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The Final Axis: North Korea and Nonproliferation Negotiations

06.29.16

BY DIANA PARK On 6 January 2016, North Korean state media broadcast that it was now “a powerful nuclear weapons state ready to detonate [a] self-reliant A-bomb [atomic weapon] and H-bomb [hydrogen, or thermonuclear, weapon] to reliably defend its sovereignty and the dignity of the nation.”[i] Even though initial seismic readings from US intelligence agencies […]

International Relations and Security

Nastiness Toward “Leave” Voters Isn’t Going to Reverse Brexit

06.27.16

BY NYASHA WEINBERG At 3 a.m. on June 24, I lay awake stunned. Results came pouring in confirming that the debunked polls of the previous week were right, and the markets were wrong. The UK was leaving the EU. Alienated voters had let out a collective “roar of rage,” turning their back on Europe and […]

Democracy and Governance

Brexit happened because politicians were not listening

06.24.16

BY PATRICK WHITE Last night as I sat watching the results come in from around the UK on the Brexit referendum, anxiety slowly turned to anger as the votes for leaving the European Union began to pull away from the votes to remain. That anger was not primarily directed at the growing Brexit vote tally. Instead it was directed at the […]

Democracy and Governance

Fear and Loathing on the Brexit Campaign Trail

06.23.16

BY CHARLIE SAMUDA Back in 2013, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, bowing to pressure from within his own party, announced plans to hold a vote on Britain’s membership of the European Union (EU). The short-term consequence has been an emotional and often ugly campaign, which comes to an end today—voting closes in just a few […]

Democracy and Governance

The Dirty World of Ranking Cities

06.22.16

BY SAM SALKIN Cities differ vastly from one another. That’s probably too obvious of a statement. During the summer of 2015, I worked for a non-profit consulting firm advising cities around the world on how to solve the nasty issues plaguing their citizen’s quality of life. One of our clients, a major European city, came […]

The Poor Quality of Debate Over Brexit Reveals A Failure of Political Leadership

06.21.16

BY PATRICK WHITE On Thursday June 23 voters in the United Kingdom will finally vote on Brexit—whether the United Kingdom should leave or remain a member of the European Union. The campaign has come a very long way since Prime Minister David Cameron was forced to include a referendum pledge in the Conservative Party manifesto for the […]

Politics

Interview with Dr. Houchang Chehabi: Environmental and Water Issues in Iran

06.20.16

Dr. Houchang Chehabi, PhD, is a leading expert in Iranian studies at The Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University where he is Professor of International Relations and History. Houchang Chehabi has taught at Harvard and has been a visiting professor at the University of St. Andrews, UCLA, and the Universidad Argentina […]

Environment and Energy

The Promise of Magdoos: A Sliver of Hope in the Syrian Refugee Crisis

06.20.16

BY MERISSA KHURMA, PANGYRUS This article is being published in collaboration with Pangyrus. A Jordanian woman in the Northeastern city of Mafraq had been nagging her husband for weeks to take her to the Za’atari refugee camp. Her request was a simple one, Magdoos, baby eggplants stuffed with walnuts and sun-dried red peppers and pickled […]

The Time Is Ripe for Public-Private Partnerships in Central Asia

06.17.16

BY FUAD HUSEYNOV The World Bank estimates the current demand for infrastructure investment in emerging and developing countries at above $1 trillion a year as of 2015. Meanwhile, the Asian Development Bank estimates a need for almost $169 billion in Central Asia alone from 2010-2020, of which $92 billion is needed for the development of […]

Development and Economic Growth

TRIAL1 Checklist: Six criteria to consider before your first nudge experiment

06.16.16

BY ROBERT REYNOLDS Nudging—the application of behavioral insights to public policy interventions—is among today’s fastest growing public policy fields. In the last few years, organizations from the White House to Google to the World Bank have launched behavioral science teams tasked with running randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that identify powerful nudges. During this time, Kennedy […]

Science, Technology and Data

Is the Battle for Fallujah a Battle Against Fallujah?

06.15.16

Fallujah, located 40 miles west of Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, has long been known as the “city of mosques.” But since its capture by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Shia militias fighting to take the predominantly Sunni city have bestowed other epithets on Fallujah. One militia leader compared it to a “tumor” […]

International Relations and Security
The ancient Greek philosopher Plato argued that in order for a democratic society to function properly, the wealthiest members should never be more than five times as rich as its poorest. Yet, in modern America, CEOs and other elites can earn up to 600 times the wages of their lowest-paid employees. Responding to this disparity, a small but growing number of laborers are forgoing work in traditional businesses and investing in an alternative model: the worker cooperative.

Worker Cooperatives: A Bipartisan Solution to America’s Growing Income Inequality

06.15.16

BY BENJAMIN GILLIES This piece appeared in our 2016 print journal. You can order your copy here. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato argued that in order for a democratic society to function properly, the wealthiest members should never be more than five times as rich as its poorest.[i] Yet, in modern America, CEOs and other elites […]

Education, Training and Labor

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