This past June, the conflict in Afghanistan became the longest-running war in American history. Casualties have climbed into the thousands, and the cost of the seemingly never-ending conflict against terrorists has risen to hundreds of billions of dollars. Until recently, however, mainstream news media has failed to question or even largely cover the conflict, an … Read more
Throughout the forty-two years of his rule, Gadhafi was always a larger-than-life figure. With his personal-style rule, he embodied the regime that he created in Libya, which ultimately provided a focus of hatred for those that overthrew him. The eccentric Brother Leader, and Africa’s King of Kings, saw himself as “leader of the revolution until the … Read more
As authoritarian regimes crumble throughout the Middle East, so too does the tenuous gulf that once separated politics from religion. The recent elections in relatively moderate Tunisia exemplified this shift through the victory of the previously banned Islamic Ennahdha Party and the distant fourth place finish of the main secularist opposition bloc. In Egypt, when and … Read more
We asked some of HPR’s brightest minds what they think about Afghanistan, now ten years after the start of the war. What’s next for Central Asia as the U.S. winds down its commitments? What’s been forgotten and what should the U.S. learn from this involvement?
Al-Nahda, the Tunisian political party whose name is Arabic for “awakening” or “renaissance,” might prove to be just that for political Islam in Tunisia and the Middle East. The moderate Islamic party’s recent victory in Tunisia’s elections promises to redefine the political role of Islam in a country and a region where Islam often clashes head-to-head … Read more
To be blunt, David Cameron is in one of the most unenviable positions of any British Prime Minister in recent history. Record-high unemployment, the London riots, the phone-hacking scandal, the downgrade of many major British banks, and more must be causing a gargantuan headache for the Conservative-Lib-Dem government at 10 Downing Street. Almost since the … Read more
In the midst of regional turmoil and overwhelming pressure for change, Morocco’s monarchy has seemed to be a model for the Arab world of preemptive and proactive government action to preserve stability. In the face of popular protests driven by the February 20th youth movement, King Mohammed VI was able to defuse tensions rapidly and effectively. In his historic … Read more
Over the last century, the United States has always played an important role in East Asia. Military aid and political assistance to Japan and Korea to rebuild following World War II, and to Taiwan to balance the power of the People’s Republic of China, gained the United States a foot in regional geopolitics. The US … Read more
We asked some of HPR’s brightest minds what they thought about Israel’s situation a few months after the revolutions of the Arab Spring. Here are their responses: Jacob Drucker ’14 – Contributing Writer The Arab Spring is a disaster for Israel. As regimes topple and others are finally forced to listen to their people, anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment … Read more
The man of a thousand orthographies is dead. Not surprisingly, the political-cultural commentariat has been abuzz with lurid stories of Qaddafi’s last minutes in Sirte – raising, albeit more graphically, the same litany of hackneyed questions that came with the killing of Osama bin Laden. This is a complete waste of time: the Libyan leader … Read more