New York
Get Back to Class: How Promoting International Exchange Can Restore America’s Reputation Abroad
By Marta Millar In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought global travel to a halt, including almost all educational exchange programs. While the Trump administration implemented policies like visa restrictions and travel bans, which further reduced the incoming flow of international scholars to the United States, other countries, like Germany, Canada, and Australia, emphasized their…
Read MoreThe Rise of Cyber Sovereignty: Russia, China, and the Future of Internet Governance
By Molly Henry With the Internet being the world’s key platform for communication and social organization, existing conflicts between democratic and authoritarian governments now extend to questions of internet governance and users’ rights. The Biden administration’s foreign policy is expected to address the defense of human rights and free speech in cyberspace, with a “Summit…
Read MoreThe Entire World is Watching: The U.S. as a Study in Democratic Norms
By Colin Wolfgang The United States has long been a bastion of democracy, with smooth transitions of power and an adequately representative voting system. For centuries we have cast our ballots, believing that we are the ones who decide our mayors, our congresspeople, our senators, and our commander in chief. This latest election has put…
Read MoreTaking Another Look: Revising Our Perspective on Turkish Revisionism
By Benjamin P. Beames Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) affect the nation’s foreign policy by offering a selective account of the nation’s history. By reviving a consciousness of empire, the Turkish government is effectively masking their foreign policies behind a veneer of revisionism. During the past decade, under…
Read MoreFirefighter or Arsonist: How to Harness the Abraham Accords to Reduce Israeli-Palestinians Tensions
By Adam Basciano Anyone attending a lecture on the Middle East will likely hear about the rockets, instability, civil wars, and proxy conflicts taking place in the area. It is a tough neighborhood, as the saying goes. While this framing has certainly rung true in recent decades, it also obscures the region’s history and development…
Read MoreShrinking Space in the Name of Countering Terrorism: Why the United Nations Must Deliver on Civil Society Commitments
By Junko Nozawa Civil society actors—communities, victims’ rights groups, religious, and other authorities that follow traditional customs—have long been recognized as valuable partners in violence prevention and conflict resolution efforts. Recognition for their contributions to the field of preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) and terrorism has been more muted, despite the critical role that…
Read MoreA Lesson in Discipline: Jordan’s 2020 Mark on the World
By Diala Ghneim As COVID-19 spread across the world, media outlets focused on different countries’ responses to the pandemic and the differences in the number of deaths. While larger, more powerful countries have had difficulty tackling the current crisis, developing countries have been at the forefront of COVID-19’s battle and have seen ground-breaking results. One…
Read MoreA Bias for Action on Climate Change: An Addendum to the Command’s Planning Guidance for 2020
By Tom Persico The commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) is its highest-ranking officer. He is responsible for laying out the agenda in the years to come in a publication called the Commandant’s Planning Guidance. The 38th Commandant of the Marine Corps calls for a new fighting model to be a better fighting force…
Read MoreThe Gendered Impact of COVID-19: What Policymakers Can Learn from Gender and Conflict
By Bethan Saunders and Courtney Bale Dunlevie During this global public health crisis, leaders have used conflict-based language to describe the COVID-19 pandemic. From President Trump’s declaration of becoming a “wartime president” to Xi Jinping’s “people’s war,” they have cast the coronavirus as a metaphorical foe to be vanquished. Rhetorical flourishes aside, this public health…
Read MoreAgainst All Odds: Botswana’s Development Wonder
By Timothy Motte Noted by Paul Collier in his seminal work, The Bottom Billion, being landlocked, having bad neighbors, and suffering from a poorly educated population are just some of the obstacles countries face as they develop, and Botswana faces all three. Not only is the country bordered by Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, and Namibia,…
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