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Electoral cycles and incomplete public works projects: An analysis of the MPLAD scheme

January 8, 2020

Anjali Bohlken, an assistant professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, and Jonathan Darsey, a PhD candidate in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, wrote "Electoral cycles and incomplete public works projects: An analysis of the MPLAD scheme" in Ideas for India.

Read and excerpt:

The second – which we term the ‘incumbent turnover’ channel – posits that the failure to complete projects is driven by the fact that elections frequently produce a change in the identity of the MP representing a given constituency. A newly elected MP may not be able to take credit for projects proposed by her predecessor and may therefore be reluctant to exert much effort to ensure the completion of such projects.

Find the article in Ideas for India website.

Published in: Ideas for India
Gender Pay Gap Identified at Some U.S. Science Agencies

January 7, 2020

A study on the gender pay gap in some federal agencies co-authored by School of Public Policy Chair Kaye Husbands Fealing was featured in an article in Nature on Jan. 7, 2020.

Husbands Fealing and her co-authors analyzed employment information for the years 1994 to 2008 from the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and the Center for Disease Control. The study found that while the pay gap between women and men decreased during the years examined, it still existed, with certain behaviors contributing to the gap.

Those behaviors included patterns in agencies not adhering to the set general schedule payscale, with men receiving the most benefit when agencies varied pay, and that men most commonly held the highest-paying jobs.

Excerpt:

The researchers examined seven agencies: the NIH, the EPA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Energy (DOE). In each agency, the researchers found that the total wage gap significantly declined over the 14-year period they examined. But sizable pay disparities persisted, and the largest was at the NSF. In 2007, women at this agency were paid on average $0.73 to every dollar that male employees earned — an increase from $0.58 per men’s dollar in 1994.

The gaps were smaller when the researchers looked at individual jobs, however. In some agencies, men and women received the same wages for the same job. The analysis, which did not include job titles, examined all positions, including those that do not require a PhD or other degree. In a statement, the NSF, which partially funded the study, says that it is aware that gender pay gaps exist. “NSF will add it to the information we use to reassess our policies as we work to attract the best talent.” The agency says that its metrics might look different from those of some agencies, such as the NIH and the DOE, because its workforce is much smaller, and it doesn’t always follow the general schedule (GS), a strict, government-wide scale that determines wages on the basis of experience and job type.

Read the full article here.

Published in: Nature
Was America’s assassination of Qassem Suleimani justified?

January 7, 2020

Sam Nunn School of International Affairs Associate Professor Jenna Jordan's book Leadership Decapitation: Strategic Targeting of Terrorist Organizations was cited in the Economist article, "Was America’s assassination of Qassem Suleimani justified?"

Read an excerpt:

Yet the idea of organisational decapitation remains seductive to would-be strategic assassins: cut off the leader and watch the body twitch through its death throes. In a book published last November, Jenna Jordan of the Georgia Institute of Technology examines more than 1,000 cases involving the killing or capture of leaders of terrorist or insurgent groups. She says three factors contribute to a group’s resilience afterwards: its degree of bureaucracy, ability to draw on local resources and ideological zeal. These qualities ensure that its mission does not depend on a single leader.

Read the article on the Economist article.

Published in: Economist
How Iran could respond to the U.S. killing of General Qasem Soleimani

January 7, 2020

Lawrence Rubin, an associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was interviewed in"How Iran could respond to the U.S. killing of General Qasem Soleimani" for CGTN.

Watch the interview on CGTN.

Published in: CGTN
Ciara comes home to surprise STEM students

January 6, 2020

EarSketch, a computer program created by School of Literature, Media, and Communication professor Brian Magerko with School of Music professor Jason Freeman, was mentioned in an article from CNN on Jan. 6, 2020.

EarSketch is a free-to-use program that teaches students the programming languages Python and JavaScript in the context of creating and manipulating songs in a "digital audio workstation." It is used by more than 375,000 students and instructors in 50 states and more than 100 different countries.

The program got some celebrity exposure recently when star R&B singer Ciara came to Paul Duke STEM High School in Norcross to speak to students and listen to remixes of her songs that students created in EarSketch. Students could submit their creations for the Ciara Remix Competition, run by Amazon and Georgia Tech.

Excerpt:
Ciara told CNN the program not only is empowering to the students, but also targets underserved students who might otherwise be at a disadvantage in a world so clearly driven by technology.
"Coding is really the way," she said. "What I've learned through my experiences with Amazon, in particular in this program, is that it's now almost in some places a requirement to get a job. I said to the kids today, when you walk into a room, you have an extra level of cool by adding coding. You automatically level up your game."
Read the full article here.

Published in: CNN
Looking back at the Middle East’s 2019: Surprises from Trump, Saudi power moves, protests and more

December 29, 2019

Jenna Jordan, associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was cited in The Washington Post article, "Looking back at the Middle East’s 2019: Surprises from Trump, Saudi power moves, protests and more."

Find an excerpt:

During an October raid by U.S. Special Operations forces in Syria, Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — one of the most wanted terrorists in the world — killed himself by setting off a suicide bomb. But what did the raid achieve? “The caliphate may be weakened,” wrote Jenna Jordan, “But Baghdadi created a highly resilient bureaucratic organizational structure capable of withstanding the loss of leaders.”

