LSE Comment

In this section you can read recent expert commentary from LSE academics on important issues around American Politics and Policy. This section also contains reviews of recent books by LSE academics and book reviews from LSE staff and alumni.

Book Review: Industry of Anonymity: Inside the Business of Cybercrime by Jonathan Lusthaus

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In Industry of Anonymity: Inside the Business of Cybercrime, Jonathan Lusthaus deftly unveils how the industrialisation of cybercrime has occurred despite some of the challenges of functioning behind a shield of anonymity for cybercriminals. This is an appealingly non-technical work that will inspire readers to rethink some of their assumptions about the operations of cybercriminals and will be of interest […]

March 3rd, 2019|Book Reviews, Democracy and culture, LSE Comment|0 Comments|
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    China’s Great Wall reminds us that walls are not good or evil. What’s important is who controls who flows through them.

China’s Great Wall reminds us that walls are not good or evil. What’s important is who controls who flows through them.

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Walls have very much been in the news of late, with President Trump pushing for a “big, beautiful wall” on the border with Mexico to prevent the entry of undocumented immigrants. But not all walls are inherently bad, writes William A. Callahan. Using China’s Great Wall as an example, he argues that we need to understand them as gateways […]

February 14th, 2019|LSE Comment, US foreign affairs and the North American neighbourhood, William A. Callahan|0 Comments|
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    Trump’s immigration speech shows he knows he is losing the shutdown

Trump’s immigration speech shows he knows he is losing the shutdown

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Last night President Trump gave the first national televised address of his presidency, calling on Congress to end the ongoing government shutdown by funding his plans for $5.7 billion wall at the US-Mexico border. Director of the LSE’s US Centre, Peter Trubowitz, writes that the president’s decision to make the speech now is an acknowledgement from Trump that time is […]

January 9th, 2019|Justice and Domestic Affairs, LSE Comment, Peter Trubowitz|0 Comments|
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    This is what 2019 likely has in store for US politics and policy

This is what 2019 likely has in store for US politics and policy

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With 2018 now done and dusted, Chris Gilson looks ahead to what 2019 is likely to have in store for US state and national politics and policy. Read our review of 2018 in US politics and policy, here. 

If we thought that 2018 was eventful, then as the gateway year to the next presidential election, 2019 promises little respite from […]

January 2nd, 2019|Elections and party politics across the US, LSE Comment|2 Comments|
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    Shutdowns, election upsets and historic meetings – reviewing 2018 in US politics through our coverage 

Shutdowns, election upsets and historic meetings – reviewing 2018 in US politics through our coverage 

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LSE USAPP blog Managing Editor, Chris Gilson, reviews the political ups and downs of 2018, month by month.

In January I sat down to write a look-ahead of the coming political year; as often happens to most of these sorts of forward scanning texts, 2018 has turned out quite differently compared to how I had previewed it. That’s not to say that most of things that […]

December 29th, 2018|Elections and party politics across the US, LSE Comment|0 Comments|
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  • Permalink President Donald J. Trump meets with senior military commanders in the Cabinet Room Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2018 at the White House. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)Gallery

    A closer inspection of Trump’s new counterterrorism strategy shows that it is anything but

A closer inspection of Trump’s new counterterrorism strategy shows that it is anything but

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At the beginning of October, the Trump administration published the US’ first new National Strategy for Counterterrorism in seven years. Jonny Hall writes that while the new Strategy goes beyond its predecessors in some respects, it is also littered with oddities, inconsistencies and contradictions with previous US counterterrorism efforts. He argues that overall, the new strategy is fairly conventional […]

December 20th, 2018|Jonny Hall, LSE Comment, US foreign affairs and the North American neighbourhood|0 Comments|
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    How cities can avoid the pitfalls of ‘beauty contests’ to attract multinational investment

How cities can avoid the pitfalls of ‘beauty contests’ to attract multinational investment

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EU and UK cities need an evidence-based diagnosis of their ‘unique selling points’, writes Riccardo Crescenzi.

What drives foreign investment to some cities and regions of the world, but leaves others almost completely untouched? And what can cities and regions do in order to attract those investments?

Traditionally, scholars have tried to understand this by looking at things like market access, […]

December 8th, 2018|LSE Comment, Riccardo Crescenzi, Urban, rural and regional policies|0 Comments|
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    China and the US have a long history of cooperation on opioid control. The latest announcement is pure White House theatre.

China and the US have a long history of cooperation on opioid control. The latest announcement is pure White House theatre.

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This week at the G20 summit, President Trump announced that China had agreed that the export of synthetic opioids, namely Fentanyls, to the US would be curtailed. John Collins writes that the move is another political ‘sugar rush’ for the administration which is unlikely to address the US opioid crisis. Delving into the long history of US-China cooperation on […]

December 5th, 2018|John Collins, LSE Comment, US foreign affairs and the North American neighbourhood|0 Comments|
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    United Airlines in-flight catering workers’ union victory shows there is hope in the face of employers’ anti-union campaigns and weak legal protections

United Airlines in-flight catering workers’ union victory shows there is hope in the face of employers’ anti-union campaigns and weak legal protections

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Last month, nearly 3,000 in-flight catering workers employed by United Airlines at six major US airports won union recognition after an election which was opposed tooth and nail by their employers. Lauren Burke writes that the workers were able to overcome a combination of heavy anti-union opposition from United and labor laws which largely favor employers by recruiting large […]

November 19th, 2018|Justice and Domestic Affairs, Lauren Burke, LSE Comment|0 Comments|
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    Americans have voted to put a check on Donald Trump and on his vision for the country

Americans have voted to put a check on Donald Trump and on his vision for the country

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This year’s midterm elections saw the US House of Representatives fall back in to the hands of the Democratic Party. LSE US Centre Director, Peter Trubowitz writes that this election was driven by two very different visions for the country, and that the result has brought Trump down to earth just as other presidents have been in the past.

Yesterday […]

November 7th, 2018|Elections and party politics across the US, LSE Comment, Peter Trubowitz|0 Comments|
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This work by LSE USAPP blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported.