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,...
U.S.
Gender inclusive language is intended to promote acceptance, yet society is struggling to embrace this inclusivity. It acknowledges the gender identities of those who do not fit the socially-constructed 'traditional' gender definition. Although many people associate acceptance of inclusive language with left-wing liberals, there are groups across the political spectrum that use transphobic...
U.S.
In the early 2000s, the U.S. military under the Bush Administration proposed the development of a weapons system that could deliver a conventional precision strike anywhere in the world in under one hour, a capability that came to be referred to as Prompt Global Strike (PGS). [1] While multiple systems capable of filling this role were considered, one specific technological initiative stood out as...
U.S.
Amidst the chaos and despair of the COVID-19 pandemic, one silver lining emerged: the temporary improvement in environmental conditions. As countries went into lockdown and people stayed home in unprecedented numbers, the global community saw a remarkable decrease in industrial and transportation activities, resulting in cleaner air and water, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Wildlife started...
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...
World
As the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine passes, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine shows no sign of ending. To analyze the dynamics of the peaceful resolution of this military escalation, it is essential to examine the international relations theory of audience costs. Political scientist James Fearon popularized the term “audience costs”, which suggests that...
World
On April 14th, 2021, President Biden announced that the U.S. Military troops would completely withdraw from Afghanistan before the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which had first spurred the U.S. to take military control of the country. However, the Taliban ultimately managed to storm Kabul and complete its own transition into power a month before that date, on August 15th. Coincid...
World
The World Trade Organization (WTO), a multilateral institution that regulates trade, is dead. Over the last two decades, the WTO (known as the GATT agreement before 1995) has significantly declined in terms of legitimacy and power [1,2,3,4]. The WTO’s decline has correlated with the rise in protectionist foreign policy of various administrations which prioritized national interests over the ...