Find the full article on The Washington Post.

Published in: The Washington Post
Colonialism or Philanthropy? Blurred Lines in King Leopold’s Congo

December 28, 2019

Kirk Bowman, Jon R. Wilcox Professor of Soccer and Global Politics, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, wrote about King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild (Houghton Mifflin 1998) for Global Atlanta.

Excerpt:

The Congo experience provides numerous lessons for our time... I read Leopold’s Ghost at the same time that J.K. Rowling launched a three-year campaign to stop orphanage tourism. There is an oversupply of orphanage tourists and a shortage of orphans. Children are being sold or stolen into orphanages to sate the pressure from orphanage volunteers. While their intentions are far more noble than the Congo’s ruthless ruler, Hoschild’s brilliant book reminds us all that global philanthropy can sometimes be far different from what it appears.

Read the full article.

Published in: Global Atlanta
Fixing repo market a ‘trial and error’ process, former Atlanta Fed president says

December 27, 2019

Dennis Lockhart, former Atlanta Federal Reserve president and Sam Nunn School distinguished professor, was interviewed in "Fixing repo market a ‘trial and error’ process, former Atlanta Fed president says" by CNBC.

Read an excerpt:

“That’s a little bit of a trial and error kind of thing,” Lockhart said. “And they have been injecting more bank reserves into the system to try to make sure the repo market first got through year-end, which we’ll see in the next couple of days, and secondly continues without undo volatility.”

Find the article and video interview on the CNBC website.

Published in: CNBC
What Atlanta can teach Tepper about soccer

December 20, 2019

Kirk Bowman, professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was quoted in Charlotte Ledger article “What Atlanta can teach Tepper about soccer.”

Read a quote:

“Arthur Blank’s genius has been to embrace soccer as a completely different animal from football,” says Kirk S. Bowman, a professor at Georgia Tech’s Sam Nunn School of International Affairs who has studied soccer extensively and witnessed the United sensation firsthand.

Find the aricle on the Charlotte Ledger.

Published in: Charlotte Ledger
The Force of 'Star Wars': The Staying Power of a Sci-Fi Icon Explained

December 20, 2019

Lisa Yaszek, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, was quoted in the article "The Force of 'Star Wars': The Staying Power of a Sci-Fi Icon Explained" in space.com.

Excerpt:

The character of Luke Skywalker was supposed to undergo his own "hero's journey" in the original "Star Wars." Lucas drew on themes of good and evil drawn from ancient texts such as the Biblical Old and New Testaments, and Sophocles' "Oedipus Rex" play trilogy from ancient Greece, Lisa Yaszek, professor of science-fiction studies at Georgia Tech University, told Space.com. Additionally, Lucas made sure to throw in themes that would resonate with 1970s and 1980s audiences, including strong characters who were female, or people of color.

Take, for example, the famous scene in the original film where Leia takes over during a bungled "rescue" by Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. "It was the first time a science fiction heroine picked up a gun and saved herself," Yaszek said. "She says, 'Oh dude, you're too short and completely inadequate. I'm going to take care of it.' And that's great."

Read the full article.

Published in: space.com
‘Phantom buzzing’ is creeping out smartphone, smartwatch users

December 20, 2019

Robert Rosenberger, associate professor in the School of Public Policy, was quoted in the article "‘Phantom buzzing’ is creeping out smartphone, smartwatch users" in the New York Post, December 28, 2019.

Excerpt:

The Post previously reported that it is classified as “a real psychological phenomenon” and a legitimate hallucination.

“The phone actually becomes a part of you, and you become trained to perceive the phone’s vibration as an incoming call or text,” Robert Rosenberger, a Georgia Tech School of Public Policy professor, explained.

Read the full article.

Published in: New York Post
Is Your Phone or Watch Constantly Buzzing? It Could Be in Your Head

December 19, 2019

Robert Rosenberger, associate professor in the School of Public Policy, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal article "“Is Your Phone or Watch Constantly Buzzing? It Could Be in Your Head" published on December 19, 2019.

Subscription required.

Published in: Wall Street Journal
Journal Reports: Decade in Review (A Special Report): China’s Growing Power, and a Growing Backlash

December 18, 2019

Fei-Ling Wang, professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal article "Journal Reports: Decade in Review (A Special Report): China’s Growing Power, and a Growing Backlash."

Subscription required.

Published in: Wall Street Journal
Ciara surprises Georgia students using STEM to remix her songs

December 17, 2019

EarSketch, a computer program created by School of Literature, Media, and Communication professor Brian Magerko with School of Music professor Jason Freeman, was mentioned in an article in USA Today on Dec. 17, 2019.

EarSketch is a free-to-use program that teaches students the programming languages Python and JavaScript in the context of creating and manipulating songs in a "digital audio workstation." It is used by more than 375,000 students and instructors in 50 states and more than 100 different countries.

The program got some celebrity exposure recently when star R&B singer Ciara came to Paul Duke STEM High School in Norcross to speak to students and listen to remixes of her songs that students created in EarSketch. Students could submit their creations for the Ciara Remix Competition, run by Amazon and Georgia Tech.

