Featured Alumni

• Sanchita Banerjee Saxena, Asia Program (2010 and 2014)

  "Bangladesh’s Garment Industry Unravelling," on the intersection of COVID-19 and the Bangladeshi garment industry. To read the full article, click here.

  For more of Sanchita Banerjee Saxena's work, click here.

• Alison Brysk, Global Women’s Leadership Initiative (2013-2014)

  A Pandemic of Violence: A Global Discussion of COVID-19 and Gender-Based Violence, as governments around the world impose lock downs and encourage social distancing to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, a shadow pandemic has emerged. Reports of domestic and intimate-partner violence have spiked, and already femicide rates are rising in some parts of the world. Yet even as the pandemic has increased the incidence of violence, it has simultaneously hampered prevention and protection efforts, including reduced access to law enforcement, social services and healthcare for women.
  
  This Ground Truth Briefing provided a global discussion of gender-based violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  For more from Alison Brysk, please click here.

• Frederick "Skip" Burkle, Maternal Health Initiative (2010 - 2016)

  Dr. Frederick “Skip” Burkle authored these two Guest Articles 50 States or 50 Countries: What Did We Miss and What Do We Do Now? and Declining Public Health Protections within Autocratic Regimes: Impact on Global Public Health Security, Infectious Disease Outbreaks, Epidemics, and Pandemics.

  He also wrote this letter to the editor, Delayed Primary and Specialty Care: The Coronavirus Disease–2019 Pandemic Second Wave, where Dr. Burkle acknowledges that time is of the essence to continue the pandemic disaster cycle with a comprehensive post-COVID-19 health care delivery system recovery analysis, plan and operation at the local, regional and state level. The second wave of COVID-19 pandemic response are not the ripples of acute COVID-19 patient clusters that will persist until a vaccine strategy is designed and implemented to effect herd immunity. The COVID-19 second wave are the patients that have had their primary and specialty care delayed. This exponential wave of patients requires prompt health care delivery system planning and response.

  COVID-19 has proven to be a formidable challenge for many countries in the European Union to manage effectively.  Dr. Burkle discusses the complexity, intensity, and frequency of complex disasters, global leaders in healthcare, government, and business will need to pivot from siloed approaches to decision-making to embrace multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary levels of cooperation in  Current Response and Management Decisions of the European Union to the COVID-19 Outbreak: A Review.

  This report, which includes Dr. Burkle,  the COVID-19 Virtual Summit, Disaster Experts Speak Out, March 31, 2020 captures the webinar narrative on March 31, 2020 of four expert panelists addressing three questions on the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

  Challenges of Global Public Health Emergencies: Development of a Health-Crisis Management Framework written in late 2019 goes over how modern-day health care providers have traditionally only focused on meeting the response phase requirements of disasters. Interestingly, this was also the intent of the original 1930 disaster cycle concept.

  For more from Skip Burkle, please click here.

   

• Jeff Colgan, Environmental Change and Security Program (2012-2013)

  In "Politics of the Coronavirus" (video), Professor Jeff Colgan breaks down the political and economic consequences of the coronavirus — for the United States, Europe, and the world. To watch, click here.

  For more content and analysis from Jeff Colgan, click here.

• Victoria Clement, Kennan, (2016 - 2017)

  Victoria Clement discusses How Central Asia Copes with COVID-19 in this Wilson Center blog post.

  For more of Victoria Clement's work, click here.

   

• Wayne Cornelius, Latin America Program (1979-1980)

  In "ICE Needs to Stand Down – For Everyone’s Good," Professor Wayne Cornelius explains the ways in which business-as-usual in immigration enforcement during a pandemic endangers the health and safety not only of undocumented immigrants (and their U.S. citizen family members) but of every American who depends upon the immigrant workforce for vital services and food security—home health care aides, farmworkers, grocery store workers, carry-out restaurant workers, and many more. To read the article, click here. 

• Zuhumnan Dapel, Africa (2017), "It Is Too Late to Save These Victims of the Pandemic"

  Zuhumnan Dapel makes the discusses the impact on remittances in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in this piece.

• Ariel Dorfman, Latin America Program (1980-1981)

  "Coronavirus is Teaching Americans Whats It's Like to Live in Exile." Many people are feeling vulnerable and alone, writes Ariel Dorfman in The Washington Post. Will it make them more empathetic? To read the article, click here.

• Deborah Hellerman (2005-2006)

  In "Rationing and Disability in a State of Crisis," Deborah Hellman explores the difficult moral and legal choices about how to ration scarce resources, and, most especially, ventilators, that result when COVID-19 cases overwhelm health care systems. Many states have protocols that address this question. These protocols adopt a fully utilitarian approach, aiming simply to save as many lives as possible. To do so, they prioritize patients who are most likely to benefit from care and set standard benchmarks for how quickly a patient must show improvement to continue ventilation. These protocols and related policies of private health care systems are likely to disadvantage people with disabilities, as a disproportionate number of disabled people have health conditions that will make them less likely to survive or will require them to have more time to show improvement. To read the journal article, click here.

