News Abroad

• 
• 12/10/19
  

  30 years after Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution, have we come full circle?

  by Gideon Remez

  History is repeating itself as Havelian satire rather than farce. Again, an autocratic Moscow is working to expand its sphere, weaken its adversaries and break up their alliances.

• 
• 12/8/19
  

  What the Trump Impeachment Inquiry Means for the Rest of the World

  by Kevin M. Shanley

  America’s political crisis comes at a time of rising global instability.

• 
• 11/26/19
  

  The History Behind the Rocket Used in the Latest Attack Against Israel

  by Gideon Remez

  Israel wielded a similar "mega-rocket" against Egypt 50 years ago. How Soviet advisers dealt with it.

• 
• 11/24/19
  

  Trump Skips ASEAN Summit, Continuing a Presidential Tradition

  by Ang Cheng Guan

  President Trump’s decision to skip the ASEAN meetings in Southeast Asia this month must feel like déjà vu to the leaders in the region.

• 
• 11/24/19
  

  The Mysterious Assassination That Unleashed Jihadism

  by Thomas Hegghammer

  The story of Abdallah Azzam suggests that a root cause of modern jihadism was the collapse in respect for religious authority among young Islamists in the late 1980s.

• 
• 11/24/19
  

  Russian Victories in the Post-Cold War Era

  by Albert M. Camarillo

  Putin’s Russia is winning battles to destabilize the U.S. that former USSR leaders such as Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, and Leonid Brezhnev had tried but failed.

• 
• 11/21/19
  

  Coexistence and Sectarianism in the Modern Arab World

  by Ussama Makdisi

  In the case of the Middle East, the need to demythologize communities and their ideological underpinnings needs to go hand in hand with evoking a dynamic history of coexistence that transcends communalism. 

• 
• 11/19/19
  

  Too Important or Too Irrelevant? Why Beijing Hesitates on Hong Kong

  by Kevin M. Shanley

  Two competing narratives possibly explain why Beijing’s authoritarian communist rulers have not so far interfered in the increasingly violent protests in Hong Kong, now six months old and heading into a deadly new phase.

• 
• 11/17/19
  

  The Runway for Global Warming: The Suez Canal's 150th Anniversary

  by On Barak

  The largest infrastructural project of the nineteenth century annexed the Middle East into the fossil-fuels complex. Reexamining its history is indispensable for decarbonization today.

• 
• 11/12/19
  

  Muslims Should Reject Indian Supreme Court's Land Offer

  by B. Z. Khasru

  In a mockery of justice, India's top court gives orthodox Hindus a way to avenge their humiliation under Muslim rule for a thousand years.

• 
• 11/10/19
  

  The History Behind a Recently Defaced French Holocaust Memorial

  by Norman JW Goda

  The memorial plaque at 12 rue Sainte-Catherine in the central part of town contained the names of the 86 Jews arrested at that address on 9 February 1943. It was the largest single roundup of Jews in the city. On the plaque, black paint was used to cross out their names. 

• 
• 11/3/19
  

  A History of Why Trump Abandoned the Kurds

  by Ed Simon

  That the Kurds are associated with socialism, anti-fascism, and radical democracy isn’t incidental to Trump’s abandonment of them – it’s the reason why he has.

• 
• 11/3/19
  

  China and the NBA: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

  by Kevin M. Shanley

  China's relationship with NBA is one of the great successes in its cultural and commercial relations with the United States, and a powerful example of Sino-American ‘sports diplomacy’.

• 
• 11/3/19
  

  Lebanon’s Chance for Change

  by James Stocker

  Lebanon has a long history of internal crisis and protest. It is tempting to see the same potential for instability in the latest rounds of protests in Lebanon, but this time, there may be something truly different.

• 
• 10/24/19
  

  We Must Not Grow Numb To The Yazidi Genocide

  by Alon Ben-Meir

  The international community cannot grow numb to genocide, as this will continue to haunt us only with greater force. The Yazidis have paid the ultimate price, and no other ethnic group should be subjected to the same fate by any perpetrator with impunity, and with apathy from the international community.

• 
• 10/20/19
  

  To Stop The Rise of Nationalism, We Must Remember High-Tech’s Role in Supporting Past and Present Nationalistic Agendas

  by Clyde W. Ford

  Since the dawn of the digital age, nationalism has relied on digital technology.

• 
• 10/20/19
  

  The Greatest Danger in the Kurdish Crisis

  by Zaman Stanizai

  If the heavy-handedness of the Turkish military is any indication, Erdogan seems to be bent on the ethnic cleansing and relocation of Kurds in northern Syria and resettling their lands along the Turkish border with Arab Syrian refugees currently residing in Turkey.

• 
• 10/20/19
  

  Kurdish Stalingrad: The Origins of the US-YPG Battle Synergy

  by Robert Troy Souza

  The American president would be wise to familiarize himself with the recent history that led to the small falafel shop in central Kobane that bears his name.

• 
• 10/20/19
  

  Modi's 'two nations' theory roils India

  by B.Z. Khasru

  By scraping Kashmir's status, the prime minister has taken a highly risky step toward making the misguided dream of the right-wing Hindu extremists come true and shaken up secular India.

• 
• 10/20/19
  

  A History of Influencing Presidential Children to Change Policy

  by Aaron Coy Moulton

  How Dominican Dictator Rafael Trujillo used the ambassador to the Dominican Republic's son to try to influence American foreign policy.