Rethinking the French Presidential Election Outcomes: Uncertainty in France’s Foreign Policy Direction

By Bosco Hung The far-right is on the rise in France. French president Emmanuel Macron won a second presidential term in April, but far-right nationalist candidate Marine Le Pen captured a surprisingly high share of votes, coming in at 41%. The amount of support for far-right candidates has grown significantly in recent years, as members...

Sanctions and Militant Violence

Image available at: https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/mappingmilitants/profiles/revolutionary-armed-forces-colombia-farc By Treyton Zanutto- Texas A&M '22 Introduction  Sanctions are an important and increasingly common part of the modern globalized world. The importance of sanctions has become more evident as the western world has responded to the present Russian invasion of Ukraine with the large-scale implementation of sanctions. However, as these sanctions...

The Urgency of Rhetorics on the Polish-Belarusian Border

By Victoria Denaro, Boston College Tonight, the sun will set on the barbed wire barricade along the Polish-Belarusian border, casting darkness over the thousands of people left there to fight for their lives.  A week of enduring starvation, beatings, and freezing temperatures has passed for the masses of Middle Eastern migrants seeking refuge in Poland...

A New Solution to Heal NATO’s Transatlantic Divide

by JAKOB URDA, '19 and ADAM CHAN, '19 NATO is in a crisis moment. Critics from both sides of the Atlantic and all sides of the political debate are doubting NATO’s purpose. The transatlantic relationship is fraying as America and Europe are apparently moving away from each other on policy. Current American demands that European...

Who Decides when Britain Goes to War? The War Prerogative in the United Kingdom

by GWYNETH HOCHHAUSLER, '20 Traditionally, the British Parliament holds far fewer foreign policy powers than the Prime Minister does.[1] One of the most important of these powers, which the executive has controlled for hundreds of years, is the war prerogative – the power “to declare war and deploy the armed forces”.[2]  Some academics have asserted...

A New Challenger Approaches the INF Arena

by JOSHUA ZAKHAROV, '20 On February 1st, the Trump administration formally withdrew the United States from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. The next day, Putin pulled Russia out of the INF Treaty as well, inflaming apparent tensions between the two countries and leading to a compelling popular narrative that the end of the agreement...

Belarus – Russian Relations: New Year, Same Tactics

By KARINA HOLBROOK, '22 On Dec 28, Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree to establish a Russian-Belorussian working group to discuss various aspects of integration and controversial issues between the two countries.[i] Russia denies any movement towards unification of Russia and Belarus, with Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov of Russia stating that any...

Refugees and Stateless Persons in the Case of the Syrian Crisis

by JON HOFFMAN, George Mason University '19 Introduction: “Stateless” vs “Refugee” vs “Stateless Refugee” The issues of statelessness and refugees represent serious challenges to the global community, with wide-reaching repercussions that affect both developed and developing nations. More than 12 million people around the world are considered stateless, while approximately 65 million are considered refugees.[1]...

Liberty and Democracy After Liberal Democracy in Eastern Europe

by SURYA GOWDA, '22 Western defenders of liberalism commonly claim that there is an impending backslide into authoritarianism in Eastern Europe. Many Western commentators hold that a rise in populist nationalism in Hungary and Poland, both previously considered poster children for successful post-communist democratization, demonstrates that these countries have turned against liberal democracy. For example,...

Freezing Hot: Escalating Tensions in the Arctic

by SARAH McKELLAR, American University '19 The Council on Foreign Relations Independent Task Force Report, Arctic Imperatives: Reinforcing U.S. Strategy on America's Fourth Coast, stated, "The United States, through Alaska, is a significant Arctic nation with strategic, economic, and scientific interests.”[1] For a significant amount of time, the U.S. government has put the Arctic region...