Breaking News, Business, Financial and Economic News, World News from EconoTimes

Become a contributor

Bookmark Econotimes

Thu, May 09, 2024 11:04 AM All times are UTC

Follow Series

©Econometrics LLC . All Rights Reserved.

David Mednicoff

Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Director, Middle Eastern Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Prof. David Mednicoff (J.D./Ph.D., Harvard) directs the Middle Eastern Studies program at the University of Massachusetts -- Amherst. His areas of expertise include Middle Eastern law and politics, international law, human rights, globalization studies, US foreign policy, and comparative public policy.

Prof. Mednicoff's publications and ongoing research deal broadly with interdisciplinary connections between legal and political ideas and institutions at the national and transnational levels, particularly as these relate to current policy issues in the Middle East. He is currently completing two book manuscripts on the politics of the rule of law, democratization and US foreign policy in five Arab societies. He also has written on Arab constitutional politics and Islam before and after the events of 2011, the legal regulation of migrant workers in the Arab Gulf, human rights in the Middle East and humanitarian intervention. He has presented his work at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the US Department of State, the Saudi Arabia Institute of Diplomatic Studies, and Georgetown, Harvard, Stanford and Yale Universities, among other places.

Prof. Mednicoff's teaching honors include a university-wide Lilly Teaching Fellowship for promising junior faculty, the U. Mass. College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Outstanding Teacher Award, and a national prize for innovative teaching related to the US after 9/11/01. Prof. Mednicoff was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in law in Qatar in 2006-7, where he taught legal and political philosophy at Qatar University. He was a Research Fellow in 2010-11 in the Dubai Initiative at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He will hold a Fellowship at the ZIF (Institute for Advanced Study) in Bielefeld, Germany in 2014 as a member of a research group on Religion and Human Rights in Constitution-Writing. He writes and comments frequently for the media.

Global Geopolitics Series

The US-Iran conflict and the consequences of international law-breaking

Jan 10, 2020 10:25 am UTC| Insights & Views

Editors note: Irans missile attack on a U.S. base in Iraq in retaliation for the Trump administrations killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani has dramatically escalated global tensions. Dozens of questions have...

Netanyahu’s hardline foreign policies may outlast his tenure

Mar 06, 2019 14:24 pm UTC| Insights & Views

The upcoming indictment of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could end the long-serving conservative politicians career. But even an abrupt exit would leave his hawkish policies in the Middle East intact. The...

A Trump Administration casualty: Democracy and civil rights in the Middle East

Aug 28, 2018 15:26 pm UTC| Insights & Views

Donald Trump has shown little interest in encouraging democratic politics and human rights in other countries. This departure from decades of American foreign policy rhetoric has received comparatively little attention....

Global Geopolitics Series

US airstrike on Syria: What next?

Apr 08, 2017 05:36 am UTC| Insights & Views

Make no mistake. The April 6 U.S. airstrike on Syria following Bashar al-Assads chemical weapon attack is a remarkable shift in President Donald Trumps and Washingtons past policy. As president-elect, Trumps Middle...

Economy

Some experts say the US economy is on the up, but here’s why voters don’t think so

Many Americans are gloomy about the economy, despite some data saying it is improving. The Economist even took this discussion to TikTok. When its US editor John Prideaux examined inflation, wage and employment numbers,...

Electric air taxis are on the way – quiet eVTOLs may be flying passengers as early as 2025

Imagine a future with nearly silent air taxis flying above traffic jams and navigating between skyscrapers and suburban droneports. Transportation arrives at the touch of your smartphone and with minimal environmental...

Electricity from farm waste: how biogas could help Malawians with no power

In sub-Saharan Africa, over 600 million people (more than 50% of the population) are without access to electricity. Malawi has one of the worlds lowest electricity access rates just 14.1% of the total population have...

High interest rates aren’t going away anytime soon – a business economist explains why

The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady at its May 1, 2024, policy meeting, dashing the hopes of potential homebuyers and others who were hoping for a cut. Not only will rates remain at their current level a...

