Northern America

The events that started in January 2019 in Venezuela are driven primarily by Venezuelans’ desire for change, but for many international observers and social media commentators natural resource wealth took the spotlight. Whether it was a critique of the United States’ involvement or a thesis to explain the interests of other neighbors and major powers, […]

A new political juncture brews in Latin American countries, amidst the rise of populist leaders and a general discontent with the ruling parties and elites of the past few decades. This article explores how, despite the notable challenges ahead, the current situation could also open opportunities by shaking up the status quo of regional integration, […]

In 2000, during a presidential debate, then-candidate George W. Bush mispronounced the internet as “internets.” Four years later, he repeated this error in a debate with John Kerry (“I hear there’s rumors on the, uh, internets that we’re going to have a draft.”). This clearly was no mere mistake. And the internets responded—making this Bushism […]

BY ALEXANDRA SCHMITT It’s a familiar photo in foreign affairs: a table in an ornate room, placards lined up, and a long row of men facing off on each side. One could be forgiven for thinking this was a throwback to the 1970s, when women were barred from serving as foreign service officers after marriage. […]

BY ALEXANDRA SCHMITT The summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, scheduled for this week in Vietnam, promises to be a dramatic reunion. Trump, for his part, bragged that he and Kim “fell in love” during their last meeting in Singapore and that he “developed a very special bond” with the […]

BY SAM BARRAK This past November, Massachusetts made history as the first state to affirm transgender non-discrimination protections in a public referendum. To those voters who said yes on Question 3, thank you for making the state that I love a safer place for me to live as a transgender person. While we rightly celebrate […]

BY BRETT J. BANKER Imagine there were a bipartisan agreement in Congress for a package of critical reforms to a politically important government agency. Say that the chief sponsors of the legislation enacting those reforms included both the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus[1] and a prominent member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.[2] Let’s […]

BY AMANDA HALLOCK Philip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, spent 2017 investigating an unexpected country: the United States. The United States takes great pride in its governmental, economic, and social progress and even provides aid all around the world. So, when the U.N. report on Extreme Poverty and […]

BY: BEN MCGUIRE Carey Dean Moore was dying. As a lethal dose of the synthetic opioid fentanyl seeped into his bloodstream, witnesses reported that he “breathed heavily and gradually turned red and then purple” before finally departing. In passing, Moore joined hundreds of thousands of Americans who have succumbed to drugs like fentanyl in the […]

BY KEVIN FRAZIER When we think of great leaders, we often think of U.S. presidents. It’s easy to find books on what these presidents achieved, but what leadership traits made their accomplishments possible? It’s a question that John Kroger, a Hauser Leader in Residence at the Kennedy School of Government and a Fellow of the […]

BY HILARY GELFOND While in attendance at the Harvard Kennedy School’s bipartisan conference for newly elected members of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that “[our] ‘bipartisan’ Congressional orientation is cohosted by a corporate lobbyist group.” The conference, which was jointly hosted with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and […]

BY AMANDA PATARINO The day after the midterm elections, President Trump announced that Attorney General Jeff Sessions was resigning and that Matthew G. Whitaker would become the acting attorney general. Initial outcry focused on the fact that Whitaker would oversee the Mueller investigation, but discussions quickly shifted to the constitutionality of his appointment. While Trump […]