Watch Maria Lipman examine why Russia’s public supports the Russia-Ukraine war yet shows reluctance in military participation in this Buffett lunchtime lecture.

Watch a Buffett Lecture about the assault on journalism at home and abroad with Buffett Distinguished Visiting Practitioner Thomas O. Melia.

Watch a Buffett Conversation about the increasing Mexican cartel violence against local press, discussed by a panel of expert professors and journalists.

Our spring 2026 Buffett Symposium, Brave New Futures, convened a visionary set of international thinkers to explore how human relationships, information ecosystems, labor, and the planet itself are being reshaped in this moment of uncertainty and possibility.

Research emerging from the Roberta Buffett Institute’s Making Water Insecurity Visible Global Working Group—co-led by Professor Sera Young—continues to advance how water insecurity is measured and understood worldwide. Central to this work are the Water Insecurity Experiences (WISE) Scales, a set of widely used survey tools developed under Young’s leadership to capture how people experience challenges with water access, reliability, and use in daily life. Unlike traditional infrastructure-based metrics, the WISE Scales quantify the social, emotional, and practical impacts of water insecurity across diverse contexts, enabling more comparable and human-centered data collection. Now implemented by organizations and researchers in dozens of countries, these tools have helped illuminate links between water insecurity and broader issues such as health, food access, and economic stability, providing critical evidence to inform policy, advocacy, and global development efforts.

In recognition of World Water Day, Northwestern professor Sera Young—who co-led the Roberta Buffett Institute's Making Water Insecurity Visible Global Working Group—joined Zane Swanson of the Center for Strategic and International Studies for a conversation on new data examining water insecurity across the Americas. In this video discussion, the two highlight findings from the Water Insecurity Experiences (WISE) Scales, drawing on survey data from more than 27,000 individuals across 17 countries to better understand who experiences water insecurity and how it manifests in daily life. Their discussion underscores that water insecurity is widespread across diverse national contexts and emphasizes the importance of measuring lived experiences—rather than infrastructure alone—to inform more effective policy responses and interventions.

A Northwestern Now press release covered insights gained from the 2026 WISE Americas report, a new study of 17 countries in the Americas, including the U.S., which found that no country or income group is immune to water insecurity, and that the prevalence of water insecurity varies widely within and across the Americas. The study was led by Northwestern professor Sera Young, who co-led the Roberta Buffett Institute’s Making Water Insecurity Visible Global Working Group. It highlights the far-reaching social and political risks associated with water insecurity across the Western Hemisphere, finding that limited or unreliable access to safe water is closely linked to increased risks of migration, civil unrest, and hunger, with millions affected across the region. Drawing on new cross-national data, the researchers emphasize that water insecurity extends beyond scarcity to include issues of access, quality, and affordability, underscoring its role as a critical driver of broader instability and public health challenges.

New research co-authored by Sara Huston, co-lead of the Roberta Buffett Institute’s Global FamDNA Working Group, and working group member Diana Madden explores the future of DNA testing for family reunification in humanitarian and human rights contexts. In their recent article, the authors examine how advances in genetic technologies can support efforts to reconnect families separated by conflict, migration, and political violence, while also outlining key ethical, logistical, and governance challenges. Drawing on collaborations across academic, clinical, and nonprofit sectors—including DNA Bridge and the International Commission on Missing Persons—the study proposes a “toolkit” approach to guide responsible and effective use of DNA in reunification efforts, emphasizing the importance of consent, data protection, and international coordination in these high-stakes applications.

A new article published in Arxiv based on research from Roberta Buffett Institute Faculty Fellow V.S. Subrahmanian, conducted in collaboration with Buffett Undergraduate Research Fellow Isabel A. Gortner and postdoctoral scholar Marco Postiglione at Northwestern’s Security & AI Lab (NSAIL), offers new insights into how deepfakes can be more effectively identified. In their recent paper, the researchers compare the performance of humans, AI detection tools, and combined human–AI approaches across multiple datasets, including a newly developed deepfake video set. They find that humans consistently outperform AI detectors, particularly in lower-quality videos where algorithmic accuracy declines sharply, and that human and AI errors tend to be complementary.