US long-term care costs are sky-high, but Washington state’s new way to help pay for them could be nixed

If you needed long-term care, could you afford it? For many Americans, especially those with a middle-class income and little savings, the answer to that question is absolutely not. Nursing homes charge somewhere...

Politics

Taiwan is experiencing millions of cyberattacks every day

Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety of grey zone tactics to pressure...

What the Supreme Court is doing right in considering Trump’s immunity case

Following the nearly three-hour oral argument about presidential immunity in the Supreme Court on April 25, 2024, many commentators were aghast. The general theme, among legal and political experts alike, was a...

US Urges China, Russia to Reject AI Control in Nuclear Arms, Align with Global Norms

Paul Dean, a senior U.S. arms control official, emphasized the critical need for China and Russia to join the U.S. in declaring that humans will always decide on the deployment of nuclear weapons, not artificial...

US election: why it’s not the protesters’ votes that the Democrats should worry about

As hundreds of New York police officers in riot gear were called in to clear away a student protest at Columbia University on Tuesday night, the university president Nemat Shafik was saying she had no choice but to take...

Trump-proofing Nato: why Europe’s current nuclear deterrents may not be enough to face biggest threats since WWII

Though a second Trump presidency is not a foregone conclusion, Nato members are gearing up to Trump-proof the organisation and reviewing their defence strategies. Natos concerns about Trumps re-election were heightened...

Science

IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects

About a trillion tiny particles called neutrinos pass through you every second. Created during the Big Bang, these relic neutrinos exist throughout the entire universe, but they cant harm you. In fact, only one of them is...

The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup

A critical NASA mission in the search for life beyond Earth, Mars Sample Return, is in trouble. Its budget has ballooned from US$5 billion to over $11 billion, and the sample return date may slip from the end of this...

Dark matter: our new experiment aims to turn the ghostly substance into actual light

A ghost is haunting our universe. This has been known in astronomy and cosmology for decades. Observations suggest that about 85% of all the matter in the universe is mysterious and invisible. These two qualities are...

A Nasa rover has reached a promising place to search for fossilised life on Mars

While we go about our daily lives on Earth, a nuclear-powered robot the size of a small car is trundling around Mars looking for fossils. Unlike its predecessor Curiosity, Nasas Perseverance rover is explicitly intended to...

The rising flood of space junk is a risk to us on Earth – and governments are on the hook

A piece of space junk recently crashed through the roof and floor of a mans home in Florida. Nasa later confirmed that the object had come from unwanted hardware released from the international space station. The 700g,...

Technology

Trump Courts Crypto Enthusiasts, Promises Regulatory Freedom

In a marked shift, Donald Trump, the Republican presidential hopeful, has vowed to roll back U.S. regulations on cryptocurrencies, seeking to attract crypto supporters by accepting digital asset donations and criticizing...

K9 Finance Joins Shibarium Puppynet, Unveils Major Bone Crusher Update

K9 Finance has unveiled significant upgrades to its Bone Crusher product and secured a spot on the Shiba Inus Shibarium Puppynet allowlist. This milestone marks a pivotal advancement in their decentralized finance (DeFi)...

EU Seizes Two Tesla Cybertrucks at Belarus Border Amid Russia Smuggle Attempt

In striking enforcement of EU sanctions, Lithuanian authorities at the Salčininku border crossing with Belarus confiscated two Tesla Cybertrucks. These vehicles, not yet released in Europe, were suspected of being smuggled...

Shiba Inu Insider Drops Major Shiba Eternity Update; Community Anticipates Enhancements

Shiba Eternity: Lucies Tease Unveils Play-to-Earn Features and Breeding Mechanics The Shiba Inu community is buzzing with excitement following a recent announcement from a critical team member about Shiba Eternity, as...

BYD Shark Debuts in Mexico, Rivals Tesla Cybertruck and Ford F-150 Lightning

This month, the streets of Mexico will showcase the BYD Sharks debut, an advanced hybrid electric pickup set to rival the Tesla Cybertruck and highlight BYDs cutting-edge hybrid technology. BYD Shark: A New Hybrid...