Empty plane during pandemic. While scrolling through Twitter amidst a quarantine-induced boredom spell, I came across a tweet describing someone who had recently returned from a societal sabbatical in which he had left everything behind, including technology, to spend time in nature and recharge. He had left in late January. It has only been a … Read more
The Harvard Political Review’s Swathi Kella speaks with Ragini Malhotra, a high school student living in a city outside of New Delhi, to discuss how COVID-19 has affected her life and highlighted problems with inequality in the country. Edited by Ryan Golemme Video Credit: Stuti Gulati Image Credit: Livemint Originally published Monday, Mar 30, 2020 … Read more
Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull broke confidence earlier this week, spilling on his previously private engagements with both Presidents Obama and Trump. Throughout the tome entitled “A Bigger Picture,” Turnbull offers character assessments of various world leaders, and perhaps none were more eyebrow-raising than his disclosure of President Barack Obama’s own appraisal of then-candidate … Read more
Harvard spends a lot of time talking about its inclusive campus experience. Even a recent New York Times article discussed how college campuses act as a great equalizer, where students from every kind of socioeconomic background come together in a single body. But this same article also explored the cold reality of college in the … Read more
While we as a nation confront the spread of a novel coronavirus within the United States, the easiest path is to blame others and turn our backs on the rest of the world. Fear often lends itself to isolationism. This is exactly the policy espoused by President Donald Trump, who, in a speech on March … Read more
IOP Fellow Mark P. Harvey is the former special assistant to the president and senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council staff. Over the past 15 years, he has authored a wide variety of plans, policies, and doctrines to foster resilience through effective risk management. He has been the lead author for … Read more
On Wednesday, Harvard released a statement on its decision not to accept funds from the CARES Act’s Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund. Prior to the decision, the university received public pressure after reports revealed it was slated to receive almost $9 million. President Trump even said that the university should be required to give the … Read more
This article was co-written by Chloe E.W. Levine and Oliver York. Espousing — no, exuding — patriotism has been a tacit requirement for U.S. presidential campaigns since the dawn of the nation, even as debates about the true meaning of patriotism have embroiled candidates. Who could forget the 2008 scandal in which then-Sen. Barack Obama, … Read more
This article was co-written by Abigail Romero and Jing-Jing Shen. Once bustling public spaces, now visited only by the occasional mask-wielding passerby. Funerals with no attendees. Blue tents dotting long-winded streets. These images bore into the minds of so many Americans amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Though the pandemic is not the genesis of our society’s … Read more
This article was co-written by Joy Ashford and Henry Austin. It’s hard to talk about politics with young Americans without hearing three words: “big, structural change.” While some pundits brush off young people’s frustration as adolescent rebellion or unrealistic idealism, their calls for change are in fact increasingly specific and the result of the tangible … Read more