Buffett Faculty Fellow V. S. Subrahmanian argues in a recent Foreign Policy op-ed that AI-generated deepfakes are already reshaping public perceptions of the ongoing Iran conflict, as highly realistic but fabricated videos—many circulating on platforms like TikTok—depict false battlefield successes and civilian impacts that garner millions of views and blur the line between fact and fiction. Drawing on emerging evidence that such content is often part of coordinated influence campaigns, he warns that deepfakes can reinforce political narratives and undermine trust even when viewers suspect they are fake, making them a powerful tool of modern information warfare; as a result, he calls for coordinated action between governments and tech companies to detect, label, and limit the spread of synthetic media, while acknowledging that such efforts may struggle to keep pace with the scale and speed of AI-driven disinformation.

Northwestern faculty explored the context around Operation Epic Fury during a panel hosted by the Roberta Buffett Institute. Moderated by political science professor Wendy Pearlman, the discussion brought together scholars from across disciplines to situate the operation within longer histories of U.S. intervention and regional conflict. SESP professor Shirin Vossoughi emphasized that while many Iranians oppose the Islamic Republic, foreign military action can undermine internal opposition movements and complicate efforts for democratic change. Global health studies professor Elham Hoominfar highlighted the environmental and humanitarian toll of the conflict, including damage to critical infrastructure and constraints on grassroots movements advocating for women’s rights, labor rights, and environmental protections. Crown Family Center postdoctoral fellow Shira Pinhas discussed Israel’s role in the broader regional dynamics, while history professor Michael Allen urged audiences to consider how U.S. foreign policy narratives shape and justify military intervention in the Middle East.

Maria Lipman, Roberta Buffett Visiting Professor of International Studies at Northwestern, was quoted in a recent New York Times analysis examining parallels between the Trump administration’s military campaign against Iran and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Lipman noted that the similarities begin with the sense of improbability surrounding the conflict’s outbreak, recalling how many Russians initially dismissed the possibility that President Putin would launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine despite mounting troop buildups. She explained that once the war began, many Russians gradually accepted the Kremlin’s narrative that Western aggression left Russia with no alternative but to launch what it termed a “special military operation.” Reflecting on the current conflict, Lipman warned that by initiating war with Iran, the United States had “stepped into the unknown,” suggesting that the consequences could bring greater instability for both the region and Americans at home.

FOX 32’s Chicago Live recently featured Professors Sera Young and Julius Lucks, co-leads of the Roberta Buffett Institute's Making Water Insecurity Visible Global Working Group, to discuss their team’s efforts to make the quality of drinking water easier to monitor at home. The researchers are piloting innovative biosensor-based tests designed to detect contaminants, such as lead, using a simple process similar to at-home COVID-19 tests. Developed through interdisciplinary collaboration at Northwestern, the handheld technology allows households to place a small drop of tap water into a test tube and receive an easy-to-read result, helping communities identify potential water quality risks quickly. The project builds on a broader effort by the working group to generate new data on water insecurity and make the global water crisis more visible to policymakers and the public.

Watch our recent Buffett Book Talk with Marc Lynch on America’s Middle East: The Ruination of a Region, which examines how and why Washington became entangled in the Middle East, situating US policy within the broader trajectory of its post-Cold War foreign policy in the region. Professor Lynch charts the United States' controversial approach to the post-Cold War Middle East, where he claims aspirations for US leadership and a calm region have only produced war, instability, and humanitarian catastrophe.

Nobel laureate and Northwestern professor Joel Mokyr discussed technological change, economic growth, and the future of human progress during a Q&A hosted by the Roberta Buffett Institute alongside the Departments of Economics and History. Moderated by history professor Amy Stanley, the event invited students to engage with Mokyr’s ideas about the forces that have driven long-term improvements in human living standards. Mokyr emphasized the transformative impact of technological innovation—from the Industrial Revolution to emerging tools like artificial intelligence—while acknowledging that such changes can produce both winners and losers. He encouraged students to remain intellectually flexible and avoid overspecialization, arguing that curiosity, adaptability, and openness to new ideas are essential in a rapidly changing world.

Watch a short new video overviewing the mission and vision of the Roberta Buffett Institute's Global 2Gen Education Working Group and its Jamaica 2Gen initiative.

Listen to a sound collage recapping a workshop on queer voice, vocal training, and singing for inclusion that convened more than 65 scholars, students, artists, and industry professionals. The workshop was led by Kelli Morgan McHugh, Associate Professor of Instruction in Music Theatre at Northwestern University’s School of Communication, in partnership with the University of Sydney and was supported by a Global Collaboration Grant from the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs.

