Joshua W. Busby

"Is the U.S. foreign policy establishment really out of touch with the American public? To answer this question, we recently surveyed more than 800 members of the U.S. foreign policy elite, including executive branch officials, congressional staff, think tank scholars, academics, journalists, and employees of internationally oriented interest groups. Together, these foreign policy opinion leaders play a large role in foreign policy debates, shaping agendas, opinion, and, ultimately, the policy decisions of the U.S. government."

Climate Week, the annual carbon-cutting confab in New York City, long has been a time for governments and companies to announce their green ambitions. But even by its own standards, this year's edition seemed to reflect a new sense of urgency to address a warming planet. "Other countries like Brazil and Australia got political cover to reverse policies under Trump," said Joshua Busby, a professor of public affairs at the University of Texas, Austin. "Even China faced less pressure to up ambition. Subnational action can't fully compensate for loss of federal momentum."

"The emergence of a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19) in 2019 may be the most consequential event of the early 21^st century, upending modern life, globalization and relations between countries," writes LBJ's Joshua Busby in this essay about assessing the pandemic through the lens of international relations.