BY KATIE D’HONDT Today, Apple released an open letter defying the U.S. government, the first of its kind. In the wake of the San Bernardino attack, a U.S. federal judge has mandated that Apple build software that will allow the government to break the encryption that safeguards the data of all Apple products – a […]

BY JESSE HAMPTON This piece appeared in our 2015 print journal. You can order your copy here.  The democratization of space is already underway. The 21st century is witnessing a rapid acceleration in both the development of space and satellite technology and the availability of this technology to countries, corporations, and in­­­dividuals. Advances in technology allow […]

BY JOELLE THOMAS “I see no objections. The Paris Agreement for the climate is adopted.” A decidedly stoic Laurent Fabius—President of the COP21 talks—brings down his leaf-shaped gavel. The room erupts in cheering, as exhausted and emotional negotiators from 196 countries take to their feet. Al Gore is beaming. The cries echo along Le Bourget’s […]

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 […]

Introduction The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has strategically used Iraq’s unstable geopolitical and security landscape to rise from obscurity to become a powerful and ruthless organization. This terrorist organization has developed the capability to acquire vast stretches of territory and intends to continue expanding. As a result of its territorial ambitions […]

Under the leadership of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Turkey has secured its position as a major global actor. The country benefited from robust economic growth in the early 2000s and strengthened its ties with the region, the European Union, Africa, and the United States. Turkey rose to prominence with its “zero problems with […]

BY JESSICA CUSSINS Now that we have the power to permanently alter humanity, should we? This was the question at the heart of the International Summit on Human Gene Editing in Washington, D.C., last week, an event co-hosted by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and of Medicine, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the […]

There is a common saying amongst Israeli Jews in reference to Israel’s historical dependence on foreign fossil fuels: Moses took a wrong turn while traveling to the Holy Land. Yet this aphorism continues to be challenged, much to Israel’s benefit. What started out with the discoveries of natural gas fields equaling 22 trillion cubic feet […]

BY JOELLE THOMAS As the leaders of the world gather this week to discuss the climate, two dark clouds hang over the Paris skies. The first is the recent, palpable memory of terrorist attacks. The second is a more distant but tangible memory of a climate negotiation gone awry: Copenhagen. When world leaders gathered for […]

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 JOELLE THOMAS Before the attacks in Paris last weekend, French President Hollande had been calling the upcoming climate conference the “last chance to save the world” from catastrophic climate change. These words seem to take on a deeper meaning as Paris, shaken yet resilient, is gearing up to welcome 50,000 people, including 90 heads […]