employers identify and deal with presenteeism, for the health of their people as well as that of the organization.
Sep 25, 2020
commentary

Ambiguity Has Its Uses
As China's thirst to resolve the Taiwan issue intensifies, the United States' halfhearted commitment to the island will become increasingly perilous: too weak to deter Chinese aggression but strong enough to drag the United States into a war. No U.S. approach to Taiwan will offer a perfect guarantee of peace. But the United States has many options short of the provocative, costly, and diplomatically risky step of an unconditional security pledge.
Sep 24, 2020
commentary

Could Time Be Up for TikTok?
Is it possible for ByteDance to maintain ownership in TikTok Global while ameliorating U.S. national security concerns? At the heart of any deal should be a highly technical agreement on data security issues—one that not only the two companies but the two governments might have to agree to.
Sep 24, 2020
commentary

Georgia: From COVID-19 to a Critical Test of Democracy
Georgia has successfully dealt with the COVID-19 outbreak but now must meet the task of conducting free, fair, and transparent parliamentary elections on October 31 and dealing with the economic impacts of the pandemic.
Sep 23, 2020
commentary

The American Jihad Was a Failure. For Those Who Joined, It Was a Path to Destruction
To keep the jihad going after 9/11, al Qaeda exhorted homegrown terrorists to take up arms in the United States. ISIS later made similar appeals. These calls to arms yielded some plots and a few attacks, but overall, the American jihad was a failure.
Sep 23, 2020
commentary

In the Middle East, Russia and China Expand Their Influence
While the United States is concerned primarily about a resurgent China's inroads in the Middle East, it is also nervous about the gambits of a revanchist Russia. As the United States decides when and how to contest China and Russia—in and beyond the Middle East—it will have to resist alarmism as vigorously as complacency.
Sep 18, 2020
commentary

Access to Mobile Technology Could Help to Alleviate LA's Homelessness Crisis
The vast majority of people experiencing homelessness have cell phones, which often serve as their lifelines. Providing technological supports, such as Wi-Fi access and opportunities to charge devices, could result in better access to social services and, ultimately, better quality of life and outcomes.
Sep 16, 2020
commentary

PTSD and Substance Use Disorders Are a Vicious Cycle for Veterans
It is not uncommon to see a co-occurrence of PTSD and heavy use of substances, which can rise to the level of a substance use disorder. It may be necessary to challenge how the needs of veterans are addressed to remove barriers to care that make treating these co-occurring disorders simultaneously so difficult.
Sep 15, 2020
commentary

The Lost Generation in American Foreign Policy
Throughout the 55 years following World War II, successive U.S. administrations racked up major foreign policy successes at an average rate of about once a year. Since 2001, the pace of foreign policy achievement has fallen to once every four years. The result has been a lost generation in American foreign policy.
Sep 15, 2020
commentary

To Mr. Suga, the New Prime Minister, Three Top Priorities Presented by U.S. Researchers
Understanding that there will be domestic pressures to focus on economic recovery and COVID-19 responses, what then might the next prime minister of Japan prioritize in the foreign policy and defense domains? There are three critical issues that could be top priorities for the next administration.
Sep 15, 2020

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