Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Freund Larus

Elizabeth Freund Larus, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs and Fulbright Scholar offered comments on Indus News on U.S. protests over coronavirus-related measures. Professor Larus claims that U.S. citizens are within their constitutional rights to assembly and freedom speech in protesting excessive lockdown measures imposed by some governors. View the interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZwFvwG7bpo

Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Larus

Elizabeth Larus, professor of political science and international affairs, contributed to an article entitled, “Can President Trump suspend constitutional rights of Americans due to the coronavirus crisis? Experts say unlikely,” on MEAWW.com.

“There has been talk of suspending the Constitution during times of crisis, such as President Abraham Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s extraordinary wartime powers, such as the internment of Americans of Japanese descent,” Elizabeth Freund Larus, Professor of Department of Political Science, University of Mary Washington told MEA WorldWide (MEAWW).

“Americans have (sometimes grudgingly, sometimes willingly) acquiesced to enhanced executive power during times of national crisis, with the understanding that things ‘get back to normal’ once the crisis has passed. This, in fact, happened during WWII. However, that was when Americans had faith in our government. Americans no longer have that level of trust in the federal government,” she said. Read more.

Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Freund Larus

Elizabeth Freund Larus, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, offered an open lecture “U.S. Impeachment: Presidents and Process” at the Doctoral School of the University of Marie Curie-Skłodowska in Lublin, Poland. Professor Larus is a Fulbright Research Scholar at UMCS in Spring 2020. Her lecture introduced faculty and graduate students to impeachment provisions in the U.S. Constitution and walked them through the impeachment process. She then compared and contrasted the impeachment cases of U.S. presidents Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump. Dr. Larus’ presentation was followed by robust Q&A and discussion of U.S. presidential and congressional politics. Graduate students from Poland, Ukraine, and Nigeria participated in discussion.

Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Larus

Elizabeth Freund Larus, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, participated in the seminar “Regional and Global Implications of Territorial Disputes in the South China Sea,” at the University of Warsaw, Poland, on February 21, 2020. Dr. Larus joined scholars from the University of Warsaw, the Warsaw School of Economics, and Marie Curie-Skłowdowska University for a discussion of legal aspects of the disputes and the increasing militarization of the South China Sea. Guest speaker Professor Stanislaw Pawlak, a judge on the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, commented on the Philippines’ case against China’s claims, and the landmark 2016 arbitral decision in favor of the Philippines. Dr. Larus commented on Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s recent decision not to renew the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States. Dr. Larus claimed that the failure to renew the VFA was the most serious threat to the nearly 70-year military alliance that the United States has with the Philippines. She continued that the U.S. loss was China’s gain, and that the lack of VFA threatens the Philippines’s domestic security as well as the security of the Asia-Pacific. Professor Larus also commented on recent Freedom of Navigation Operations in the South China Sea carried out by the UK’s Royal Navy. She claimed that the UK has maintained interest in Southeast Asia since the colonial era, and as a sea power, is determined to maintain freedom of the seas, even after Brexit. Comments were followed by discussion with scholars from Poland, the United States, and New Zealand.

Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Elizabeth Larus

Elizabeth Larus, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, offered a guest lecture “The Chinese Dream and the New Silk Road” to faculty and students at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland on February 4, 2020. Dr. Larus is in Poland throughout the Spring 2020 semester on a Fulbright Research Grant. She is conducting research on the political and economic significance of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (aka New Silk Road) investment in Central and Eastern Europe.