Excerpt:

Ciara spoke to the class and watched students rework her music as they participated in a competition sponsored by Amazon’s future engineer program. The teenagers used EarSketch, a platform developed by Georgia Institute of Technology, that teaches computer science through music remixing, research engineer Roxanne Moore told WSB-TV.

The students will submit their creations for judging and could win Amazon gift cards or a trip to Seattle to present their work, according to the competition rules.

Read the full article here.

Published in: USA Today
Contest merges music, coding to lure students to computer science

December 17, 2019

EarSketch, a computer program created by School of Literature, Media, and Communication professor Brian Magerko with School of Music professor Jason Freeman, was mentioned in an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Dec. 17, 2019.

EarSketch is a free-to-use program that teaches students the programming languages Python and JavaScript in the context of creating and manipulating songs in a "digital audio workstation." It is used by more than 375,000 students and instructors in 50 states and more than 100 different countries.

The program got some celebrity exposure recently when star R&B singer Ciara came to Paul Duke STEM High School in Norcross to speak to students and listen to remixes of her songs that students created in EarSketch. Students could submit their creations for the Ciara Remix Competition, run by Amazon and Georgia Tech.

Excerpt:

Using Georgia Tech’s learn-to-code-through-music platform, EarSketch, high school students have the opportunity to win prizes by composing an original remix featuring the song “SET” from Grammy-Award winning singer-songwriter Ciara. The competition is intended to get young people excited about computer science and coding.

High school students across the country can enter the competition through Jan. 20.

“I always get students who come in and say they don’t know anything about programming and they may be a little intimidated at first,” said Philip Peavey, digital technology teacher at Paul Duke. “But once they get going they realize that it’s something they can do … it opens their eyes to career possibilities that they maybe hadn’t thought of before.”

Read the full article here.

Published in: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A ‘Star Wars’ actor sparked a conversation about gender fluidity. Women have been using sci-fi to explore gender and sexuality for centuries.

December 8, 2019

Lisa Yaszek, professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, was featured in The Lily, the world's oldest feminist magazine, in an article about gender fluidity in science fiction, "A ‘Star Wars’ actor sparked a conversation about gender fluidity. Women have been using sci-fi to explore gender and sexuality for centuries."

Excerpt:

For women, in particular, science fiction has long been a space to stretch the bounds of traditional gender roles and imagine a more gender-equal future.

Lisa Yaszek, a professor of science fiction studies at Georgia Tech, describes the feminist appeal of science fiction like this: “We can imagine spaces that radically break from our own world and from what we know or at least believe to be scientifically or socially true about sex and gender.”

Read the full article.

Published in: Live Science
The China Complex

December 5, 2019

Fei-Ling Wang, a professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, was featured in the Al Jazeera English documentary titled "The China Complex."

Watch episode 1 and 2 on Al Jazeera's YouTube channel.

Published in: Al Jazeera English
The banking sector and the uprising

December 5, 2019

Rana Shabb, a doctoral candidate in the Sam Nunn of International Affairs, wrote "The banking sector and the uprising" in The Daily Star.

Therefore, as the Lebanese public demands transparency, accountability and good governance across the board, the financial sector should not be thrown out with the current political elites. It is important that the Central Bank - the regulator - be subject to high scrutiny and abide by stringent transparency and accountability measures. However, the collapse of the commercial banks is not a solution to 30 years of political mismanagement nor is it an avenue for fruitful revenge.

Read the article on The Daily Star.

Published in: The Daily Star
NATO Debrief with General Philip Breedlove (Ret.)

December 4, 2019

General Phil Breedlove, USAF (ret,), former 17th Supreme Commander Europe of NATO and now Distinguished Professor and Senior Fellow in the Center for European and Transatlantic Studies, was interviewed in The Cipher Brief article "NATO Debrief with General Philip Breedlove (Ret.)."

The bottom line is we’re living in some of the most uncertain times of our history. We used to understand our opponents, who they were and where the lines on the ground and the lines in the sand were. Now, there are no lines out there for us to understand. There are all kinds of gray zone conflicts going on. Russia is attacking us in cyber every day. They’re engineering social media against the West every day.

Find the article in The Cipher Brief.

Published in: The Cipher Brief
Sale of .org Domain to Private Equity Firm Sparks Battle over Internet Privacy

December 2, 2019

Georgia Institute of Technology School of Public Policy Professor Milton Mueller was recently quoted in the article "Sale of .org Domain to Private Equity Firm Sparks Battle over Internet Privacy," which was published by Financial Times on November 28.

Here's an excerpt:

The future of one of the internet’s most irreproachable neighbourhoods has just been thrown into doubt — and some of its residents are up in arms. The .org internet domain is a potent symbol for non-profit groups around the world, conveying such a strong sense of rectitude that some organisations have even included it in their offline names. So it was a shock to many users when the Internet Society, the US non-profit that owns .org, agreed earlier this month to sell the domain registry for an undisclosed sum to a newly established private equity firm called Ethos Capital.

Read the full story here.

The School of Public Policy is a unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Published in: Financial Times