Research Library

Despite recent claims that “free trade is dead,” fellow Simon Lester explains that America was never close to anything resembling free trade in the first place. Instead, current U.S. trade policy, just like past policy, reflects a messy mix of free market and industrial policy views.

Joe Barnes considers the origins and implications of the ongoing crisis over Ukraine in a post for the Baker Institute Blog.

When President-elect Joe Biden assumes office in January, he will be compelled to deal with the most important and ferociously complicated geopolitical question the United States faces today: how to manage its relations with China. Fellow Joe Barnes explains how the U.S.-China situation differs from the Cold War dynamic, and how the U.S. will best be served in the years ahead. Read more at the Baker Institute Blog.

Political partisanship is strongly influencing the United States’ response to Covid-19, potentially leading to a suboptimal balance between reopening the economy and protecting public health. Read more at the Baker Institute Blog.

The populist government under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has largely discounted the threat of COVID-19,  and the true extent of the outbreak Mexico may not yet be known. If conditions significantly change for the worse, the president faces not only a public health crisis but also the possible undoing of the country's populist experiment.

The COVID-19 outbreak has now reached pandemic proportions, threatening the health of millions worldwide and adversely affecting the international economy. Understanding the status of COVID-19, its potential impact in the U.S., and the needed preventive measures could save many lives.

David Buckley offers brief reflections on distinct approaches to religion in U.S. diplomacy, particularly at the State Department, and the implications they may have for religious tolerance abroad. His post is the first of 12 prepared for an April 2019 workshop on “Religion, Reverence and Tolerance” organized by the Baker Institute for Public Policy and the Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance at Rice University.  Baker Institute Blog: https://bit.ly/2z6CGZo

Political science fellow Mark P. Jones charts the ideological positions of the Texas delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives. The Texas Tribune: http://bit.ly/2Xe70fl.