Renewed US sanctions will have a detrimental impact on the Iranian economy, but Iran is winning the public relations battle on the world stage.

BY WON-MO KOO Just four years ago, Nadia Murad, co-recipient of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, was one of the thousands of Yazidi women sexually enslaved by ISIL. Since her escape and despite multiple death threats, Murad spoke publicly of the atrocities she suffered. Her courage in calling international attention to the often-overlooked issue of […]

Raed Fares was killed on November 23rd, but his work as a citizen journalist and activist lives on in the people he taught and empowered. Contributing writer Oula Alrifai, a Damascus-native and activist herself, remembers Raed.

BY HILARY GELFOND While in attendance at the Harvard Kennedy School’s bipartisan conference for newly elected members of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that “[our] ‘bipartisan’ Congressional orientation is cohosted by a corporate lobbyist group.” The conference, which was jointly hosted with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and […]

The Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School hosted an event to honor Malala Yousafzai on Friday Dec 6, for her work and leadership in creating a global movement to educate out-of-school girls. Malala was honored with the Gleitsman Award by the CPL and the ceremony was moderated by the Anna Lindh Professor […]

The Venezuelan crisis has become the worst humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere, with more than 3 million people fleeing the country in the last few years. As conditions in the country worsen, more Venezuelans are expected to leave, causing greater instability throughout the region. Venezuela is a mixture of drug trafficking, money laundering, terrorism, […]

BY AMANDA PATARINO The day after the midterm elections, President Trump announced that Attorney General Jeff Sessions was resigning and that Matthew G. Whitaker would become the acting attorney general. Initial outcry focused on the fact that Whitaker would oversee the Mueller investigation, but discussions quickly shifted to the constitutionality of his appointment. While Trump […]

Bryan Stevenson speaks about the power of hope in the face of hopelessness “The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. From 300,000 in 1972, it has crossed 2.3 million citizens today,” said Harvard alumnus Bryan Stevenson at the Edwin L. Godkin Lecture on Tuesday, December 4. “The number of women […]

The woman in this painting was supposed to be Black. Drawing this piece was one of the most emotionally damaging experiences of my life. I live in Jeju Island, South Korea. Before coming to live in the island, I was in China where I met a Black girl, with whom I became very close friends […]

BY RYAN CARTERS When my wife’s grandmother and aunt died from breast cancer, no one knew it was linked to a hereditary BRCA2 gene mutation. My wife was luckier. She found out in her twenties, and opted for a double mastectomy to reduce her risks. The next generation may have less cause to worry; it […]

Financial hubs in Middle Eastern urban centers such as Dubai foster technological innovation, but the existing political framework in the Gulf and across the region remains in urgent need of reform to solidify recent economic successes and ensure that future generations of entrepreneurs can follow in their footsteps.

BY WILL LINDSEY The opioid epidemic will likely go down as one of the largest public health crises of our lifetime. While opioids don’t command daily headlines, the crisis still kills approximately 72,000 in the United States a year, surpassing annual automobile deaths. In my home state of North Carolina, the Center for Disease Control […]