After completing my service as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco about 30 years ago and pursuing a graduate degree in international development, I began to see how people’s participation in their own community’s development reconciles different global outlooks of what lends towards society’s consistent, lasting growth. For example, public participation reduces
October 14, 2026
We are living through a moment in time of cascading disorder. Wars, inequality, and poverty are no longer confined to “faraway” places; they are entwined into a single global crisis that cuts across continents, regions and regimes. What makes this moment distinctive is not only the scale of poverty—nearly 1.1 billion people
August 21, 2026
One would think that after October 7 and the Gaza war that followed, the leaders from the main opposition parties would have drawn the obvious conclusion. Eighty years of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have not made Israel safer. It has made Israel strategically weaker, lonelier, and more reviled than at any moment in
August 13, 2026
John le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy endures not simply as the anti–James Bond film but as something rarer: a diagnosis of Western civilization at the moment it began losing faith in itself. Where the James Bond franchise offered a fantasy of Western vitality—technological mastery, erotic confidence, geopolitical clarity—le Carré’s world
August 11, 2026
Donald Trump did not invent America’s vulnerabilities, but he has driven them to a breaking point. His contempt for democratic norms, alliances, and international law has transformed the United States from an anchor of a rules-based order into a disruptive force. The damage extends far beyond decisions like the war on Iran,
July 2, 2026
Global violence today is metastasizing, not contained; over 180,000 violent events reported globally by the International Institute for Strategic Studies signal a world in which conflict has become a baseline condition rather than an exception. More than 130 armed conflicts now rage—over twice the number of 15 years ago—shattering infrastructure, tearing apart
May 12, 2026
Every powerful actor in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict professes to seek peace. The US and EU repeat the two state mantra, the Arab states invoke Palestinian rights, AIPAC proclaims its defense of Israel’s security, and Israeli opposition parties promise “responsible” leadership and stability. Yet each, in its own way, has enabled and entrenched
April 16, 2026
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), as a self-described bipartisan organization, has been advocating positions that are closely aligned with successive Israeli governments, regardless of whether those policies advance broader Israeli or US interests or long-term regional stability. It has consistently backed Israeli government actions—including military operations, settlement expansion, and
March 27, 2026
This war with Iran is a war of choice, and a reckless one at that. President Trump has floated a carousel of justifications—an “imminent” threat, the need to destroy Iran’s missile stockpile and manufacturing capacity, to dismantle its nuclear program, to trigger regime change, to spark an uprising from within. Yet,
March 23, 2026
By Erdem Denk We are not facing separate crises, but the simultaneous collapse of multiple historical orders unfolding in the present. Not only international relations and political science scholars but also the broader communities of social sciences—and increasingly even the natural sciences—are confronting a profound and widely acknowledged crisis, which is not merely “theoretical,” “disciplinary,”
March 12, 2026
The conflict with Iran continues to strain military resources, elevate geopolitical risk, and destabilize the Middle East. Policymakers and defense leaders face a strategic environment where conventional tools alone cannot resolve the deeper forces driving hostility. Invincible Defense Technology (IDT), a non-religious, field-tested, scientifically validated approach offers a practical and cost-effective
March 11, 2026
Being a journalist in many parts of the world has become far more than a challenging occupation—it has become a high-risk profession under assault from state power, armed conflict, economic pressure, and the erosion of institutional protections. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 361 journalists were imprisoned and 124 were
November 24, 2025