Advocacy and Social Movements

All fifty states in the U.S and over thirty countries around the world have participated in the protests initiated by the murder of George Floyd, a Black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis. As coverage of the protests continued through the first week, the conversation unsurprisingly moved away from the police’s disproportionate […]

Former Minister Mauricio Cardenas responded to the questions formulated by LAPJ Editor-in-Chief Cesar Pabon on 25 January 2020. What follows is a lightly edited transcript. LAPJ: What are your views on the current state of the emerging protests that have spread across most Latin American countries? The protests exhibit a combination of both shared and […]

This piece was published in the 29th print volume of the Asian American Policy Review. For the first time in decades, the movement had dealt a concrete, visible blow to China…The Tibet movement’s grassroots muscle and ability to generate negative publicity for its foes, posed a real threat to these companies’ brand, and influenced their decision-making. […]

BY KALPANA JAIN In September 2015, a mob attacked and killed a 52-year-old Muslim man, Mohammad Akhlaq, pulling him out of his home in a village near Delhi, India, on suspicions of eating beef. Not only did Prime Minister Narendra Modi remain silent following the attack, but some politicians of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party […]

As an Australian currently living in the US, it was Friday morning by the time I woke up to news of the attacks that had occurred in Christchurch, New Zealand two weeks ago. News from our region feels rare here, and the deep tragedy of the event so close to my home struck me. Since […]

In this week’s podcast, we discuss the attempted resignation of Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and the growing protests in Algeria against President Bouteflika’s proposed fifth term. In Iran, Zarif announced his resignation in a February 25th Instagram post, but President Rouhani insists that Zarif keep his job after widespread support for the Foreign Minister’s […]

Behavioral science techniques that engage non-activists are the next frontier in voter turnout BY ROBERT REYNOLDS AND DEV CHANDRA A few days before last November’s midterm election, a Texan named Martina received a text message asking her to remind three friends to vote. Martina isn’t an activist. Rather, she was targeted precisely because predictive data […]

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 JASON HUNG The “bookstore incidents” In January 2018, Hong Kong-based Swedish Chinese publisher, Gui Minhai, was snatched by mainland Chinese authorities in Ningbo, China. Supposedly, Gui was on his way to Sweden’s consulate in Shanghai to renew his Swedish passport. It was the second time Gui went missing in two and a half years. […]

Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) is a member of Saudi Arabia’s swelling youth population. Even as MBS courts favor with his young subjects, his efforts may not meet high expectations for reform.

Mexico’s Andres Manuel López Obrador was a populist candidate. Will he become a populist president?

Newly minted President Barham Salih and Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi have one year to enact reform on pressing domestic issues, especially utility services and unemployment. If the government fails to implement changes, it may face another series of popular uprisings.