Experts in the News | Miller Center

The lessons of Ukraine for Taiwan—and the U.S.

The policy of "strategic ambiguity" with respect. to the defense of Taiwan is played out.

Eric Edelman and Franklin Miller

The Bulwark

Democracy Dialogues: Social media vs. democracy

Ten years ago, the world watched as young people with mobile phones overthrew dictatorships in Egypt and Tunisia. Those heady days launched a period of idealization of American digital technology—specifically social media—and its potential to empower democratic movements around the world. Fast forward five years, and the world learned a different story: Social and digital media was used to amplify nativism, authoritarianism, racism, and religious intolerance. Now, in 2022, leaders in policy, academia, and industry are reexamining their assumptions about these platforms and their effects.

Danielle K. Citron

Law that 'changed the internet' is hot topic during democracy event

Comstock was joined by U.S. Sen. Mark Warner as panelists for “Social Media vs. Democracy,” a Democracy Dialogues series event produced by UVA’s Karsh Institute of Democracy and co-sponsored by UVA’s Miller Center of Public Affairs. UVA law professor Danielle Citron, one of the foremost experts on digital privacy, and media studies professor Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of “Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy,” were the event’s moderators. UVA President Jim Ryan provided opening remarks.

Danielle K. Citron

Biden balances global strife with domestic woes

“The president’s most precious commodity is his time and his calendar. I think from a foreign policy, national security, and public policy perspective in the whole gambit of things, I think the president made a read a month ago that the crisis in Ukraine was the single most important issue, including its impact on the economy,” said William Antholis, director and CEO of the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.

William Antholis

War, Myth-making, and Democracy

Eliot and Eric host Professor Elizabeth Samet of the US Military Academy to discuss her new book Looking for the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness. They examine the role of mythology in justifying US military action. Was World War II the “Good War” and was the “Greatest Generation” different from subsequent generations of Americans caught up in fighting the nation’s wars? Does de-mythologizing war lead to moral equivalence? Is there a role for myth-making in democracies in wartime to inspire the sacrifices necessary to fight wars and to console the families of the fallen?

Eric Edelman

Jackson’s Former Harvard Law Roommate Hails Her Confirmation as Supreme Court Justice

After the U.S. Senate voted Thursday afternoon to confirm judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, Kimberly Robinson, a University of Virginia law professor, tried to call her friend, but Jackson’s voice mailbox was full. Robinson, who met Jackson when they were students at Harvard Law School, instead texted congratulations. “I’m so happy for her,” said Robinson, speaking from Los Angeles. “She will really listen to the people and the voices in the cases and apply the law.”

Kimberly J. Robinson