  For more content and analysis from Deborah Hellerman, click here.

• K.V. Kesavan, Asia Program (2013)

  "Japan’s Inadequacies in Fighting the Coronavirus." Japan, a country prone to earthquakes, tsunami and typhoons, is also known for its capacity to use advanced measures to counter disasters effectively. But the present coronavirus epidemic has undoubtedly created one of the most serious challenges to the Japanese government under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. To read the article, click here.

  For more content and analysis from K.V. Kesavan, click here.

• Josef Konvitz, Center for Urban Sustainability Program (1987)

  "Don't Waste a Crisis." Crises bring to light strengths that were taken for granted, and weaknesses that were ignored. In an urban world, everything is connected – transport, preventive health and hospitals, housing development, water and power, air quality, education. The essential tasks are to renew the stock of public goods, restructure urban regions, and reduce future economic and environmental costs. This agenda, which embraces health and climate change, must be rolled out knowing that we cannot anticipate the frequency nor the severity of future cross-border risks. To read and download the study, click here.

• Christina Lamb, Asia Program (2018)

  As a roving correspondent for the Sunday Times of London, Christina Lamb's articles highlight, among other topics, the forgotten victims of the coronavirus.

  To read her article, "The Coronavirus is Consuming Us, But Others are Suffering More," click here.

  To read "Coronavirus Lockdown: 'If You Have a Garden, You're OK. In My Flat It's Hell'," click here.

  To read "David Nott Interview: Fighting the Coronavirus is Worse Than Operating in Syria," click here.

  For more content from Christina Lamb, click here.

• Ali Riaz, Asia Program (2013)

  In "COVID-19: The Era of Perpetual Emergency and the Emerging New Normal," Ali Riaz explores the questions: What has COVID-19 revealed? Is a new world order emerging? To read the article, click here.

  In "South Asia's Economic Outlook in the Era of COVID-19," Ali Riaz an other experts from the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center analyze the current efforts of these governments and the potential economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic on South Asia. To read the piece, click here.

  For more content and analysis from Ali Riaz, click here.

• Xuefei Ren, Asia Program (2011-2012)

  “Pandemic and lockdown: a territorial approach to COVID-19 in China, Italy and the United States,” Three months into the Covid-19 crisis, lockdown has become a global response to the pandemic. Why have so many countries resorted to lockdown? How is it being implemented in different places? Why have some places had more success with lockdowns and others not? What does the effectiveness of lockdowns tell us about the local institutions entrusted with enforcing them? This paper compares how lockdown orders have been implemented in China, Italy, and the U.S. The analysis points to two major factors that have shaped the enforcement: tensions between national and local governments, and the strength of local territorial institutions.  To read the full piece, click here.

  “The Quarantine of a Megacity: China’s Struggle Over the Coronavirus Epidemic,” and “‘The People’s War’ on Coronavirus in China” detail how COVID-19 unfolded in China and the government’s response. To read the full pieces, click here and here.

  For more of Xuefei Ren’s work, click here.

• Quito Swan, Global Risk and Resilience Program (2018-2019)

  "COVID-19: Black Skins, No Masks" is a policy brief on the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black communities in the Boston area. To read the brief, click here.

  For more content and analysis from Quito Swan, click here.

• Alexander Thurston, Africa Program (2017-2018)

  In "Islamic Responses to COVID-19," Professor Alexander Thurston lays out how the Islamic world is handling the COVID-19 pandemic. To read the memo, click here.

  Alex Thurston joined by Akbar Ahmed, Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in this edition of Wilson Center NOW. They discuss the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on the Muslim world during the holy month of Ramadan. Watch the video here.

  For more insight and analysis from Alexander Thurston, click here.

• Scott Wallace, Brazil Institute (2009)

  “First coronavirus deaths reported in indigenous communities in the Amazon”, “COVID-19 has fertile terrain to spread rapidly among the populations that live in Amazonia,” says president of prominent Brazilian rights group. To read the full piece click here.

  For more of Scott Wallace’s work, click here.

• Mona Yacoubian, Middle East Program (1994-1995)

  “The Coronavirus Crisis Could Reshape U.S. Policy in the Middle East,” the United States will need to evolve its strategy for the region post pandemic, emphasizing diplomacy and development.  To read the full piece click here.

  “Can COVID-19 open the door to peace-building in Syria?”, to read the full op-ed click here.

  “Coronavirus prevention extremely difficult in refugee, IDP camps in Middle East”, as the world grapples with the dangerous and evolving coronavirus pandemic, the impact on the most vulnerable populations cannot be overestimated. To read the full article click here.

  For more of Mona Yacoubian’s work, click here.