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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.