A recent feature from Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research highlights the work of the Buffett Institute’s Global FamDNA Working Group, an interdisciplinary team developing a humanitarian DNA repository designed to help reunite families separated by war and other crises. Co-led by political scientist Tabitha Bonilla and geneticist Sara Huston, the project seeks to collect DNA from relatives of missing individuals so matches can be made when children or adults are later located. The initiative gained urgency following reports that thousands of Ukrainian children were taken to Russia after the 2022 invasion, making identification and reunification more difficult. By building a secure, globally coordinated DNA system and addressing ethical, legal, and logistical challenges, the researchers aim to create infrastructure that could help reunite families not only in Ukraine but in future humanitarian crises.

Scholars examined the political context and potential consequences of the United States’ January 3 military intervention in Venezuela during a panel discussion hosted by Northwestern’s Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program and co-sponsored by the Roberta Buffett Institute. The event featured a conversation between University of Illinois Chicago Mellon Visiting Scholar Verónica Zubillaga and Northwestern history professor Lina Britto, who analyzed the operation that captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and struck several locations in Caracas. Zubillaga questioned the Trump administration’s justification for the invasion—particularly claims about Venezuelan involvement in drug trafficking and crime—arguing that such narratives rely on broad generalizations and limited evidence. Britto placed the intervention within longer historical patterns of U.S. foreign policy in the region, encouraging audiences to consider the broader geopolitical implications and the challenges that military action may pose for democratic stability in the Americas.

Watch our recent Buffett Book Talk with Reginold Royston on Pan-African Futurism: Ghana and the Paradox of Technology for Development, an ethnographic account of an emerging ethos among technologists working on development projects on the ground in Africa today. Drawing on observation and interviews with software engineers in Ghana and media producers across Ghana's digital diaspora, Royston argues that these actors challenge long-standing NGO-led development paradigms, using technology as a means of reclaiming autonomy and reimagining African political futures in a global digital age.

For this installment of our Buffett Q&A series profiling faculty and students in the Roberta Buffett Institute community, we spoke with Zekeria Ahmed Salem, Associate Professor of Political Science at Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences, outgoing director of the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa (ISITA), and 2024–25 Buffett Faculty Fellow.

A student panel hosted by Northwestern University’s Ukrainian Club explored the personal impacts of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine at an event supported by the Roberta Buffett Institute. Moderated by political science professor Jordan Gans-Morse, the panel brought together Ukrainian students to share firsthand reflections on life before, during and after the war, including memories of air raid sirens, displacement, family separation, and the emotional toll of conflict.

An article in Vilni Media highlighted a panel discussion held at the Roberta Buffett Institute marking the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Hosted by Northwestern’s Ukrainian Club in collaboration with the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Foundation, the event brought together Ukrainian undergraduate students to share personal reflections on the daily realities of Ukrainians living in conditions of war, occupation, and forced displacement. Instead of geopolitical assessments and analytics, the participants focused on personal stories. They talked about life under sirens, being forced to leave home, adapting to new countries, being separated from family, and finding their own identity.

Northwestern PhD candidate Catalina Farías recently published an article developed from research she presented at a conference with support from a Roberta Buffett Institute Conference Travel Award. Her article, “Filtered Latinidad: ethnoracial abstraction and everyday resistance in TikTok beauty filters,” published in the journal Information, Communication & Society, examines how TikTok beauty filters shape representations of Latinidad online and how users engage with and contest these visual norms. The study explores how platform design and aesthetic conventions can abstract or flatten ethnoracial identities while also creating opportunities for everyday forms of resistance and self-representation by users navigating these digital environments

Following his participation in the Buffett Institute’s Winter Symposium on Global Disinformation in a Post-Moderation World, David Bray, a technology and national security expert and Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center, published an op-ed in Apolitical reflecting on how societies can navigate an increasingly complex information landscape. Bray argues that polarization and confusion often stem not only from disagreements over facts but also from the different narratives people use to interpret those facts. Because human decision-making is shaped by both evidence and the stories individuals and communities tell about the world, he suggests that leaders and institutions must find ways to bridge these approaches to understanding reality.

