Human Rights

BY DANIEL TOSTADO George Borjas, the nation’s leading immigration economist according the Wall Street Journal, is currently an economics professor at Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Originating from Cuba, Borjas fled Havana at age 12 with his mother in 1962 on a plane to Miami. Professor Borjas is well known for promoting a policy the […]

It can be argued that the rising escalation in tensions and confrontations between the Israelis and Palestinians over the past two months demonstrates that the Israeli policy of conflict management in order to maintain the status quo in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, has become unsustainable. The results of these policies and practices have marginalized the […]

There are many transitional justice mechanisms available but identifying the right one for Syria depends upon the needs of its people. The Liberian Diaspora Project was innovative because it was the first of its kind to include Liberians that were living outside of the state borders. Since over half of the Syrian population is currently […]

BY ANDREA BLINKHORN AND DANIEL TOSTADO Washington, D.C. – As the asylum interview dragged into its second hour, Sandrine became very sleepy. In my office in D.C. sat two sisters, Sandrine and Camille, ages 15 and 17. During political unrest, government militias killed their parents, and so over the course of 18 months, they fled […]

There are more refugees in the world today than ever before, according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. The UN figures show that roughly 60 million people were forcibly displaced in 2014. The UN report says the number of individuals forced to leave their homes due to conflict and persecution increased […]

Ashes of Hama by Raphael Lefevre provides a chronological description of the progression of the Syrian Ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood). The book discusses the establishment of the Brotherhood and its evolution in Syrian politics. Lefevre does a fascinating job analyzing the Muslim Brotherhood institutionally and organizationally, provoking the reader to move beyond stereotypes about the Syrian […]

Introduction The Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) is a product of Iraq’s and Syria’s sectarian polarization, political dysfunction, and the alienation of the local Sunni population from the Iraqi and Syrian regimes. The US-led anti-ISIS coalition was triggered by the jihadists’ capture of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, in June 2014.[i] While dramatic, […]

Growing Prevalence and Influence of Arab Migration Trends In recent years, Arab emigration has been growing. Arab expatriates constitute approximately 6 percent of the local population in the countries across North Africa and the Levant, a percentage that is twice as high as the world average.[i] Notwithstanding such significant patterns of out-migration, the impact of […]

BY KHALED K. Last week, an 18-month-old baby was burned to death in an attack by Israeli settlers in Douma, a village in the West Bank that is under Israeli occupation. The settlers left graffiti that read ‘Revenge’ and ‘Long Live Messiah’. The incident made international headlines; however, it is far from unusual. Every week, […]

A global response will be the next test of civilization. BY DEREK PHAM In July 1979, Vice President Walter Mondale addressed 65 countries’ delegation heads at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. They had convened to discuss the Indochinese refugee crisis, which, earlier that year, had reached a breaking point. The then-five members of the […]

As civil strife and conflict have curtailed the reach of Baghdad and Damascus, a popular notion has emerged suggesting that the artificial colonial-era boundaries of Iraq and Syria are collapsing. The popular and mistaken refrain is that the Sykes-Picot Agreement is unravelling. This has engendered a number of misguided suggestions that the borders of the […]

The current migrant boat crisis in Southeast Asia involving Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority and poor Bangladeshis has caught the world’s attention. While there have yet to be any reports of boats entering into Singapore waters, the government has pre-emptively stated that the country “is not in a position to accept any persons seeking political asylum […]