The year is 2420. It is now not only achievable, but also cost-effective to leave the pale blue dot that is Earth. But rather than enter a solar system of wonder and exploration, instead, you are met with an American military base covering the surface of the Moon. China has chosen Mars as its personal … Read more
Protesters in Belarus have been flooding the streets of Minsk for nine weeks straight, marching against the Belarusian government and President Alexander Lukashenko. These demonstrators demand his resignation and freedom for political prisoners following the August 9 elections, which, according to the official count, have been won by Alexander Lukashenko with a seemingly implausible 80% … Read more
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the newly independent republics seemed to be fertile ground for democracy. Today, only three former Soviet republics have successfully democratized—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—while many have remained saddled with autocratic regimes reminiscent of Soviet-style dictators. Haphazard liberalization of the fledgling republics led to widespread corruption and the … Read more
In March of this year, as Coronavirus thrust itself onto the forefront of the global stage, the Director General of the United Nations, Tatiana Valovaya, expressed hope that COVID-19 could serve as a “common enemy” to bring the world together and catalyze peace. While the status of this can be debated, this hope has not … Read more
Organ harvests, forced sterilization of women, psychological torture, and forced family separations—the hallmarks of the Xinjiang region in China. Uyghur Muslims live in fear in Xinjiang as the Chinese government continues to wage war on their culture, with its elimination as the goal. Many are subjected to “re-education” camps, a euphemism for an exploitative labor … Read more
When it comes to flood myths, China’s is not as well known as Noah’s Ark, but just as influential. Legend says that four millennia ago, the Yellow and Yangtze rivers frequently flooded, with devastating consequences for the ancient Chinese. However, salvation arrived when a distant relative of the emperor, Yu, united the region’s disparate tribes, … Read more
In an ideal world, a global pandemic would lead to unprecedented international cooperation. Similar to the unity of citizens following a domestic terrorist attack or natural disaster, countries would join hands to develop a global response to a pandemic using shared resources and knowledge. In a fight for humanity, enemies would become allies and borders … Read more
The legacy of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic leaves behind an urgent question: How do we prevent history from repeating itself? Far from a doomsday conjecture, our shared history with pathogens shows that outbreaks will happen again. Soon. But to forestall the next pandemic, we must first understand how outbreaks begin. “Zoonosis”— a disease that can … Read more
As we continue to investigate the linkages between the anti-corruption and climate change movements, it would be naive to not consider illegal logging. The world’s greatest forests suffer at the hands of some of the world’s largest economies, all hungry for resources without care for their origins. Beyond providing refuge for enormous amounts of biodiversity and serving as the … Read more
This article was co-written by Corbin Duncan and Michel Nehme. It was winter in Beijing, and Gough Whitlam cut an unusual figure in a terracotta-clad temple of the Chinese capital. Towering over his Chinese counterparts at 6’3”, Whitlam’s presence was marked by obvious bemusement and subtle suspicion in equal measure. It was his second visit … Read more