James Ron

The Israeli air force just carried out a strike on Islamic Jihad leaders and assets in Gaza.

Rejects claims that publics in the global South view human rights as Western, neo-colonial ideas and finds broad support for human rights in the global South.
Utlizies large-scale public opinion surveys to study perceptions of human rights in the global South
Provides the most comprehensive account available of public perceptions of human rights across several regions of the world

This book analyzes state violence in Israel and Serbia, drawing on interviews with soldiers, politicians, victims of human rights abuse, journalists, and more. It argues for the importance of micro-context, composed of laws, taken-for-granted practices, and administrative regulations.

Religious leaders can help convince the most ethnocentric and authoritarian U.S. voters to oppose Washington’s backing of abusive dictators.

President Trump seeks to drive a wedge between American Jews and the Democratic Party. He claims that the Republican Party is more concerned with protecting Jewish people at home and abroad. He also wants to stoke tensions between American Jews and American Muslims. He loves to attack the Democratic Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, among others, as anti-Semitic because of their positions on United States policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Our survey research, however, ...

Does the increase in the number of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as international relief groups indicate the presence of a robust global civil society?

Many movements seek to build their own resource base by running, or allying with, profit-seeking entities. Consider BRAC, a large Bangladeshi anti-poverty organization that funds many of its activities through revenues earned in the kind of “social enterprises” that organize farmers to sell agricultural products on the open market. Or consider the Islamist Hezbollah movement, whose construction company, Jihad al-Binah, uses Lebanese government contract money to rebuild homes destroyed in the fighting with Israel.

Decision-making within a single organization is often simpler than decision-making within a larger movement. Consider Black Lives Matter. Leadership decisions are one thing in, say, the Minneapolis chapter of BLM, and quite another within the larger and more complex national movement, which is made up of multiple organizations and amorphous networks. The Minneapolis entity has established leadership channels, but the national movement does not, as was recently made apparent through a series of public disputes.

We present the results of a public opinion survey in Mumbai, India, that explores popular attitudes towards local human rights groups. We show that while the public is generally supportive of these organizations, they would not be likely to support these groups efforts to raise funds from large corporations. This presents a dilemma for Mumbai's social advocacy groups, who are tempted to take advantage of new laws mandating corporate social responsibility programs.

We describe the results of public opinion surveys in multiple countries in the developing world, and show that most people do not think that local or international human rights groups are working to advance US geopolitical interests.

Describes a survey experiment with real cash, to see whether ordinary citizens in Latin America would pay money for citizen advocacy services.

Describes polling on American's attitudes towards science, and reviews recent NYT article on same.

Wherever I go in the world, I feel a special bond with other people in the Type 1 diabetes community. The connection is especially strong with other diabetes parents, but I feel it with other members of the community as well – children, aunts, uncles, physicians, nurses.

No matter where we are from, what our education, background, race, religion, or nationality, we share a secret. We know what type 1 diabetes is; we know how hard it is to live with; and we know that few people outside our small community have a clue.

After my 2-year-old son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in early 2009, months passed before the fog of fear and uncertainty began to lift. His pancreas wasn’t ever going to produce insulin again, and he’d always, throughout his life, be dependent on insulin injected into his skin. Without the insulin, he would sicken and die.

By fall 2009, however, I was able to think outside of my own family and our struggle, and I wondered: What did pediatric diabetes management look like in the developing world?

When my son was two years old, he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. I’ve written before about the tense months and years following this diagnosis—about fearing for his survival and adopting a new perception of food as a villain in his life. Today, however, I’d like to take a more positive look at this pernicious auto-immune disease, whose incidence is increasing every year. A handful of charitable organizations have made it their mission to provide assistance, care, and compassion to those impacted by Type 1 diabetes, often in low and middle-income countries. I want to focus on one such orga