BY KATIE BURHKART AND NATALIE UNTERSTELL The Amazon rainforest and the Arctic Ocean both conjure images of frontier lands: the Arctic as a cold and desolate region inhabited by reindeer and polar bears, and threatened by a warming climate; the Amazon as a dense, humid forest teeming with wildlife and threatened by deforestation. Both are […]

On October 15, in Kigali, Rwanda, more than 170 countries signed a legally binding accord to phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a powerful greenhouse gas commonly used in air conditioners and refrigerators. The deal could stop the equivalent of 70 billion tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere, approximately twice […]

Last Monday, October 10th, will be remembered as the day the electronic judicial process was formally introduced within the Paraguayan legal system, which unquestionably constituted an unprecedented breakthrough for the judiciary in this country. Alberto Martínez Simón Judge of the Civil and Commercial Upper Chamber of Asunción, Paraguay. Source: ABC Color, Paraguay The HKS Latin American Policy […]

Embed from Getty Images In late September, the largest hospital on the rebel-held side of Aleppo was bombed by Syrian or Russian planes, taking it temporarily out of commission and leaving only six hospitals operational in the area. This week, Aleppo’s M10 hospital was bombed yet again, leaving two doctors and a pharmacist wounded. The […]

For the past 35 years, the United States has been militarily involved in the Middle East – from Lebanon to Libya, Iraq to Syria. Yet this extensive involvement in the region has failed to make any lasting positive impact or achieve the United States’ stated goals, according to Rami Khouri, director of the Issam Fares […]

BY SUNAINA RAJANI Introduction Imagine an impulse to sneeze. Now imagine if it were illegal. While we don’t intend to sneeze and can’t suppress a sneeze, most of us can suppress other urges. One fundamental principle of jurisprudence is that humans have some ability to control their impulses and make decisions derived from an innate […]

BY DOREEN HORSCHIG The total elimination of existing nuclear weapons worldwide, so-called “Global Zero,” at this point in time is neither feasible nor desirable for U.S. national security interests. A cold stability — regional and global stability provided through a threat of nuclear weapons — demonstrates the continued efficacy of existing nuclear weapons on the world […]

In Syria, a ceasefire negotiated by Russia and the United States quickly broke down last week. Although unstable from the outset, the truce crumbled after the US bombed a Syrian army position, in a move it said was accidental, and Russian or Syrian jets attacked a UN aid convoy near Aleppo. This ceasefire was just […]

Wars may be started by adults, but the effects of war do not discriminate by age. The lives, and futures, of children are just as vulnerable to the physical and mental traumas of modern warfare. Today, Aleppo is one of the most violent battlefields of the war in Syria, and an estimated 75,000 children survive amidst barrel bombs, […]

US Secretary of State John Kerry strongly condemned the breakdown of the recent ceasefire in Syria before a meeting of the “Quintet” foreign ministers at Tufts University on Saturday. “One thing I think all of us join in saying, and I’m going to make this clear: What is happening in Aleppo today is unacceptable. And […]

BY GRANT TUDOR September 25 marks the first anniversary of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): a list of global ambitions for improving the state of things. The first is to “end poverty.” The goal’s various targets, which intend to elaborate on what exactly is meant by ending poverty, tell us that by 2030 all […]

BY ANSHUL PACHOURI The year 2016 marks an important milestone in India’s innovation story. First, India’s rank in the global innovation index improved quite significantly from 81st position in 2015 to 66th position in 2016. Second, the country also launched its flagship program Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) to advance its national innovation ecosystem under the […]