Berkeley, Middlebury, Glasgow, and the Death of Free Speech at University
It seems safe to say that just about the entire western world is sick and tired of hearing about Milo Yiannopoulos. The alt-right provocateur has been making waves for years with his controversial opinions, mean-spirited remarks, and brazen endorsement of practices such as pederasty. The Left hates him, and the traditional Right is uncomfortable even...
Trumped: The Rise, Reign, and Fall of Conservatism in America
‘Decent people should ignore politics, if only they could be confident that politics would ignore them.’ The words of William F. Buckley Jr., the intellectual father of American conservatism, in the 1950s foreshadowed the sentiments of millions the day after the US Presidential election. After a historically unpleasant campaign that seemed to last an eternity,...
‘Miracle, Mystery, and Authority:’ Dr. Stephen Blank on Putin’s Russia
Dr. Stephen Blank is a Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, a Washington D.C. think tank whose stated mission is ‘bringing information to those who make or influence the foreign policy of the United States.’ Dr. Blank is an internationally recognised expert on Russia and sat down with the Foreign Affairs Review in...
Baseball and Brutality: Obama Visits Cuba
When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, the era of totalitarian communism seemed to be at an end. Within two years, the Soviet Union, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, Albania, and still more communist governments had been toppled to make way for new democracies. Communism was discredited and defeated, liberalism was...
A Bridge Too Far? The Pope and the Patriarch in Cuba
There are only a handful of global institutions that deal with their history in terms of millennia and two of these celebrated a remarkable first on February 12. In Havana, Cuba, Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church, met with Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, for the purpose of issuing a...
A Black Banner Year: ISIS’ 2015 Rise to Global Power
New York City’s Times Square on the night of 31 December, 2015 was, as it is every year, a predictable extravaganza of drunken revelry and universal optimism. Yet, amongst the carousing, resolving, and Auld Lang Syne-ing lurked a sober reminder of the times and what the waning year had seen. About six thousand uniformed police...
The Illiberal Art: Erdogan’s Recipe for Electoral Success
To the world of pundits and experts, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s political career was dead in the water. The ousting of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) from their seemingly invincible parliamentary majority in June was hailed as a watershed moment for Turkey, an opportunity for a peaceful transition of power to a more...
Election 2016: Understanding the Foreign Policy of America’s Long, National Nightmare
For many unfamiliar with the American election process, the current Presidential primary campaigns for both the Republican and Democratic parties can appear confusing and occasionally bizarre. The sheer diversity of opinion (not to mention personality) is staggering, especially when it comes to foreign policy. This handy cheat sheet outlines the top three candidates in each...
The New Popes
The role of the Pope is undoubtedly unique in world politics. No world leader can claim the same blend of political and spiritual leadership, nor the vast following worldwide. He commands no armies and directs few economic resources, but his power is real and considerable, not only among the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, but among...
Reverting to Form: The End of Europe and the World’s Brief Hiatus from Anti-Semitism
It has been seven decades since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, seven decades of a kind of hatred rehab. Europe has been trying hard to kick its lifelong addiction to persecuting Jews, repeating loudly to itself “Never again, never again,” every few years to keep itself on the wagon. For a while, memories...
A Changed World – 2012 Foreign Policy Predictions and Outcomes
A Changed World A look back at three major foreign policy claims of the 2012 US Presidential Election and forward to the road ahead, providing letter grades A to F for the candidates predictions. Issue #1: Iran Then: The election season of 2012 was a tense time in US-Iran relations. Heated Israeli rhetoric declared repeatedly...
The Changing Face of Jihad
Since 2001, the common Western understanding of radical Islamic terrorism has revolved almost exclusively around the Middle East. The idea of violent jihadism automatically conjures up mental images of Afghanistan, Lebanon, and Syria; images which, for the most part, are reinforced by media coverage. But, for the better part of five years now, a new...