Jen Brick Murtazashvili

Reimagining US Foreign Aid as a Tool for Change A smarter, more targeted approach to foreign aid can foster real development without wasting taxpayer money.

"The United States must move beyond the broken models of the past and embrace an approach centered on human agency, economic opportunity, and local ownership," writes TPN member Faisal Saeed al Mutar with @jmurtazashvili.bsky.social.

nationalinterest.org/feature/reim...

We can look at antisemitism as a social disease having deep roots across ideologies. This hatred finds warm spots to incubate across the spectrum. Or we can choose to see only the antisemitism that comes from the opposite side of our own political views. By doing so, we give comfort to hatred.

I first encountered antisemitism when I became a professor. Then a right-wing extremist shot up the synagogue a block away from my house--the synagogue where I celebrated my Bat Mitzvah. After I was named co-chair of the antisemitism task force on my campus, left-wing antisemites targeted my home.

Congrats! Looking forward to reading.

The Left-Wing Peace & The Right-Wing Peace How strong is the nexus between domestic and international politics? The democratic peace contends that democracies do not fight interstate wars against each other. We argue there is also a “left-wing...

What explains the dramatic swings in US foreign policy we're seeing? Besides a democratic peace, I argue in a new co-authored @apsa-preprints.bsky.social that there is also a Right-Wing Peace and a Left-Wing Peace. Come for the experiments and stay for the MIDs analysis go.shr.lc/4jucw6O

It draws from examples across cultures and countries to understand how people build effective systems to peacefully manage conflicts and disagreements, creating stable societies despite significant divides.

Best of all, it's freely available online for anyone to read.

This book looks at how diverse communities around the world manage their deepest differences, especially at a time when globalization and technological changes are reshaping how we live and interact.

I'm excited to announce the release of our new, open access book, Governing Differences, co-edited with Paul Dragos Aligica.

In 'Service,' A Celebrated Photographer Turns His Lens On U.S. Troops Platon, best known for his portraits of leaders and celebrities, focuses on U.S. troops and their loved ones in his new book, Service. "It's time to celebrate a new set of cultural heroes," he says.

Re-sharing an interview I did with Platon ahead of Memorial Day nearly a decade ago. Much still to think about in the points he made

www.npr.org/2016/04/24/4...

What is Donald Trump’s Foreign Aid Plan? Trump’s OMB Director Russell Vought needs more of an global health, aid, and disaster relief agenda than just spending cuts.

Last week in NYC we hosted a workshop on reinventing US foreign aid. We gathered practitioners, analysts, entrepreneurs, & journalists to ask: If the old aid architecture is crumbling, what should replace it?

See this write-up in The National Interest
nationalinterest.org/blog/jacob-h...

The most valuable student feedback I receive is, "We don't know what she thinks."

I can never be perfectly neutral, but striving for it in the classroom while teaching policy issues––in a democracy––is worthwhile.

Using the classroom as a pulpit undermines students' dignity.

I've worked in public policy for years but don't feel comfortable sharing my views with students on most policy issues.

Feels like a disservice to my students, as the classroom should be a place where they can explore and change their minds. I should be able to do the same.

Opinion | I Teach Computer Science, and That Is All Politics has no place at universities or in the classroom.

Harvard's Boaz Barak models the alternative: activism on the quad, rigor in the classroom.

Keep scholarship first, politics second, and we might just win back the trust that sustains universities. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/02/o...

Nothing has hurt academia more than the idea that universities exist to wage political crusades.

As a public policy prof, I teach that policies always involve trade-offs.

Treating it as moral certainty kills the humility and curiosity students need—and drains public trust.

Here's what Trump is really up to with high-stakes tariff gambit Policy analyst Tanvi Ratna breaks down what President Trump is really up to with his tariffs, and it is more ambitious that you may think.

A FoxNews Opinion tells us that Trump's tariffs were aimed to spook the market & push down interest rates on US bonds, to reduce the cost of rolling over US debt.
www.foxnews.com/opinion/here...
Does POTUS really think that he needs a recession for US treasuries to compete with private investments?

It's encouraging to see academics embracing academic freedom lately. Yet our credibility is damaged by years of intolerance toward viewpoint diversity within our own institutions. The public doesn't trust us anymore and our past resistance to pluralism is a major reason why.

The misinformation crisis isn’t about truth, it’s about trust Without free speech, academic freedom, and confidence in our experts and institutions, no amount of fact-checking will help.

Our expert class and our institutions need to earn back the trust they lost. And they need to do this by consistently showing themselves to be transparent, honest, and competent.

Universities must fervently protect a robust free speech culture.

eternallyradicalidea.com/p/the-misinf...

Two pens and two phones!

Squirrel Hill resident targeted with hate "What they did was a cowardly act. It wasn’t an act of bravery.”

“Remember how many signs there were in Pittsburgh saying, ‘No Place for Hate?’ We’ve learned very quickly that it is a place that’s very welcoming, unfortunately, for a lot of hatred.”

jewishchronicle.timesofisrael.com/squirrel-hil...

‘Proud Pittsburgher’ Marc Fogel’s release from Russia sets stage for reshaped Trump foreign policy WASHINGTON — When President Donald Trump suggested that Marc Fogel and the diplomats and lawmakers huddled around him outside the White...

Spoke with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette about the implications of the release of Pittsburgher Marc Fogel for US foreign policy and potential negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

www.post-gazette.com/news/politic...

My paper on "Decentralized Stabilization Assistance" has been revised & accepted for publication by the journal PRISM at the Irregular Warfare Center.
home.uchicago.edu/~rmyerson/re...

New Review Article on Fast Track by Ilia Murtazashvili & Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, "Informal Institutions in Comparative Politics,” www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cuny...

One New Book About Two Ancient Faiths Reimagining the connections between Islam and Judaism.

My review of Mustafa Akyol's latest book, The Islamic Moses, for @thedispatchmedia.bsky.social.

This is such an important book for this moment. This book will make you less certain about what it is you think you understand.
thedispatch.com/article/book...

Pitt friends - join us for this special event on Monday

Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, Executive Director, Arava Institute (Israel)

"Environmental Diplomacy During Crises: A View from Israel and Palestine"
📅 Monday, Dec 2
⏰ 10:30-11:30 am
🏨 William Pitt Union--Dining Room A
Register: buff.ly/4eShrw2