Democracy and Institutions

By AMITA ARUDPRAGASAM The United States and Europe have traditionally spent substantial financial and human resources to promote democracy. They fund workshops, research, and civil society organizations with the goal of promoting freedom of speech and association, free and fair elections, and the rule of law. While global democracy is not in peril, democracy promotion […]

BY JULIUS LIM Videos of the arrest of a 21-year-old black Harvard University student on April 13 have once again drawn attention to the discussion of police brutality. The student, identified as Selorm Ohene, a Ghanaian, was arrested by the Cambridge Police Department (CPD) after the CPD had received reports about a naked man on […]

As Asian American students at Harvard, we do not support the Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) lawsuit. We also condemn the recent decision by the Department of Education and the Department of Justice to rescind federal policy guidelines on affirmative action. Our racial identity and experiences are being used to dismantle civil rights protections, but […]

BY MICHAEL AUSLEN In the weeks since the Supreme Court term ended and Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement from the bench, many progressives, myself included, have felt the same collective unease. We don’t yet know all that President Trump’s appointment of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court will mean for civil liberties, but […]

BY MATTHEW E. SPECTOR The first year of the Trump administration coincided with dizzying shifts in American commercial institutions. Consolidation of consumer-facing businesses from AT&T and Aetna to Amazon and Disney brought new and increasingly pressing attention to market power—the consolidation of a well-defined market among a few firms, yielding anticompetitive prices that reduce consumer […]

The decision to support or reject the opposition in its appeals to AKP voters is bound up with its identity as the representative of official secularism, a reputation that has proved difficult to shake. The memory of the divisive 1970s and the terror-filled aftermath of the 1980 coup remains a deeply impactful force conditioning voter behavior. An understanding of these traumatizing years, which left few segments of society untouched, contextualizes the steep odds against which the opposition was forced to contend.

BY BEN MCGUIRE Fresh on the heels of a disastrous G7 summit, Mexico is poised to elect a President whose aggressive approach may scorch as much earth as his northern counterparts. A victory for Andrés Manuel López Obrador (also known as AMLO) will immediately impact negotiations over NAFTA and immigration. Regardless of how the race […]

BY MATT MCDOLE Editor’s note: As a policy journal, we strive to introduce smart, bold ideas for addressing pressing problems and to be a platform for new and unheard voices. We decided to publish this op-ed, written by a former managing editor of the Kennedy School Review because we believe diversity ought to be at […]

A casual observer of Turkish politics would be forgiven for thinking that regional geopolitics, social issues, the Kurdish issue or the hosted refugees are the central points of the election. Not so. Somewhere in Turkey, a political strategist is hammering home to her client: “it’s the economy, saftirik (stupid).”

BY BEN MCGUIRE On Friday, May 25, 2018, the Republic of Ireland may be one of the first nations in history to legalize abortion by referendum. If the motion passes—recent polling has tightened to a very close race—Ireland will join much of the world over the last few decades in a trend toward relaxing abortion […]

BY MOUNIR MAHMALAT Imagine a young couple at a boring dancing party. While one tries to animate and initiate the dancing, the other remains seated, complaining, finding excuses. Suddenly, the party ends, and both go home – frustrated. Reforming the European Union (EU) might be less appealing than a dance party. However, the current political […]

BY MAX NATHANSON The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will change Pakistan. CPEC — a proposed network of highways, power plants, and Special Economic Zones (SEZs) worth a reported $62 billion — is set to bring Pakistan more than double the entire volume of foreign direct investment that the country received since 2008. But who, exactly, […]