By Kathryn G Logan, Shi Chen and Xi Lu | – China has invested US$90 billion in the countries involved in its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) since 2013. The BRI involves developing infrastructure in 126 partner countries to boost trade within a region stretching from Indonesia to Western Europe via the Middle East and […]
America now solves problems with troops, not diplomats
By Monica Duffy Toft | – Is America a bully? As a scholar, under the auspices of the Military Intervention Project, I have been studying every episode of U.S. military intervention from 1776 to 2017. Historically, the U.S. advanced from a position of isolationism to one of reluctant intervenor, to global policeman. Based on my […]
How the impeachment inquiry might affect Trump’s 2020 re-election chances
By Dennis Altman | – The next 13 months will see American politics completely dominated by the fate of Donald Trump. As the House of Representatives moves towards impeaching him, leading to a hearing which then moves to the Senate, the Democrats will be engaged in an increasingly bitter contest for the nomination to run […]
Trump v. Duke U.-UNC: Why the Study of Cultures is Essential to our National Security
By Nicholas Tampio | After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a commission formed to figure out why the attacks occurred. One of the culprits, according to the commission’s 9/11 report, was “lack of imagination.” With few exceptions, the report stated, government officials could not imagine that Osama bin Laden and his affiliates, hidden in […]
As Israel struggles to form a Government, why do its poorest immigrants vote for the right and far right?
By Amandine Desille | – The Israeli election was held on September 17, but it remains unclear who – Benyamin Netanyahu (Likud) or his main opponent Benny Gantz (Blue White) – will be able to bring together a government. One thing is for sure: in elections in April and September 2019, Israel’s populist, religious and […]
Trump isn’t the First: the Government has often Persecuted Whistleblowers
By Jennifer M. Pacella | – When President Donald Trump likened a whistleblower’s White House sources to spies and made a lightly veiled reference to execution, he highlighted a longstanding peril facing those who come forward to alert the public to governmental wrongdoing. Blowing the whistle carries major risks. BlueSkyImage/Shutterstock.com In many instances, whistleblowers find […]
What the Dinosaurs Teach us: Earth won’t Recover from Human-Caused Mass Extinction for 2 mn Years
By Paul Bown, Samantha Gibbs, and Sarah Alvarez | – Around 66 million years ago, a giant asteroid struck the Earth, causing the extinction of the dinosaurs, ammonites, and many other species. The asteroid was equally devastating at a microscopic level, driving ocean plankton to near-extinction. This crippled the base of the marine food chain […]
Spies and the White House have a history of running wild without congressional oversight
By Charles Tiefer | – At the heart of the current crisis over President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is an intelligence whistleblower whose information has finally made it into public view. The whistleblower’s complaint about Trump’s interaction with Zelenskiy was initially withheld from the House Intelligence Committee, something which the committee […]
Founders: Removal from office is not the only purpose of impeachment
By Clark D. Cunningham | – As Congress moves toward a possible formal impeachment of President Donald Trump, they should consider words spoken at the Constitutional Convention, when the Founders explained that impeachment was intended to have many important purposes, not just removing a president from office. A critical debate took place on July 20, […]