On March 15th, 2022, APSA convened the webinar “Strategies for Teaching About Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine.”The panel brought together scholars with regional expertise on Russia and Ukraine, post-Soviet political development, international relations, global civic engagement, and political science instruction. Moderated by Michelle Allendoerfer, APSA’s Director of Teaching & Learning, the five panelists included John Ishiyama (APSA President, University of North Texas), Alison R. M. McCartney (Towson University), Yoshiko Herrera (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Paul Poast (The University of Chicago) and Olga Onuch (The University of Manchester). The aim of this event was to address the opportunities and challenges for teaching political science in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine. Members of the panel offered insights on how political science can shed light on the origins, dynamics, and consequences of the conflict, as well as practical suggestions for how to incorporate the events in Ukraine into classroom discussions and activities. In the following, I distill some of the core ideas that emerged in the panel discussion, which I organize around three key roles instructors can play during this time. Scholars of political science can provide students with relevant and accurate information about the conflict, help students to understand the conflict through the lens of political science, and empower students to take action on behalf of those affected by the conflict.

Elected leaders tend to enjoy an increase in popular support when the countries they govern become embroiled in international conflict. For example, George W. Bush could boast a 90% approval rating in the wake of 9/11. Existing theories claim that such “rally effects” occur due to favorable media coverage, support from opposition party members, and/or an uptick in patriotism. These existing theories share a basic assumption: rallies or rally effects reflect sincere changes in preferences, or individuals’ beliefs. In his new American Political Science Review article (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs%5b%E2%80%A6%5dpularity-surge-after-crimea/B587ECFA7B1280DE42D914DC101296F4), Henry E. Hale argues for a re-examination of the causal mechanisms in relation to rallying effects.

The skull emblem of The Punisher—a vigilante superhero—has become a popular symbol among law enforcement personnel and has also appeared alongside Confederate flags in Charlottesville, VA, and at the January 6th, 2021 Capitol attack. A new article by Menaka Philips argues that closely examining images of the superhero, and of heroic violence in particular, may help provide some insight into the politics of violence in the United States. Understanding how and why certain groups associate with characters like the Punisher can also help scholars understand the role of race and gender in shaping popular conceptions about violence, and about how different groups are allowed to use it in the United States.

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to unfold, social media platforms are clamping down on Russian state-owned media, a key lever the Kremlin uses to spread propaganda and disinformation. The survival of non-democratic regimes in part depends on their ability to manage the information environment in this way. Social media has become a key ingredient in autocrats’ toolkits of how to respond to online opposition, which includes the use of trolls and automated bot accounts. But what are bots? What work do they do? And how might this social media tool be used in authoritarian regimes to help such regimes? In their new article, authors Stukal, Sanovich, Bonneau, and Tucker explore these pressing questions through an investigation of the use of pro-government Twitter bots within Russia during times of both offline and online political protests.

In the last decade or so, individuals such as Edward Snowden or Chelsea Manning have leaked classified documents to the public. These documents are now frequently drawn upon in published academic articles within political science journals. In his article in the American Political Science Review, Christopher Darnton asks how researchers, particularly those within political science’s subfield of international relations, should approach the “informational fall out” generated by such leaks and raises both the consequences and challenges that stem from the use of such sources.

Since the 1980s over 100 indiscriminate school shootings have taken the lives of dozens of adults and children across 40 states. Each school shooting sparked debates about gun control, with Democrats increasingly advocating for stricter gun laws and Republicans increasingly opposing them. Gun violence has certainly divided the country along partisan lines, but has it influenced the public’s political behavior? Political scientists Laura García-Montoya, Ana Arjona, and Matthew Lacombe investigate this question in their recent American Political Science Review study. In particular, they examine whether people who live in counties that experience school shootings change their voting behavior. García-Montoya, Arjona, and Lacombe find that gun violence in schools does not increase voter turnout, but it does shift the public’s vote in favor of Democrats during presidential elections.

Corruption is a problem everywhere in the world, but it can be particularly damaging where political institutions and legal rules are weak. Many of those who grow up in developing countries have either been required to pay a bribe to a police officer, tax collector, or other government agent, or know someone who has.