Buffett Faculty Fellow V.S. Subrahmanian, professor of computer science at Northwestern and director of the Security and AI Lab, recently spoke with CBS News Chicago about the growing risks posed by AI-generated deepfakes and scams. In the interview, Subrahmanian explained how advances in generative AI have made it easier to create convincing fake audio, video, and images that can be used to spread misinformation or defraud victims. He noted that scammers increasingly rely on voice cloning, using short audio clips from social media to replicate someone’s voice and stage convincing phone calls to family members claiming an emergency in order to solicit money.

What does the recent US military operation in Venezuela mean for the future of US-Latin American relations? How does the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, impact the political stability of Venezuela and the future of international law? The Roberta Buffett Institute convened faculty experts to share insights. Read the recap.

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Benjamin Nathans visited Northwestern to discuss his book To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement at an event hosted by the Roberta Buffett Institute. In conversation with Roberta Buffett Visiting Professor of International Studies Maria Lipman, Nathans discussed the origins and development of the Soviet dissident movement and the research behind his book. He explained that his interest in the topic grew from a broader question about how people living under authoritarian systems think about their options for public engagement and responding to social problems.

A recent feature in the Northwestern literary magazine, Triquarterly, highlighted the 2025 Colombian Writers Symposium, which brought emerging Colombian and Colombian-diasporic authors into conversation with Northwestern students and faculty. The event, supported by the Roberta Buffett Institute, explored how a new generation of writers is reshaping contemporary Colombian literature through multilingual experimentation, queer storytelling, and reflections on migration, memory, and political life. Organized in collaboration with campus partners across the humanities, the symposium featured conversations with writers including Gloria Susana Esquivel, Julián Delgado Lopera, and Melissa Lozada-Oliva, whose work reflects shifting literary landscapes across Colombia and its diaspora. The symposium ultimately highlighted literature not only as artistic practice but as a form of global dialogue, opening space for new solidarities, critical perspectives, and collaborative futures across the Americas.

Watch our Buffett Conversation with Roberta Buffett Visiting Professor of International Studies, Maria Lipman (Northwestern University) and Alan Charles Kors Professor of History Benjamin Nathans (University of Pennsylvania) on Professor Nathans' new Pulitzer Prize-winning book, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement.

A recent study supported by the Roberta Buffett Institute’s Antimicrobial Resistance Global Working Group sheds new light on how antibiotic-resistant bacteria may be transmitted from mothers to newborns during birth. Published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, the research—the first of its kind conducted in the United States—found unexpectedly high rates of antibiotic-resistant gut bacteria among healthy birthing parents and their infants, highlighting an emerging public health concern even in high-income settings. Led by researchers at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, the study analyzed hundreds of maternal and infant samples collected shortly after birth.

Watch our Buffett Conversation with Lina Sergie Attar, founder and CEO of the Karam Foundation, on what sustainable recovery for Syrians can look like and how international collaboration is playing a critical role. In conversation with Wendy Pearlman, Jane Long Professor of Arts & Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University, Sergie Attar shared insights into her work to move humanitarian aid for Syrians beyond emergency relief toward long-term resilience.

A Daily Northwestern article highlighted a student research presentation session at the Roberta Buffett Institute featuring Northwestern participants in COP30, the United Nations climate conference held in Belém, Brazil. The event grew out of a political science research seminar led by Professor Iza Ding, which brought students to COP30 observe negotiations and conduct field-based research on climate diplomacy, nationalism, and global governance. Presenters reflected on tensions within multilateral climate processes, discussing stalled finance negotiations, the strategic use of scientific framing, fossil fuel lobbyist influence, and debates over Indigenous representation at the conference. While some students described COP30 as overly performative, discussions also emphasized the continued importance of international forums like the UNFCCC as spaces for coordination and accountability on climate action.

In a recent Poynter op-ed inspired by conversations at the Roberta Buffett Institute’s winter symposium, Global Disinformation in a Post-Moderation World, speaker Angie Drobnic Holan reflects on the evolving role of fact-checking in an increasingly fragmented information environment. Holan argues that despite growing skepticism, fact-checking remains a vital tool for slowing the spread of misinformation and providing audiences with accurate context, particularly as platforms and institutions step back from traditional moderation practices.

