Democracy and Institutions

Introduction  To what extent are state-led social interventions for women authoritarian? Western literature on the Middle East, and in particular on Saudi Arabia, suggests decision-making is centralized and a result of enlightened despots such Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS). But this approach misses upward dialogue initiated by citizenry to communicate desired rights for women to leaderships. […]

For African countries to address their political, economic and development challenges, the new generation of leaders from the continent must speak truth to power. This was the opinion of Sir Sam Jonah, the CEO of Jonah Capital during an interview with Africa Policy Journal’s Enitan Okedji, Lead Interview Editor (Policy Engagement).  Sam Jonah was in […]

As Zimbabwe heads to the polls in April 2023, spokesperson for the opposition Citizen Coalition for Change, Fadzayi Mahere, has stated that it is time for the youth to take over the mantle of leadership in the country. Mahere was speaking during an interview with Africa Policy Journal in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There are more than […]

A Nigerian presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has pledged to spend 70% of his time in developing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), if elected president of Nigeria. Peter Obi disclosed this during a roundtable discussion organized by the Harvard Business School on Wednesday. The event was moderated by Hakeem Belo-Osagie, a professor at Harvard Business School. […]

While the government has announced that it will repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code, it has also sought to protect the definition of marriage from constitutional challenge. Lawyer and activist Daryl Yang explains what the resulting constitutional amendment may look like, as well as what it means to the LGBTQ+ community in Singapore.

“I can’t breathe,” said a dying 46-year-old George Floyd as a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee on his neck for nine and a half minutes until he died. It was a murder that shook the entire world, sparking global outrage and spotlighting the insidious spectre of racism in modern America.  Over […]

I could feel the bass of the music thumping in my thoracic cavity. The soles of my shoes were sticky with the beer that had spilled on the floor when I saw Eva inhaling a line of white powder off the kitchen countertop.

Note: This article is featured in the Kennedy School Review’s 2022 print journal. The War on Drugs and Violence in Latin America: Time to Hit Reset Latin America is the most violent region in the world, with only 8 percent of the global population accounting for 38 percent of the global share of murder. That […]

On 30th November 2021, Barbados became a republic. Nearly 400 years after the first British ship arrived on the island, and exactly 55 years after independence from British colonial rule, Prime Minister Mia Mottley conducted a ceremony replacing Queen Elizabeth II with Dame Sandra Mason as the head of state. Bells chimed across the capital, […]

Ben Chester Cheong argues that Singapore’s unique political and legal system helped lay the foundation for the country’s economic growth. He points to Singapore’s high-quality judiciary which is trusted by its citizens to deliver principled and fair outcomes, as well as its use of deterrence which has enabled its reputation as one of the safest cities in the world.

At present, Singapore is the only country to have taken steps to dissolve a local chapter of South Korea’s Shincheonji Church. Jonathan Chan uses this decision as a lens to probe the state’s approaches to religious management. He argues that Shincheonji failed to align with Singapore’s model of multi-religious toleration, in particular through its lack of transparency about its intentions and motivations. This was seen as potentially causing fissures within families and Christian denominations, prompting the government’s intervention in dissolving the chapter.

African history did not begin and end with the Transatlantic Slave Trade. It began with the birth and advancement of human civilization. Ancient Africans weren’t barbaric and uncultured, but the progenitors of modern humanity. From the world’s oldest universities and empires to the shapers of society, Africa was the foundation of humanity. Across the world, […]