On June 23, 2016, over 17 million residents of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. Overnight, the Pound Sterling dropped to a 31 year low, bringing with it the largest drop Wall Street has seen since November 2011. It soon became apparent that the consequences of the “Brexit” would not accrue solely … Read more
The past two years have witnessed a sea change in public opinion surrounding law enforcement. In June, just 56 percent of Americans expressed “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the police, and 43 percent of Americans now support Black Lives Matter, a movement that was virtually unknown in early 2014. But … Read more
Spring 2016 Fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University, Sir Peter Westmacott became British Ambassador to the United States in January 2012. Before that, he served as the British Embassy’s Counsellor for Political and Public Affairs in the mid-1990s. His tour of duty ended in January 2016. During his career, he has also … Read more
Born in Seattle, Washington, Gary Locke, a third-generation Chinese American, served as the first governor of Asian descent in the continental United States, as the 21st governor of Washington from 1997 to 2005. Following that experience, he served in the Obama administration as United States Secretary of Commerce from 2009 to 2011, and later as U.S. … Read more
Maura Healey became the first openly gay attorney general after winning her election in November 2014. After graduating from Harvard College in 1992, Healey played professional basketball in Austria for two years before returning to America to attend Northeastern University School of Law. Following law school, she clerked for a federal judge and then worked … Read more
Last week, a California appeals court ruled in favor of upholding teacher tenure laws, overturning the decision handed down in the original case, Vergara v. California. This decision was a much needed one for students in the state, and nationwide. Two years ago, the election for California’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction was one of … Read more
Almost 9 million people have cast their ballots for Donald Trump so far in the Republican primaries. The billionaire has captured 20 out of the 35 states that have voted, often by substantial margins. With Trump perched atop the polls of states yet to vote, the Trump Train appears to be headed full steam ahead for … Read more
Marty Baron is an American journalist who has been the editor of The Washington Post since 2013. Prior to that, he was the editor of The Boston Globe from 2001 to 2012. During his time at The Globe, he shifted the paper’s coverage towards local investigative journalism, helping it earn a Pulitzer Prize for its … Read more
For young people in Taiwan, understanding themselves as being Taiwanese—rather than Chinese—is becoming a fact of cultural identity more than a charged political statement. Identity in Taiwan, one of the many forces that influenced the historical January elections, is shifting. In the words of a senior at Harvard College who grew up in Taipei, this … Read more
During the 1930s, the New Deal coalition passed a slew of landmark bills, which established protections from social security benefits to collective bargaining rights to minimum wages and maximum hours. While countless American families benefitted from this progressive legislation during the worst economic crisis in American history, the benefits were largely restricted to whites because … Read more