![Proponents of closing the prison at Guantanamo demonstrate in front of the White House [Photo Credit: Greg Foster/flickr/cc]](wp-content/uploads/2016/03/gitmo-460x260.jpg)
President Obama recently presented a nine-page plan to Congress outlining his goal of closing Guantanamo Bay detention center and ideas for relocation of remaining detainees. According to this plan, 35 of the 91 current detainees would be transferred to foreign countries. The other 56 detainees would be sent to a variety of prisons and military…
According to an investigative report by American officials, the blackout in Ukraine (which left almost a quarter of a million people without power) that occurred on December 23, 2015, may well have been the result of cyber-terrorism. This kind of highly complex attack could, theoretically, occur in the US. As a result, the Obama Administration…
The UK recently announced that they will hold a referendum on June 23rd to decide if they will stay in or depart from the European Union.[1] As the world scuttles to the bleachers to watch the show and place bets, the Catalonian region of Spain was only recently able to elect a Prime Minister and…
Clashes between Houthi rebels, government forces, a Saudi-led military coalition, and Al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula have turned Yemen into a living a war zone. Despite this, most headlines today center around conflict in Iraq and Syria, its role as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and the ongoing struggle between Turkey and…
In light of the Syrian Civil War, the Refugee Crisis it created, and the chaos in the Ukraine, the European Debt Crisis has fallen off the public radar. Greece, although receiving the lion’s share of public criticism, is far from the only country in a dangerous economic situation, and Italy will be the next domino…
Amidst the conflict in Syria, fighting in eastern Ukraine between the government and separatist forces in the region has received relatively little media coverage. However, in the last few weeks, artillery shelling, use of landmines, and mortar fire has been employed by both sides, which has effectively ended the truce agreed upon last summer. According…
![Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika [Photo Credit: Sidali Djarboub/AP]](wp-content/uploads/2016/02/algeria-1-220x126.jpg)
After promising constitutional reform in the wake of the Arab Spring, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika put forward draft constitutional articles last week aimed at bolstering the country’s democratic institutions. On face value, the changes seem promising: a two-term limit for the presidency, requiring parliamentary approval for the president’s selection of a Prime Minister, and reducing…
On November 30, 2015, the International Monetary Fund’s executive board announced the decision to include China’s Renminbi into the Special Drawing Right Basket (SDR), effective October 2016. Created by the IMF in 1969 in the context of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate system, SDR is an international reserve asset that helps its holder…
On October 29th, 2015, Beijing announced the nullification of the nigh universally loathed “One Child Policy” as part of the regime’s new Five Year Plan. Effective immediately, each couple will be allowed two children, from a statement by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The intended purpose of the policy course reversal is to counterbalance the…
Earlier this week, 50 civilians were killed in airstrikes at a rebel-held towns in Syria. According to an article published by Reuters, the locals have blamed Russia for the airstrikes, saying that the “planes deployed were more numerous and the munitions more powerful than the Syrian military typically used.” However, Putin has denied that any…
On February 5th, a Russian Su-34 “Fullback” fighter-bomber allegedly crossed into Turkey’s sovereign airspace. In light of the controversy surrounding Turkey’s decision to shoot down a similar Russian jet that crossed into its borders (for roughly 20 seconds) last November, Putin and his armed forces were well aware of the heightened tensions between the two…
![Barack Obama and Raúl Castro shake hands as they meet for the first time at the 2015 Summit of the Americas in Panama [Photo Credit: Reuters]](wp-content/uploads/2015/12/image-resizer-220x126.jpg)
The current climate of United States-Cuban relations represents a marked departure from a historical trend of US imperialism, and it is this shift in tone that has successfully catalyzed the reestablishment of diplomatic relations and laid the foundations for their future development. Whether directly or indirectly, the US has exerted its influence over Cuba at…
A few weeks ago, Turkish forces shot down a Russian plane that allegedly crossed into the country’s air space. President Putin has maintained that Turkey never warned Russia that the jet was entering sovereign territory or that it was prepared to use military force to take down the aircraft. However, U.S. intelligence sources confirmed that…
In the fall of 2011, President Obama announced significant policy changes constituting a complete “rebalance” of defense resources and foreign policy interests to the Asia-Pacific region. Also known as the “Pivot to Asia,” these policy changes included intensified regional U.S. involvement in terms of military spending, military presence, foreign policy, and economic policy. During this…
The massive scale of the environmental disaster, which takes form in the transboundary haze pollution happening in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia, has been dubbed a “crime against humanity”; though the fundamental cause for the persistent detrimental haze is the all-too-common domino effect of corruption in local politics. The haze has been an annual problem in Southeast…
![A Yemeni man picks his way through rubble [Photo Credit: Khaled Abdullah/Reuters]](wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Yemen-2-220x126.jpg)
