Charles Kurzman

Trump’s Justifications for the Latest Travel Ban Aren’t Supported by the Data on Immigration and Terrorism

Charles Kurzman, “Trump’s Justifications for the Latest Travel Ban Aren’t Supported by the Data on Immigration and Terrorism,” The Conversation, June 5, 2025. This travel ban, like Trump’s earlier ones, will not significantly improve national security and public safety in the United States. That’s because migrants account for a minuscule portion of violence in the U.S. And migrants from the latest travel ban countries account for an even smaller portion. More… (Updated data.)

In Praise of Bureaucacy

Charles Kurzman, “In Praise of Bureaucracy,” May 5, 2025. Everybody hates government bureaucracy. The very phrase brings to mind long lines at the Department of Motor Vehicles, endless paperwork, absurd regulations, and wasteful spending. So why did Max Weber, one of the most brilliant minds of 20th century sociology, say that bureaucracy is “the most rational known means of exercising authority over human beings”? Because making decisions based on personal discretion, rather than rules, allows organizations to favor allies and donors and bullies. We are re-learning that lesson this year. More…

Trump’s 2024 Electoral Mandate Was Below Average

President Trump is not afraid to be proven wrong in public. In mid-March 2025, while announcing a military attack on Yemen, he veered from foreign affairs to comment on the size of his electoral victory in 2024, which he characterized as “one of the largest mandates in Presidential History.” In fact, Trump’s mandate was well below average. Of all U.S. presidential elections, Trump’s margin in the popular vote ranked 50th out of 60, and his margin in Electoral College was tied for 46th out of 60. (Examine the data for yourself.)

The Strange Career of Millian Methods

Charles Kurzman, “The Strange Career of Millian Methods,” Social Forces, Vol. 103, No. 3, March 2025, pp. 821-838. In 1970, few social scientists had heard of Mill’s methods for comparative research. Within a decade, Mill’s methods of agreement and difference had become part of the methodological canon — despite Mill’s objections that these methods should under no circumstances be used in the social sciences. More… (Online appendix.)

The Parable of the Bad Samaritan

Charles Kurzman, “The Parable of the Bad Samaritan,” Baptist News, February 23, 2025. A rich Samaritan came upon a poor family by the side of the road. The family was Puerto Rican, and he threw packages of paper towels at them. The family was Ukrainian, and he refused to help unless their leaders dug up dirt on his political rival. The family was displaced by fire in Los Angeles, and he refused to help unless their leaders followed his orders. The family was Gazan, and he threatened to expel them from their homeland so he could build upscale resorts. More…

Muslim-American Involvement with Violent Extremism, 2001-2024

Examine the data for yourself here. A full collection of past reports is available here.
Fatalities in the U.S. from Muslim-American involvement with violent extremism since 9/11: 162 (including vehicle attack in New Orleans on January 1, 2025).
Fatalities in the U.S. since 9/11 due to violent extremism by individuals from “travel ban” countries listed in the first Trump administration: 0.
Victims of murder in the U.S. since 9/11, according to the FBI’s Expanded Homicide Offense Counts: 389,516 (through December 31, 2023).

The Self-Orientalizing Republic of Iran

Charles Kurzman, “The Self-Orientalizing Republic of Iran,” Review Essay, Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 22, No. 4, December 2024, pp. 1291-1296. One of the main themes of the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement in Iran was a desire for “normalcy” — a life not governed by Islamic authorities, a life where people can dance in alleys, as the anthem of the uprising put it. The government of Iran, for its part, agrees that Iran is not “normal” — and it rejects international norms of normalcy. “They say, ‘Come on, be a normal country,'” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, has said. “A normal country means a country that conforms to the structures of global domination.” More…

The Cold War against the Cold War

Charles Kurzman, “The Cold War against the Cold War,” Social Science History, online pre-publication, October 4, 2024. The Cold War was not the only large-scale geopolitical struggle to play out on the global stage in the decades after World War II. This was also the era of decolonization, when some of the world’s largest empires were forced to recognize the sovereignty of their captive nations. One of the first foreign policy priorities of many newly independent nations was to reject the Cold War. More…

An Illegal Majority

Charles Kurzman, “An Illegal Majority,” April 10, 2024. The Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives currently stands at 218-213. But this majority is tainted: at least four of the Republican districts have been thrown out by the courts as racist gerrymanders. If the 2022 elections had used legal maps, Democrats would have a slight majority, not Republicans. … And if the House majority is illegitimate, how can the House’s actions be considered legitimate? More…

Muslim-American Involvement with Violent Extremism, 2001-2023

A full collection of past reports is available here.

Introducing the ACSS Dataverse

Charles Kurzman, Seteney Shami, and Neil Ketchley, “Introducing the ACSS Dataverse,” MENA Politics Newsletter, Vol. 6, No. 1, Spring 2023, pp. 13-17. It is a common complaint: researchers cannot access high-quality statistical data for countries in the Arab region. To address this, the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS) has launched a broad interdisciplinary data archive for social science research datasets, the ACSS Dataverse, which allows researchers and institutions both to deposit and access research data on the Arab region. More…

U.S. Domestic Terrorism Prosecutions: The Reality Behind the Government’s Inflated Numbers

Faiza Patel and Charles Kurzman, “U.S. Domestic Terrorism Prosecutions: The Reality Behind the Government’s Inflated Numbers,” Just Security, May 8, 2023. Over the last decade, the Department of Justice has asked Congress for more than $500 million to pay for terrorism-related prosecutions. These funds support more than 300 positions in the U.S. Attorneys Offices around the country, which claim to have won more than 2,000 domestic terrorism-related convictions in this time. Unfortunately, data released by DOJ in litigation that we brought some five years ago shows that these numbers are wildly inflated. More…

Muslim-American Involvement with Violent Extremism, 2001-2022