Analyses
Cuba’s Twin Embargoes
Donato Di Santo 2 September 2026
For decades, Latin America’s authoritarian regimes were seen as a right-wing phenomenon, with Cuba as the lone exception — a dictatorship born not from a betrayal of democracy, but of revolution. As Washington’s embargo returns to the headlines, this piece asks what that framing has long obscured: that Cuba has never had just one embargo, but two.
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    Afghan Music Under Threat: The Struggle to Preserve a Culture in Pakistan
    Rida Khan 9 August 2024
    Located in the densely populated Afghan residences of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, is a music center where Afghan art and culture come to life. This center is part of a community hub for Afghan refugees and their host families in Karachi. The music room is spacious enough to accommodate a group of twenty people with musical instruments shelved carefully in the corner. The music students sit solemnly on the carpeted floor, some of them playing the tabla while the others play the sitar, creating music that is a fusion of Pakistani and Afghan cultures.
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    Bangladesh’s New Era: Muhammad Yunus Leads Transitional Government Post-Hasina
    Maria Tavernini 9 August 2024
    On August 5, after weeks of deadly anti-government protests that rocked the Asian country and killed over 300 people, PM Hasina, 76, was forced to step down and has fled the country “for her own safety,” ending more than two decades at the helm of the country. It is a watershed moment for Bangladesh, whose people – and most remarkably young people with no political affiliation – have managed to oust what was widely perceived as an authoritarian leader whose brutal policies disenfranchised many citizens during her long rule.
  • Rebuilding Iraq Amid Regional and Domestic Crises
    Ilaria Romano 7 August 2024
    Since the end of the war of liberation against ISIS in 2017, Iraq has experienced a situation of relative stability, meaning the absence of open conflict, regularly undermined by internal and regional crises. Involved in the tensions between Iran and Israel since the beginning of the war in Gaza, due to the ties of Iraqi Shiite militias with Tehran, the country has also worsened its relations with the United States, which still maintains military outposts on its territory
  • Chinese-English Communication Risks: Can We Bridge the Semantic Gap?
    Seán Golden 5 August 2024
    Cultural plurality is the playing field of international affairs. Ignoring this fact runs the risk of continuous communication failure. Concepts and the terms used to express them have connotations that are rooted in their native context. Often there are cultural equivalents in other cultural contexts that share these connotations. But often enough, the equivalents do not exist, or the connotations do not coincide.
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    Hezbollah’s Gaza War Stance Deepens Divides in Lebanon
    Vanessa Breidy 31 July 2024
    Twenty-four hours after Israel’s declaration of war following October 7, 2023, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hasan Nasrallah announced a “war of support for Gaza” from South Lebanon. This declaration was made solely by the political armed party Hezbollah, not the Lebanese government, thus constituting a clear violation of Lebanese state sovereignty and the rule of law. This breach has elicited varied reactions from Lebanese parties, with some Christian parties declaring the inevitability of political system reform and emphasizing the necessity of opening up the debate as soon as the war ends.
  • Is Labour’s Victory in the UK a Turning Point After the Long Neoliberal Season?
    Seán Golden 26 July 2024
    Labour’s victory might be seen as the final rejection of the revolution begun in the 1980s by Margaret Thatcher in the UK and by Ronald Reagan in the US, loyal followers of the theories of Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. The immediacy of current affairs impedes historical hindsight, but many of the problems that led to the Tories’ demise and brought Labour back to power have their roots in Neoliberalism. Today the social, economic, and political models that evolved from classical liberalism have entered into crisis.
  • Kamala Harris’s Brat Summer
    Sofia de Benedictis 25 July 2024
    Corners of the internet collided this week as Kamala Harris’s campaign to be the Democratic nominee for president took off. The sometimes incomprehensible absurdity that makes virality blew new air into what was turning into an uninspiring electoral season. Kamala’s folksy, unscripted comments regarding “the context” and coconut trees have propelled her into the arms of Gen Z voters.
  • Biden’s Move Follows Tradition of Selfless Leadership
    Hussein Ibish 23 July 2024
    Political heroism is typically framed in terms of the acquisition and retention of power. But the US has a long tradition of celebrating, even venerating, those who have voluntarily given up power to promote the general welfare. President Joe Biden – who announced on Sunday that, in the interests of the party and the country, he is surrendering the Democratic presidential nomination, which he has earned in the primaries and fully controls – is the latest heir to that noble tradition.
  • Rohingya Refugees Facing Exclusion and Deportation
    with India’s Citizenship Amendment Act
    Kristina Kironska 12 July 2024
    The Rohingya have been forcibly displaced throughout Asia, including India, with repatriation to Myanmar deemed impossible. How are they being treated in India, a country lacking refugee laws and international commitments? According to Indian laws and the policies of the current BJP-led government, they are viewed as “aliens” who pose a security threat and are excluded by the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act. Do Indians endorse this view?
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