“For its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011.” It is with this rationale in mind that the Norwegian Nobel Committee bestowed its 2015 Peace Prize upon the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, a coalition crucial to the drafting of the country’s democracy … Read more
Consent should be simple. As a popular tea analogy makes clear, “if you can understand how completely ludicrous it is to force people to have tea when they don’t want tea…then how hard is it to understand it when it comes to sex?” Indeed, when we talk about sexual consent, it can be easy to … Read more
In a packed warehouse in Brooklyn on Tuesday, June 7, Hillary Clinton addressed a cheering crowd as the first female presumptive nominee of an American national political party. Clinton’s victory is a historic milestone for the United States, and has rightly been hailed as such. However, Clinton’s position as a female nominee is not the … Read more
Tuesday night saw Donald Trump’s best speech yet. In place of his standard off-the-cuff ramblings were prewritten remarks, allowing him to achieve great technical success. He did not employ the loud, rabble-rousing rhetoric of his arena-filling rallies but instead—perhaps for the first time—sounded “presidential.” Interestingly, his emotional appeal sought not to inspire fear and frustration … Read more
An educator and advocate for education reform, Michelle Rhee served as Public Schools Chancellor in Washington D.C. from 2007 to 2010. Following this period, she founded a non-profit organization called StudentsFirst that works for education reform. In addition to her involvement in the sphere of public policy, Rhee has been very visible with her advocacy … Read more
Tom DeFrank is a contributing editor at National Journal and was Washington bureau chief of the New York Daily News from 1996 to 2012. He also covered eight Presidents and 12 Presidential campaigns during his 25 years serving as Newsweek’s senior White House correspondent. His book, “Write it When I’m Gone”, published in 2007, detailed … Read more
In late February, the eight Ivy League football coaches unanimously chose to eliminate all full contact hitting in practices. The move I considered the most aggressive measure yet to address brain injuries and trauma in football. After being formally affirmed by the Ivy League’s policy committee, athletic directors, and university presidents, this new rule will … Read more
One of the most prominent Argentine businessman today, Eduardo Elsztain is president and largest shareholder of Argentina’s largest real estate company, Inversiones y Representaciones S.A, and he is chairman of Argentina’s leading mortgage bank, Banco Hipotecario. Elsztain’s business acumen allowed him to head an agricultural company called Cresud through the Argentine currency crash of 2001 … Read more
Among myriad fiercely debated issues, three words are obstructing Myanmar’s peace process negotiations: demobilization, disarmament, and reintegration. Myanmar has been fighting a civil war for more than 68 years, and although many of the Ethnic Armed Organizations—a series of armed rebel factions—have signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement with the government, the powerful Kachin Independence Army … Read more
When the local economy of Susanville, California stagnated, the town tried to use a newly constructed prison as a recovery tool. Opened in the late 1990s, High Desert State Prison cost $272 million to build. High Desert, originally intended to be a low- to medium-security prison, became a Level III and IV correctional facility. This … Read more