Experts in the News | Miller Center

Revisiting the Ronald Reagan presidency

Join Max Boot, the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a weekly columnist for the Washington Post, and Chester Pach, professor of history at Ohio University, for a discussion of our 40th president moderated by Barbara Perry, codirector of the Miller Center’s Presidential Oral History Program.

Barbara Perry

Not your mother’s Cabinet; Trump’s appointments have a diverse education background

“What has happened in this administration, is that there is more of a focus on Cabinet secretary loyalty, as opposed to their prior experience,” said Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a presidential scholar and senior research fellow at both the Miller Center and the Brookings Institute.

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas

Miller Center event explores role of Christianity in democracy

The Miller Center hosted a conversation with author and journalist Jonathan Rauch titled “Exploring democracy and Christianity” on Tuesday. Rauch unpacked the arguments in his newest book, “Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy,” which posits that democracy and robust religion need one another, but that Christianity is failing to serve its moral, counter-cultural purpose in American civic life.

John Owen

Trump Moves to Shutter Education Department, Impacting Student Borrowers

President Donald Trump signed an executive order to largely dismantle the Education Department—an organization created by Congress and tasked with sweeping responsibilities that involve billions in funds that impact millions of American students. Jennifer Lawless, professor of politics and public policy at the University of Virginia, discusses the limits of the president's power to dismantle the federal agency and explains what the move might mean for public school funding and holders of student debt.

Jennifer Lawless

New JFK assassination files: What was revealed about Oswald and CIA plots?

“I didn’t really see anything to change the narrative indicating that Oswald as the lone gunman was the person who killed John F Kennedy and that it was not the result of a conspiracy,” Marc Selverstone, professor in presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs, told Al Jazeera.

Marc Selverstone

America’s Nuclear Umbrella Is Open and Must Stay Open

Many Europeans are beginning to question (some honestly and some self-servingly) whether the United States’ extended nuclear deterrent still provides a shield over its allies. In fairness, this is a time for some transatlantic introspection. That said, it is also a time to be clear-eyed about what can and cannot be accomplished.

Eric Edelman