Feb. 12, 2021

Rethinking “Alliances”: The Case of South Africa as a Rising Power

How does South Africa view international alliances? International relations (IR) scholars have been debating the end of alliances and the relevance of the alliance paradigm itself. South Africa presents an excellent test case for advancing these debates for three reasons.

Feb. 11, 2021

Minerva-funded researchers new publication, Pirate Lands

Minerva-funded researchers, Ursula Daxecker and Brandon Prins demonstrate in their new publication, Pirate Lands that Maritime piracy-like civil war, terrorism, and organized crime-is a problem of weak states

Feb. 3, 2021

The "Pandemic Textbook" Must Include Decision-Making

Minerva-funded researcher, Neil D. Shortland and Laurence Alison recent article discusses why good pandemic management requires goal-directed least-worst decision-making. As scientists who study decision-making early on, they realized that what the COVID-19 pandemic required was rapid "least-worst" goal-directed decision-making.

Jan. 21, 2021

Gender in the time of COVID-19: Evaluating national leadership and COVID-19 fatalities

This recent article by Minerva-funded researcher, Dr. Leah Windsor and colleagues explore the idea that women world leaders are doing better (i.e., fewer deaths in the countries they lead) than men world leaders.

Jan. 13, 2021

DOD Awards $20.8M in Grants for Projects to Support Research in Social and Behavioral Science

The Department of Defense (DOD) has awarded $20.8 million in grants to 15 university-based Minerva Research Initiative (Minerva) faculty teams to support research in the social and behavioral sciences.

Jan. 11, 2021

Virtual Event - Syrian Refugees in the Middle East and in Europe: On the Psychology of a Humanitarian Challenge

The presentation on January 12, 2021 will discuss unprecedented empirical research into the psychology of Syrian refugees in the Middle East and in Europe, carried out by an international team of researchers headed up by Professor Arie Kruglanski of the University of Maryland. The research supported by the MINERVA program at the US Department of Defense bears on questions such as refugees’ motivations, their state of mind and feelings as function of the welcome they receive in the host countries.

Dec. 16, 2020

Mia Bloom presented at the SMA General Speaker Series on Qanon Radicalization and Conspiracy

Minerva-funded researcher, Dr. Mia Bloom (Georgia State University) presented at the Strategic Multilayer Assessment (SMA) General Speaker Series on Qanon Radicalization and Conspiracy: 2017-2020 on December 15, 2020.

Dec. 9, 2020

New Owl in the Olive Tree post "Misreading Britain’s Decline—Identifying the Real Hegemonic Contest Between China and America"

Minerva-funded researcher, Gregory Mitrovich' s new Owl in the Olive Tree post "Misreading Britain’s Decline—Identifying the Real Hegemonic Contest Between China and America". How do we determine when a great power is in decline? When does this “decline” matter to the global balance of power? Since the end of World War II, perceptions of U.S. power have varied wildly, from moments of unparalleled hegemony to fears of rapid decay and a transition to a new dominant power.

Dec. 3, 2020

Test sensitivity is secondary to frequency and turnaround time for COVID-19 screening

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a public health crisis. Because SARS-CoV-2 can spread from individuals with pre-symptomatic, symptomatic, and asymptomatic infections, the re-opening of societies and the control of virus spread will be facilitated by robust population screening, for which virus testing will often be central. After infection, individuals undergo a period of incubation during which viral titers are usually too low to detect, followed by an exponential viral growth, leading to a peak viral load and infectiousness, and ending with declining viral levels and clearance.

Dec. 3, 2020

Historical bias overlooks genes related to COVID-19

Why are some genes studied more than others? Minerva-funded researchers and colleagues from Northwestern University find large number of genes that have been implicated in SARS-CoV-2 infection by four genome-wide studies remain unstudied.