Every year, as the leaves turn and the temperature drops, school children across the United States learn the story of the first Thanksgiving. They bring home construction paper turkeys, alongside tales of friendship, alliance, and the “Indians” welcoming the pilgrims to their land. Here begins a fundamental misunderstanding of our country’s history – one that […]

Shaun Seah responds to our previous article by Jina Lim, The Shangri-La Dialogue: Ensuring Singapore’s Relevance in Defence Diplomacy. In his letter, he highlights the value of a virtualised format in increasing capacity, accessibility, and diversity of participation, with a view towards leveling the diplomatic playing field for smaller and developing states. He also points out the added benefit of such platforms in lending clarity to strategic clashes amidst the current volatile global environment.

Realizing the aspirations of Brown requires addressing the panoply of issues perpetuating racial and class divides. We can’t solve segregation at the school district level. Society has to get involved.

The HKS Progressive Caucus hosted Khury Petersen-Smith, Shireen al-Adeimi and Tobita Chow for a conversation on progressive U.S. foreign policy, moderated by caucus co-chair Joey Leone. To hear about future events, follow the Progressive Caucus on Twitter @Progressive_HKS. Khury Petersen-Smith is the Michael Ratner Middle East Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.  He researches, writes, and speaks about US […]

Kwan Jin Yao analyzes the perceived deficiencies in the government’s engagement with youth. In this piece, he provides an overview of the trends that have facilitated youth civic and political engagement in Singapore, and the ideological bases that underlie this government-ground divide. He ends off on a hopeful note — with concrete ways that this divide can be bridged.

COVID-19 has brought challenges to organizing large-scale events, not least diplomatic ones. In this article, Jina Lim explores the consequences of one such cancelled event through the ‘why’s and ‘how’s of organizing an alternative, and what it means for Singapore’s role in regional defence diplomacy.

(Anil with his father, many years ago) Photo Credit: Anil Hurkadli On November 4, 2008, I voted alongside my father for the first and last time. It was an unusually warm day in Minnesota, and we joined a growing line of voters waiting to cast their ballots at a small church. I was thrilled and […]

Photo Credit: Philip Jones Headed to the polls in Newport News, Virginia. VOTE!

For the past month, I’ve been doing two types of volunteering: (1) Deep canvassing through a national women-led organization, and (2) election protection hotline shifts. Deep canvassing has been focused on calling undecided, older women voters in the Midwest, sharing vulnerable stories, eliciting shared values, and slowly coming around to making the case for a […]

Photo Credit: Ana Larrea-Albert Here’s a picture of us voting as a family for the very first time!!! Our son Louie turned 18 in September and was able to cast his very first vote for president in this incredibly consequential election. We voted last Tuesday at the library in Wellington, Florida, and the process was […]

Photo Credit: Tiffany Ho I used to joke, nothing prepared me for my first ballot like those Scantrons in grade school. Since I came of age, I have voted absentee in my home state of California due to my itinerant lifestyle. When work called me semi-permanently to Virginia this month; however, I realized my vote […]

Photo Credit: Allison Agsten I grew up in a very rural area and often watched my parents fill in their absentee ballots at home since there were no polling places nearby. Though at this point I’ve lived in LA for more than half of my life, I still haven’t gotten over the thrill of actually […]