Professors Available to Comment on Ouster of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Ian Hurd is an associate professor of political science in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University. Author of the recent book “How to Do Things With International Law” (Princeton University Press), Hurd’s work focuses on public international law, the theory and practice of international organizations and international relations theory. He has published on organization theory and international institutions, the politics of legitimacy at the United Nations, U.N. reform, labor standards and the International Criminal Court. He can be reached at [email protected] or (mobile) 847-769-7114.

Quote from Professor Hurd
“Tillerson never looked like he agreed with the boorish impulses of his boss. He also never seemed to have a clear sense of what he wanted to do in the job. As a result, his tenure was a failure on both fronts. He couldn’t stand up to Trump or explain an alternative vision. Few in Foggy Bottom will be sorry to see him go. The new team appears more in line with Trump's instinct to ‘bully first and ask questions later.’ This suits Trump’s temperament, but it’s a self-defeating start for a diplomat. The predictable result is a hastened decline in American prestige matched by an equal rise in Russia’s global influence.”

Michael Allen is an associate professor of history in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern. He is a historian of the United States in the 20^th century who researches the politics of U.S. foreign policy. His first book “Until The Last Man Comes Home: POWs, MIAs, and the Unending Vietnam War” (University of North Carolina Press, 2009) examined the politics of loss that emerged from American defeat in the Vietnam Wars through a history of the POW/MIA movement. His current work-in-progress, “Tug of War: Confronting the Imperial Presidency, 1966-1992,” presents left-liberal challenges to presidential war powers in “the long 1970s” as a vehicle for antiwar activism beyond the Vietnam War. He can be reached at [email protected] or 847-467-3979 (office).

Quote from Professor Allen 
“President Trump makes policy on the fly, and the State Department has become a ghost ship under his leadership. So I’m doubtful that Rex Tillerson’s departure will have much of an impact except to further reduce the number of adults pretending that they make up a traditional government.”