Experts in the News | Miller Center

World Happenings

August is the cruelest month — for American presidents

Forget the poet (T.S. Eliot) who proclaimed April to be the “cruelest month.” August is no summer picnic for U.S. presidents. As President Biden has discovered, a presidential vacation can be rudely interrupted by foreign and domestic crises.

The Hill

The Korean Way With Data: How the World’s Most Wired Country Is Forging a Third Way

Korea, in particular, is a digital pacesetter because it is perhaps the world’s most connected country. Indeed, precisely because Korea is such a wired country, much can be learned by examining its policies and regulations in more detail.

Evan Feigenbaum

3 Bush Oral History Excerpts That Shed Light on Current Events in Afghanistan

Home to the Presidential Oral Histories Project, the Miller Center has conducted comprehensive oral histories for every president since Jimmy Carter, with interviews for the two most recent administrations, those of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, still ongoing. Each one attempts to recreate life in the White House during that administration, “developing a portrait of the uncertainties, pressures and contingencies as they existed at the time,” as the program’s co-chair, Russell Riley, put it.

Russell Riley

Opinion/Editorial: Jan. 6 panel gains top local expertise

Philip Zelikow was director and CEO of the Miller Center when he was tapped to lead the national commission that was evaluating the terror attacks. Like the Charlottesville-sponsored Heaphy investigation, the 9/11 Commission was expected to determine whether the U.S. had been adequately prepared for the attack and whether its responses had been effective. Those two reports are part of history now; the Jan. 6 report has yet to be written. Heaphy’s and Riggleman’s contributions are critical to this effort.

Philip Zelikow

World Happenings

America's troubled history in Afghanistan

The history of American engagement in Afghanistan has taken on renewed importance with the fall of that country back to the Taliban. What decisions made by American policymakers led to this result? Was it inevitable, or were there missed opportunities that might have created the conditions for long-term success?

Senate backlog of Biden nominees frustrates White House

“There are plenty of nominees that are somewhere in the confirmation process and they’re just stuck,” said Kathryn Tenpas, a nonresident senior fellow with the Brookings Institution’s governance studies program.

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas