A People Apart: The Growing Military-Civilian Gap and its Consequences
By: Cameron Bell* In America today support for the military is almost omnipresent. Walk down any street and somewhere there will be a gold ribbon magnet saying ‘Support the Troops’. This by itself is not in any way wrong, however, the overwhelming lack of respectful...
Cruel Limbo: DACA’s Shortsightedness Leads to Dim Long View
By J. K. Schmid The two major parties in the United States have driven themselves to the rhetorical breaking point. Without direct, honest engagement with the forces and populations that they ostensibly manage and service, The GOP and the Democrats seem poised...
Navigating the Migrant Crisis: Europe’s Immorality in the Central Mediterranean Sea
By: Mackenzie Rice* The Central Mediterranean Sea has become one of the most infamous migration routes, both for its popularity and its fatality rate. Typically, those who travel across the Central Mediterranean Sea depart from the North African coast in Libya and...
Brexit: Brain Drain in the U.K.
By: Alison Keefner* On June 23rd 2016, forty-six million took to the polls in a nationwide referendum on whether or not the United Kingdom (UK) would remain a member of the European Union (EU). After a night of seemingly sealed victories, tense vote...
Terror Strikes Sweden
By Ashley Stanislaus On Friday April 7, 2017, an attack took place on Drottninggatan (Queen Street), a busy shopping area of in Stockholm, Sweden. A hijacked beer truck was stolen around 3pm that afternoon and without any specific target driven through the shopping...
Executive Disorders
By J. K. Schmid Having promised to “drain the swamp” of Washington careerists and campaigning on conflicting foreign policy ideals and proposals, President of the United States Donald J. Trump appears to many pundits as unpredictable force from the Oval Office....
Keeping Hope Alive: Rethinking American Aid in Israel and Palestine
By: Usjid Hameed* US President Donald Trump’s joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on February 15th, 2017 caused confusion after he said “I’m looking at two-state and one-state… I like the one that both parties like. I’m very...
Islamophobia and the Rise of Right-Wing Conservativism
By: Andrew Burchett* With terrorism dominating mainstream media today, Western countries across the globe have seen a rise in islamophobia and increased right wing pressure to limit migration from Muslim-majority states into their home countries. In Canada, a group...
Rex Tillerson’s Collision Course with North Korea
By: Alison Keefner* Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is an unorthodox Secretary of State. That is what this country signed up for last November when it elected Donald Trump president. Last month, Secretary Tillerson toured Asia mostly under the radar and mostly...
Pakistan in the Middle East: A Policy of Pragmatism
By: Usjid Hameed* In March of 2017, news broke of Pakistan’s decision to send troops to Saudi Arabia’s southern border to protect against potential Houthi attacks from the failed state of Yemen. [1] The Houthis, a Shia insurgent group believed to be backed by...
Obama’s “Red Line” and Donald Trump’s Spine
By Slaton Evans* “We should stay the hell out of Syria, the ‘rebels’ are just as bad as the current regime. WHAT WILL WE GET FOR OUR LIVES AND $ BILLIONS? ZERO.”[i] Those were the words of Donald Trump via Twitter in June of 2013. Opinions and people change; can you...
The Global Gag Rule: Impacts on Gender Equality and Sustainable Development
By: Mackenzie Rice* On Monday, January 23rd 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would enforce a policy known as the Global Gag Rule. This policy means that international organizations that perform legal abortion services, promote the...
Erdogan in Turkey: A Dictatorship?
By: John Perry Muth* A failed coup in the Turkish capital of Istanbul last July may have had exactly the opposite effect of that desired. The coup saw a faction in the military try to seize control of the government, with the goal of establishing a new...
America First? The Trump Administration and North Korea
By: Jason Wolf* Over the course of his historic and electrifying 2016 Presidential Campaign, Donald Trump rallied the masses by pledging to put “America First”. Such a platform shocked U.S. allies, with some wondering whether or not the U.S. could be continued to be...
Russian Missile Deployments: Trump’s Dance with the Russian Bear
By: Alison Keefner* On February 14th, the New York Times reported that the Russian military had deployed two operational battalions of a new model of cruise missiles, one in south Russia at a missile testing site near the city of Volgograd and the other at an unknown...
America’s Greatest Threat
By: Mackenzie Rice* The United States of America is currently facing pressure to up its game in global leadership. The ongoing battle against the Islamic State and resulting refugee crisis, concerns about the growth of Russian influence, the rise of isolationism and...
Syrian Military Aid: Arming Moderate Rebels or Radical Terrorists?
By: Ruhley Michaelides* Any sane American would agree that neither the private nor public funding of terrorist organizations is beneficial. Yet, tell any taxpayers that they have been doing just that and they would likely look at you with mixed expressions of...
Consequences of Air Pollution in France
By: Allison Guerra* Air pollution in France is causing not only national health issues, but also major international environmental issues. Although pollutants have been a problem for France since the industrial revolution, they recently have been brought to the...
