By Alexander Koch, Chris Brierley, Mark Maslin and Simon Lewis | – While Europe was in the early days of the Renaissance, there were empires in the Americas sustaining more than 60m people. But the first European contact in 1492 brought diseases to the Americas which devastated the native population and the resultant collapse of […]
How Will Generations that didn’t Experience the Holocaust Remember it?
By Timothy Langille | – The Soviet Red Army liberated the most notorious of the Nazi death camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau, on Jan. 27, 1945. This year, the United Nations and 39 countries will commemorate that date with International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This date acknowledges the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. But, as a Jewish studies […]
Health, Poverty, Conflict in Charts: Is the World Better off Today than ever before in History?
By Julius Probst | – Swedish academic Hans Rosling has identified a worrying trend: not only do many people across advanced economies have no idea that the world is becoming a much better place, but they actually even think the opposite. This is no wonder, when the news focuses on reporting catastrophes, terrorist attacks, wars […]
The More Women in Government, the Healthier the Population
By Carles Muntaner< | - In November 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formed the first gender-balanced cabinet in Canadian history. In announcing his cabinet, he ensured that half of his closest advisers (15 out of a total of 30) were women. Canada’s gender-equal cabinet vaulted the country from 20th to fifth place in the world […]
If Trump declares an Emergency, Can Congress or Courts Strike it Down?
By Chris Edelson | – If President Donald Trump declares a national emergency to fund some portion of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border without congressional authorization, what would happen next? Would the courts step in? What is Congress’ role? As I explain in my book “Emergency Presidential Power,” presidents generally claim emergency power two […]
No, Trump is not like Obama on Middle East policy
By James L. Gelvin | – (The Conversation) – On Jan. 6, National Security Advisor John Bolton walked back President Donald Trump’s announcement that the U.S. would quickly withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, saying that such a withdrawal might actually take months or years. Trump’s announcement came more than two weeks earlier. Soon after, Trump […]
How will Trump’s Withdrawal from Syria Affect the Turkish-Kurdish Conflict?
By Dilan Okcuoglu | – Donald Trump’s unilateral decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria is likely to help ISIS adopt a new strategy and expand its territorial control while at the same time continuing its execution of unarmed civilians. The move also means Trump has stabbed in the back his most successful military partner, […]
A New Space Race? China First to Land on Far Side of Moon
By Wendy Whitman Cobb | – China became the third country to land a probe on the Moon on Jan. 2. But, more importantly, it became the first to do so on the far side of the moon, often called the dark side. The ability to land on the far side of the moon is […]
Can Online anti-Muslim Hate Speech be Combated? There’s an App for that
By Bertie Vidgen and Taha Yasseri | – In a landmark move, a group of MPs recently published a working definition of the term Islamophobia. They defined it as “rooted in racism”, and as “a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness”. In our latest working paper, we wanted to better […]








