China Shifts Gears in New Effort to Foster Universities

The Chinese government recently launched a number of initiatives focused on improving university teaching and learning outcomes. They aim at cultivating high-caliber talent independently, which is crucial for China’s long-term goal of national development. Such initiatives, however, are not without challenges and pitfalls

Academic Publication Drive, Games, and Consequences

Contemporary academia is marked by intense competition, where the significance of academic publications is constantly emphasized. In this publication-driven academic environment, there are several key trends: a dominant “publish or perish” culture; papers in international journals serving as the currency of prestige while also being insufficient to ensure survival or success; the “dismissal” of other publications; peer-review processes coming under pressure; and research funding being turned into an end, rather than a means to an end

The Victims of Success: How Complacency Bred Israeli Intelligence Failure

This paper inquires into the conditions under which intelligence failures occur. This question is critical in understanding both past security failures and preventing surprise attacks in the future. To address this question, I test three separate Israeli cases—two intelligence failures and one intelligence success —against three potential explanations. While alternative factors like analytical failure and confirmation bias played varying roles in the examined intelligence failures, success-induced complacency emerges as the most plausible condition for surprise attacks. This factor didn’t just contribute to intelligence failures; a lack of complacency also helped produce Israel’s 1967 War success—highlighting the theory’s generalizability. This theory warns intelligence analysts against excessively confident assumptions, instructing them to constantly evaluate their preconceived notions and to adjust them when necessary

A Legal Controversy Surrounding the Clean Power Plant: A History, Overview, and Analysis

In 2014, the Obama Administration unveiled the Clean Power Plan (CPP), an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set of regulations aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions by targeting power plants. Since its introduction, the plan has faced backlash from Republicans, members of Congress, states, and industry. Multiple parties have challenged the plan’s legal basis on the grounds that it is unconstitutional and beyond the scope of the EPA. This paper aims to explore the legal debate surrounding the CPP, which is currently being fought in the U.S. Supreme Court and likely to be scrapped by the incoming Trump administration. The paper starts with a brief legislative and regulatory primer and then explores the verdicts of two related Supreme Court cases. Since the CPP is a directive aimed at reining in greenhouse gas emissions, the paper gives constitutional, political, and legal consideration to the issue of climate change