Between Romania and Ukraine, a tiny country in Eastern Europe is choosing its path for the future in historic parliamentary elections. The neighboring war in Ukraine and the country’s own ongoing challenges mark this collective choice as especially important. The Republic of Moldova held critical parliamentary elections on Sep. 28 for all 101 seats in […]
Category: World
Diplomacy as Performance in Trump’s Saudi Strategy
Unlike most U.S. presidents who traditionally make their first foreign trip to Canada or Mexico, Donald Trump broke precedent in 2017 by choosing Saudi Arabia and returning again in 2019. These visits signaled a dramatic recentering of U.S. foreign policy around Riyadh, reflecting Trump’s fascination with Saudi wealth, spectacle, and geopolitical leverage. Yet, as Saudi […]
Bolivia’s Plurinational Promise in Ruins?
A political era has ended in Bolivia. The ruling party, Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), is projected to fall from its comfortable majority of 96 out of 166 seats in both chambers to a staggering total of two seats in the new legislature. MAS is not just any Bolivian party. After the party rose to power […]
The Geopolitical Power of Hallyu
Does the name “J. Y. Park” ring a bell? If so, chances are that you have brushed shoulders with the K-pop industry. While not a household name outside of K-pop fandom circles, this Korean songwriter and entertainment CEO also maintains the almost unexplainable role of “weird dad of the K-pop industry” – from overly-autotuned and […]
The Skew of Global Climate Finance
As a mother of eight, Ebada Yusuf had now lost her third child. Sitting next to the body of her four-year-old son, Salman Mohamed – who died that morning from severe malnutrition and measles in Baidoa, Somalia – Yusuf questioned the reason behind the conditions of their suffering. In May of 2021, Africa suffered from […]
As Syria Emerges From Civil War, What Are the Consequences of its Cultural Destruction?
Broken pottery vessels in ransacked museums. Blown-up ruins in sandy villages. The crumbling dome of a mosque, open to the yawning blue sky overhead. These are the images of Syria’s destroyed cultural heritage that dominate the Western imagination. But what do these scenes of destruction actually mean, and can we really dismiss them as just […]
What Silicon Valley and Shenzhen Forgot
At a startup fair in Shenzhen, often called China’s Silicon Valley, a robotic arm salutes the Chinese flag while a camera scans the crowd for faces to greet by name. Six thousand miles away in Palo Alto, an engineer pitches an AI model that can generate lifelike images of anything, except, he jokes, “political context.” […]
The Power Outage That’s Breaking a Nation
On 25 September, at dusk, Antananarivo went dark. Mothers lit candles to cook dinner; children did their homework by phone light. By midnight, thousands were in the streets, demanding power — the kind that runs lights and governs nations. Years of neglected infrastructure, mounting debt, and mismanaged fuel supplies had finally caught up with the […]
Who Gets to be a State? The Politics Behind Recognition
On September 21, a coordinated effort by the Western nations of Britain, Australia, Canada, and Portugal aimed to promote a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by announcing their recognition of Palestine as a sovereign state. This decision happened amidst the escalating humanitarian crisis following continuous Israeli offensive attacks, which have caused global outrage over […]
Germany’s Free Speech Dilemma
A few supporters have gathered in front of the podium in the small eastern German town of Gera, as Björn Höcke, a far-right politician of the German right-wing extremist party AfD, addresses the crowd. He excites those present with his uniquely sounding, slightly old-fashioned, patriotic rhetoric. Waving his hands, the politician shouts, “Everything for…” and […]