Experts in the News

"I believe it's going to be obsolete on arrival when we get the new 100-year floodplain maps," said Rice faculty scholar Jim Blackburn.

The recent U.S. conviction of a woman from Mexico who led a sophisticated international drug trafficking network highlights the often overlooked, and increasingly common, role of women in organized crime groups. “This isn’t an isolated case, and I don’t doubt that there are more women acting in that capacity that just haven’t been arrested yet," said nonresident scholar Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera.

"If the Trump plan is not based on the fundamental principle of 'land for peace,' then I don’t think it’s going to go anywhere because you cannot deny Palestinian self determination," said Ambassador Edward Djerejian in an interview with Britain's SkyNews. If the plan involves only security, economic or other arrangements, "something short of a territorial compromise that would eventually have an independent Palestinian state living in peace and security next to an independent Israeli state," the plan will not have any traction.

Oman's new sultan, Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, will endeavor to stamp his own imprint on a country that has become synonymous with Qaboos, wrote fellow Kristian Coates Ulrichsen.

Nonresident energy fellow Anna Mikulska described how escalation of the U.S.-Iran conflict can help Russia and Russian oil.