In US presidential primaries, voters in each party are overwhelmingly supporting their front-runner, in spite of widespread concerns. Are Americans so divided that each side must send messages of party-solidarity to the other side now?
November is the time for party solidarity.

NYTimes suggests withholding aid could press Ukraine to settle, as if 'settling with Russia' = 'ceding territory'. But the Kremlin's goal is to destroy Ukraine as an independent democratic nation. Aiding Ukraine helps press Russians to settle with Ukraine.
nytimes.com/2024/02/24/wor…

Local Politics in Nations and Empires (new paper): Successful autocratic states make local leaders dependent on national political approval. In successful democracies, national leaders are dependent on local political approval. home.uchicago.edu/~rmyerson/rese…

US defense spending fell by 2.0% of GDP when Soviet Russia ended. So we may expect 2.0% more of US GDP spent on defense against Russia's new threat if Ukraine lost. Support for Ukraine since 2/2022 has cost only 0.3% of US GDP. How can any American question the value of this aid?

I will be participating in an online discussion about Ukraine on Monday, Nov 13, 7pm ET, with Bill Kristol, Peter W Galbraith, and Mark Cancian, sponsored by ClassAct HR73. More information is at classacthr73.org/Update-on-Ukra…

It was a privilege to present the European Central Bank Annual Research Conference's #JeanMonnetLecture on 'Postwar reconstruction assistance and local government in Ukraine,' with Oleksandra Keudel Oleksandra Keudel .
Full lecture: youtu.be/miVqD9HPwEU
Short summary: youtu.be/RMb3ChPS6NE

Over a century after the end of World War I, it still demands deeper understanding from us, if we hope to avoid such disasters in the future.
My paper on 'Game Theory and the First World War' has appeared in Journal of Economic Literature. doi.org/10.1257/jel.20…

This week's local elections in Northern Ireland should show what political cost the DUP has paid for obstructing regional government since 2022. Then people should ask whether the remedy may be to devolve more responsibility to local governments: home.uchicago.edu/~rmyerson/belf…

The new book from CEPR on Supporting Ukraine (editors Yuriy Gorodnichenko, V. Rashkovan) includes my chapter on Postwar Reconstruction Assistance and Local Governments in Ukraine. home.uchicago.edu/~rmyerson/ukra…

It was a privilege to participate at Berkeley this week in the discussion on Rebuilding Ukraine with Barry Eichengreen, Gerard Roland., and Yuriy Gorodnichenko
youtu.be/XjcEzD3bGfw

Join us for 'Rebuilding Ukraine: Principles and Policies', a lecture ft. Berkeley Economics Faculty, where they discuss Ukraine and their recovery efforts.
Yuriy Gorodnichenko Barry Eichengreen Gerard Roland.

2/14/23 | 3-4:30 PM | Social Sciences Matrix, 820

RSVP: bit.ly/3HRZKxT

Stabilization Lessons From The British Empire
When Britain had a potent global operation for foreign political stabilization, its interventions were directed by a decentralized team of district officers who engaged with local political realities.
tnsr.org/2022/11/stabil…

'State-building goes wrong when local politics is ignored.' Roger B. Myerson Roger Myerson examines Local Politics and Democratic State-Building in the latest issue of Journal of Democracy Read now, subscription free: bit.ly/3T90B0Z

My review of Keith Mines's important book 'Why Nation-Building Matters' is included in an outstanding new issue of PRISM at ndupress.ndu.edu/PRISM/PRISM-10…

To learn from failures of past state-building missions, we must rethink our fundamental theories of democracy. My new paper in Journal of Democracy argues for the vital importance of local politics in democratic state-building. muse.jhu.edu/article/866642