U.S.
California hosts 30% of the nation’s homeless individuals despite only making up 12% of the United States of America’s overall population [1]. Since 2020, the state’s homeless population has increased by 6%, while the nationwide rate has only risen by 0.6% [2]. California’s homelessness disparity is usually explained as a phenomenon that results from a myriad of factors, in...
U.S.
Media bias is a topic that is increasingly relevant in elections where voters habitually rely on the news to make political decisions. Traditional mass media plays a large enough role in American politics that it has earned the moniker of the ‘fourth branch of government’. Undoubtedly, traditional news sources can exert pressure on political attitudes by covering the topics that will g...
U.S.
Forms of capital punishment have existed in the United States since colonial times, adopted from the influence of British settlers. While the United Kingdom abolished criminal executions by 1965, however, the United States continues its federal implementation to this day (“This Day in History”, 2020). Michigan was the first state to abolish the death penalty in 1846, followed by Rhode ...
U.S.
One afternoon in the fall of 1842, a farmhand in DeKalb County, Indiana, suddenly remembered his promise to an Indiana State Legislature candidate named Madison Marsh. The farmhand, Henry Shoemaker, had assured Marsh that he would vote for him in the upcoming election for a seat in the state house. On the afternoon of election day, staying true to his word, Shoemaker mounted a horse and rode 12 mi...
U.S.
Since its inception in 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been the official federal environmental regulatory agency of the U.S. What was seen as a positive social change soon became a downward spiral of inaction. The inadequacy of the EPA and current regulations were shown through its responses to recent environmental failures, like those in East Palestine, Ohio [1], or the Flint,...
World
In terms of historical and geographic attributes that affect a country’s ability to accrue power and autonomy, Kazakhstan has, in many respects, drawn the short end of the stick. First, it is an exceptionally young state. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan became a formally independent state for the first time only in 1991. Second, it is not a populous state. Despite its i...
World
Foreign policy is often characterized as a protracted chess game; it is necessary to anticipate several moves ahead, assess risk and reward, strike a balance between offense and defense, and create synergy between various pieces [1]. While chess is zero-sum, there is one winner and one loser, foreign policy is not. Foreign policy can promote critical moments of cooperation with joint gains for all...
World
Two of East Asia’s oldest and strongest players — Japan and South Korea — have had a hostile relationship for as long as some can remember. In a BBC World Service poll that was taken in 2014, only 13% of Japanese viewed South Korea positively, and only 15% of South Koreans viewed Japan positively. This dislike for the other is deep-rooted in history, with both countries having a ...
World
Humanity has come far from the rhetoric of denial and indifference that defined decades of climate inaction. Nations, corporations, and individuals accept the geopolitical colossus that climate change presents. Yet, where environmentalists frame the issue as existential and immediate, world governments thrust domestic priorities into the conversation. On the world stage, issues of national securit...
World
The activities of the Wagner Group in the Central African Republic (CAR) must be stopped immediately. Though it styles itself as a private security company, the Wagner Group is a Russian paramilitary organization made up of tens of thousands of mercenaries. In fact, it is often referred to as “Putin’s Private Army” (Faulkner). The Group first entered the CAR in 2018. Initially, i...