AEI's weekly digest of top commentary and scholarship on the issues that matter most
AEI This Week
AEI's weekly digest of top commentary and scholarship on the issues that matter most
REPUBLICANS AND FREE TRADE
Canadian Video Spooks President Trump
November 1, 2025
During the World Series, Ontario’s government featured Ronald Reagan in an anti-protectionist TV ad—angering President Trump and causing him to retaliate with an additional 10 percent tariff on Canadian goods. Matthew Continetti reflects ([link removed] ) on Reagan’s free trade legacy to highlight how Trump’s commitment to trade barriers still puts him at odds with many Republicans.
trumps-reagan ([link removed] )
While President Trump has continued to use punitive tariffs disproportionately against US partners and allies like Canada, he has had less success cajoling adversaries like Russia and China—as evidenced in his talks with Xi Jinping this week. Hal Brands shows ([link removed] ) why Trump’s foreign policy instincts leave him ill-equipped to face down our serious authoritarian rivals.
The president’s ability to unilaterally set tariffs at whim poses a fundamental challenge to the separation of powers and Congress’s control over the purse. While the Supreme Court has been careful to pick its battles in 2025, Charles Lane makes clear ([link removed] ) why the justices must stand up to the president as they consider the legality of this exercise of power.
American and Israeli action this year has destroyed much of Iran’s and its Axis of Resistance’s military strength and influence across the Middle East. In a new AEI report, Critical Threats Project experts Nicholas Carl and Brian Carter assess ([link removed] ) the impact of these defeats and propose measures to further contain Iran.
Universities across the country are revitalizing liberal education and the study of self-government through new schools of civic thought, which have so far created about 200 teaching and tenure-track positions. Writing in City Journal, Benjamin Storey and Jenna Silber Storey provide ([link removed] ) an overview of the impact this growing movement is already having.
Science Is the Thing: Why and How to Restore Balance Between US Institutional Review Boards and Investigators
In the United States, social science and biomedical research involving human subjects is overseen by institutional review boards (IRB), which are designed to protect participants from undue or unjustifiable harm. But how should we strike the balance between the costs and benefits of these protections? In a new article for the Journal of Controversial Ideas, Sally Satel and coauthors ([link removed] ) trace how IRB oversight has become increasingly invasive, imposing severe costs on science far out of proportion with the benefits for human subjects. In response to this trend, the authors propose a new set of guiding principles to restore the balance between oversight and research efficiency and productivity.
More from AEI
RESEARCH AND COMMENTARY
The Venezuela Boat Strikes and the Justice Department’s Golden Shield ([link removed] )
Jack Landman Goldsmith | Executive Functions
Trump: I’ll Work with China, Not Canada ([link removed] )
Derek Scissors | AEIdeas
What Trump Could Learn from Ulysses S. Grant ([link removed] )
Kori Schake | The Atlantic
Campus Leaders Conveniently Find the Spines They Lost Years Ago ([link removed] )
Frederick M. Hess | Education Next
Suspending SNAP Benefits in November Could Push 2.9 Million People into Poverty ([link removed] )
Kevin Corinth | AEIdeas
PODCASTS AND VIDEOS
Why I’m Taking Religion Seriously ([link removed] )
Charles Murray | The Michael Shermer Show
Election Watch 2026: One Year (and One Week) Out ([link removed] )
John C. Fortier and Chris Stirewalt | AEI event
George Mason, the First Anti-Federalist ([link removed] )
Jay Cost | The American Founding with Jay Cost
What Do Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists Really Believe? James Kirchick Explains. ([link removed] )
Danielle Pletka et al. | What the Hell Is Going On?
Are Rising Powers Over? ([link removed] )
Zack Cooper et al. | Net Assessment
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
The effects of cellphone bans will surely depend on how bans are designed, enforced, and implemented. Nonetheless, this early evidence suggests that cellphone bans can be more than just popular: They may be policies students can learn to live with, learn to attend with, and, ultimately, learn better with.
—Nat Malkus ([link removed] )
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