June 10, 2019

by Thomas Colley 11 June 2019 WARNING: This article contains spoilers. Like millions of others, I have been contemplating the end of Game of Thrones. Being unable to stay awake until 2am UK time to watch episodes live, I have relied on pre-recording them to watch on subsequent days. It is remarkably difficult not to … Continue reading “Game of Thrones and the Limitations of Narratives”

June 7, 2019

by Miles Vining 7 June 2019 Our relief group provided humanitarian assistance to people fleeing the last stronghold of ISIS in Baghouz, Syria. In Feburary and March 2019 we fed over 25,000 and treated over 4,000 wounded. These were mostly ISIS families, a number of which were in critical condition from the fighting and air … Continue reading “Where Evil met its End”

June 5, 2019

by Daria Platonova 5 June 2019 Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s[1] election to the presidency in Ukraine[2] has taken everyone by surprise. A former comedy actor and producer, Zelenskiy is widely seen as someone “outside the system,” despite having connections to the Ukrainian oligarchs. In the few interviews that he granted prior to the election, he acknowledged that the … Continue reading “Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the Donbas Conflict in Ukraine”

May 30, 2019

by Daria Platonova 31 May 2019 The conflict between the Ukrainian government and Russia-backed separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk[1] in the east of Ukraine (known as “the Donbas” or “Donbass” in Russian) has been raging since 2014. It started locally, when numerous anti-government protests in the Donbas were sparked by the radical changes of … Continue reading “Peacekeepers in the Donbas: Pro et Contra”

May 29, 2019

by Roisin Murray 29 May 2019 For most of the late twentieth-century, Venezuela was considered the most stable democracy in Latin America, held up as an example for its volatile Latin American neighbours. Venezuela is renowned for being a country rich in natural assets. It is a major producer of oil, as well as a … Continue reading “Chavez Versus Maduro: Who Did It Worse?”

May 27, 2019

by Anna Plunkett 27 May 2019 Myanmar is a country that has sprung to global attention in the last few years, its seemingly self-led non-violent transition towards democracy was soon tarnished by the systematic ethnic cleansing of the country’s Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State. At the epicentre of these storms has been Daw Aung San … Continue reading “Out of Balance: A Review of Women’s Rights in Myanmar”

May 23, 2019

by Eliz Peck 24 May 2019 Henry Kissinger once said that “no foreign policy – no matter how ingenious – has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of a few and carried in the hearts of none”. With the EU divided not just between – but within – its member … Continue reading “EU Foreign Policy: More Grand Delusion than Grand Strategy”

May 21, 2019

By Hugh Pham 22 May 2019 On 24 April 2018, in Westminster, California, also known as Little Saigon in Orange County, Hugh-Doan Pham interviewed four veterans of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) at the Museum of the Republic of Vietnam. This small building, privately-operated by a handful of volunteers holds events and … Continue reading “Making a Documentary: South Vietnamese Veterans Tell Their Forgotten Story”

October 30, 2018

By Axel Dessein 30 October 2018 In late September 2018, a Chinese Luyang-class destroyer nearly collided with the American destroyer U.S.S. Decatur during a Freedom of Navigation Operation (FONOP) in the South China Sea. These operations are essentially aimed at signalling a commitment to keeping the sea lanes open, the near-collision demonstrates that such commitments … Continue reading “Tactical Instability on the South China Sea and Sino-American Decoupling”

October 3, 2018

By Anna Plunkett   “I have heard it said that we are the uninvited. We are the unwelcome. We should take our misfortune elsewhere. But I hear your mother’s voice, Over the tide, And she whispers in my ear, ‘Oh, but if they saw, my darling. Even half of what you have. If only they … Continue reading “Strife Review – Khaled Hosseini, Sea Prayer: Refugees, Storytelling and the importance of Human Dignity”