A recent Daily Northwestern article highlighted the Roberta Buffett Institute’s winter symposium, Global Disinformation in a Post-Moderation World, which convened experts from academia, policy, and industry to examine the evolving challenges of online disinformation. The two-day event, co-hosted with Northwestern’s Center for Communication and Public Policy, explored how declining platform moderation, shifting government roles, and rapid technological change are reshaping the global information environment. Panelists discussed topics ranging from media literacy and algorithmic influence to state-sponsored disinformation and emerging threats such as AI-generated content, emphasizing the need for new strategies to sustain trust and accountability in democratic societies.

A recent feature article highlighted the work of Brent E. Huffman, Buffett Faculty Fellow and professor at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism. The article spotlights Huffman’s latest documentary, Yemen Mosaic, a feature-length film that follows Yemeni women working to preserve their country’s cultural heritage amid the converging threats of war, looting, and climate change. Building on his earlier documentary Saving Mes Aynak, Huffman’s new project centers on archaeologists and heritage advocates in cities including Shibam, Dhamar, Taiz, Marib, and Sanaa. The film portrays preservation not simply as archaeological work, but as an act of resilience and resistance—one rooted in safeguarding identity, memory, and community during prolonged conflict.

Organized with the Center for Communication & Public Policy, our winter 2026 Buffett Symposium on Global Disinformation in a Post-Moderation World convened global experts and practitioners from industry, public policy, academia, and civil society to discuss urgent priorities in addressing issues of disinformation today.

A recent Daily Northwestern article highlighted a student lunch ahead of the Roberta Buffett Institute's winter symposium, Global Disinformation in a Post-Moderation World, which brought students into conversation with international experts on fact-checking and disinformation. The informal event featured speakers from organizations including Factchequeado, the International Fact-Checking Network, StopFake, and the Taiwan FactCheck Center, who shared regional perspectives on the challenges of combating misinformation in an evolving digital landscape. Discussions explored topics such as the pressures of the attention economy, the influence of platform algorithms, and the role of informal power structures in shaping disinformation campaigns.

A recent Daily Northwestern article highlighted a panel hosted by the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs examining the implications of U.S. military action in Venezuela and what it could mean for regional stability and U.S. foreign policy. During the discussion, Northwestern University faculty drew on historical and political analysis to question the motivations behind the strike and the long-term consequences of removing President Nicolás Maduro through military intervention. Panelists emphasized that, unlike past U.S. actions framed around humanitarian intervention, this operation relied heavily on national security and drug trafficking narratives, raising concerns about precedent and international norms. Speakers also cautioned that while the operation may appear successful in the short term, it could lead to political instability, contested legitimacy, and unintended consequences for U.S.–Latin America relations. As the panel underscored, military solutions rarely resolve deeply rooted political crises and often create new challenges in their wake.

Watch our Buffett Conversation with seven Northwestern University faculty who drew on perspectives from political science, international law, history, and more to examine the origins, legitimacy, and consequences of recent US actions in Venezuela; the future of US–Latin America relations; and the crisis these actions constitute for international law.

Samantha Nissen, Director of Strategic Initiatives and Undergraduate Programs at the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and an adjunct faculty member in Northwestern University’s International Studies Program, was awarded a Mellon/SAR Academic Freedom Fellowship supporting scholars who research and advance academic freedom in higher education. The fellowship provides a research stipend and a collaborative professional community through an eight-month program of project development and virtual workshops. Through the fellowship, Nissen will examine journalism education and student media as spaces where academic freedom is actively exercised and contested in the United States. Her project, Teaching and Telling the Truth: Journalism Education and Student Press as Sites of Academic (Un)Freedom, uses a multi-sited case study approach to explore how students, media advisors, and educators navigate editorial restrictions, surveillance, and retaliation, with particular attention to the experiences of non-citizen participants in today’s political climate.

A recent Daily Northwestern article highlights Georgia Rose, a Buffett Institute Visiting Scholar, psychologist, and professor at the University of the West Indies. In a Buffett Institute–hosted talk titled “Trauma Responses as a Means of Survival in Jamaica,” Rose examined how Jamaican workers have coped with returning to work after the devastating impact of Hurricane Melissa. Drawing on research and interviews conducted in Jamaica, Rose examined how climate disasters shape mental health, livelihoods, and long-term recovery. She emphasized that understanding trauma as an adaptive response is essential to designing recovery efforts that support both economic stability and human dignity.