By Dan Kent When looking at a map of Central Asia, one attribute immediately stands out: it is a tangled assortment of enclaves, exclaves, and jagged borders. Central Asia, a region of 76 million people living across five nations, can trace these convoluted borders to their long history as Soviet…

By Colin Wolfgang September 1945 signaled the end of the deadliest war in history and ushered in a Western world order. The collapse of the Soviet Union decades later resulted in numerous political scientists positing on “the end of history” and what the future might hold. However, once again, the…

By Dan Kent As the Russian-Ukraine crisis continues to roil unabated, it is worth considering the broader array of crises that have characterized much of the post-Soviet world. Contention over borders and spheres of influence regarding Russia is hardly new. One of the most recent examples comes from Georgia in…

By Dan Kent It is well-known that most modern nation-state borders were drawn relatively recently, resulting from the aftermath of World War II and the decline of European colonization worldwide. However, what is less well-known is the broad extent to which these borders are today, in many places, still deeply…

By Jasmine Choi In December 2021, South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced South Korea and North Korea’s agreement to officially end the Korean War “in principle,” a decision endorsed by the United States and China. The 70 year-long Korean War ended in July 1953 with an armistice. However, the two…

By Marta Millar In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought global travel to a halt, including almost all educational exchange programs. While the Trump administration implemented policies like visa restrictions and travel bans, which further reduced the incoming flow of international scholars to the United States, other countries, like Germany…

By Molly Henry With the Internet being the world’s key platform for communication and social organization, existing conflicts between democratic and authoritarian governments now extend to questions of internet governance and users’ rights. …

By Colin Wolfgang The United States has long been a bastion of democracy, with smooth transitions of power and an adequately representative voting system. For centuries we have cast our ballots, believing that we are the ones who decide our mayors, our congresspeople, our senators, and our commander in chief. …

By Benjamin P. Beames Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) affect the nation’s foreign policy by offering a selective account of the nation’s history. By reviving a consciousness of empire, the Turkish government is effectively masking their foreign policies behind a veneer of revisionism. …