Chile’s Protest: And the Economic Factor
Chile has a history of being one of the most stable and economically prosperous countries in South America. As a result of this reputation, the protests that have been taking place in the country seem to have come out of left field. Chile is a place where the cries...
Immigrants are Necessary for Sweden’s Economic Growth and Stability
Sweden, like the United States, has an asylum policy in which refugee immigrants are accepted and protected from persecution or deportation. Refugees flee their home countries for fear of being harmed based on their race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or...
How Hong Kong Authorities Stoked Pro-Democracy Sentiments during the 2019 Hong Kong Protests
By Brendan Niebel* The current protests and elections in Hong Kong showed how the lack of compromise and police violence promoted by Hong Kong authorities only increased the case for democracy in Hong Kong. Originally, the protests were mainly against the Extradition...
The Venezuelan Stalemate
By Jacob Gilbert*, As recently as the late 20th century, Venezuela was one of the richest countries in Latin America. This was due in large part to the country’s massive oil reserves, some of the largest in the entire world.(1) Despite this wealth, Venezuela suffered...
Neo-Ottomanism and the European Union
By Ronnan Rodas* The relationship between the European Union and Turkey remains one of the more contentious among the candidates for accession to the EU. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has begun accelerating the visa liberalization process for Turkish citizens...
The Sudan Massacre: A Fight for Change
In June 2019 one may have noticed a number of social media profile pictures being changed to a specific shade of blue. This was in response to a massacre perpetrated by a Sudanese paramilitary troop in the nation’s capital, Khartoum, on the Forces for Freedom and...
Deterrence in the Persian Gulf: Why American Efforts to Contain Iran Are Failing
The doublespeak that so often characterizes political life takes on a unique potency in the context of shadow wars. States engaged in such conflicts have every incentive to deny, distract from, and downplay their level of engagement to appease domestic and...
Corruption, Collaboration and Controversy: A Tale of a Czech Populist PM.
In the summer of 2019, Prague was the center of mass protests of historical proportions. In protests that mirrored demonstrations from nearly three decades ago in Prague’s picturesque boulevards, more than 100,000 citizens gathered at one of the city’s public parks in...
Why Would Bolsonaro Reject Aid in Combatting the Amazon Wildfires?
“The world needs the forest. We need it and our children need it,” Handech Wakana Mura, of the indigenous Mura people, explained somberly. [1] “We are sad because the forest is dying constantly.” [2] To those outside of the local and indigenous communities, the...
The Case for US Involvement In Yemen
By: Ronnan Rodas* Despite earning the unfortunate title of the world’s “forgotten war”, the ongoing conflict in Yemen is by no means one we should ignore. In a civil war in which the death toll will likely exceed 233,000 by the end of the year [1], the status quo in...
United States Immigration Policy: Contrary to human rights
By: Ezihe Chikwere* Prior to being sworn into the oval office, Donald Trump ran on a platform based on a multitude of promises, one of those promises being to toughen laws on immigration and specifically, to “Build a Wall” blocking off Mexico. As of today, the wall...
Women at the Forefront of Sudan’s Uprising
By: Fatime-Zara Beri* This past April has ushered in a new change in Sudan. The spirit of revolution has taken over the citizens of Sudan. At the center of the revolution are women.[1] Massive scores of women protesters take to the streets in Khartoum, the capital of...
The United States’ Withdraw from Syria
By: Molly Cook* “We have defeated ISIS.”[1] These are words that every American has been waiting to hear since the deadly attack on the United States on September 11, 2001. This attack was carried out by al-Qaida leader, Osama bin Laden; however, ISIS was built and...
The Cuban Thaw
By: Ronnan Rodas* The United States and Cuba have maintained a relationship marked by a missile crisis, embargoes, and a general, mutual distrust for one another. The apparent detente established by Barack Obama has been targeted by President Trump in an effort to...
Under Pressure: Analyzing the Future of NATO
By: Connor A. McNairn* Throughout its 70-year history, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has proved relatively efficient at providing collective security for both North America and Western Europe. It achieved its principal goal of the twentieth century,...
Democracy in Africa: Progression or Regression?
By: Harold Niebel* In the past several months, many African countries have conducted presidential elections. The elections in Senegal, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Nigeria vary in legitimacy and reputability reflecting the contemporary challenges...
The Threat of President Bolsonaro towards Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples
In the summer of 2018, FUNAI, Brazil’s National Indian Foundation, posted two videos, both of which received millions of views, of uncontacted indigenous peoples living within the state’s Amazon rainforest on protected territories. [1] The two videos, recorded...
Chaos in Venezuela: The Perils of Failed Petrostrates and Bloated Executives
By: Connor A. McNairn* Venezuela, a once rich and powerful Latin American state sitting on the world’s largest oil reserves, presently serves as a compelling case study in the vulnerabilities of petrostates and the consequences of poor governance. Venezuela’s oil...
