International Relations Review, Spring 2018 by The International Relations Review

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The Last Breakaway Movements of Dead Empires Shrinking Ice and Diplomatic Rifts ISIS: A Sustaining Nightmare

The Climate Crisis Issue SPRING 2018

The International Relations Review

CONTENTS 3 Diplomacy

Health & 19 Environment 33 Development 42 Exclusive Interview: Danish Ambassador Lars Gert Lose

45 Security 62 Book Review & Editorials

Spring 2018

Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Note

This spring, we are so proud to be celebrating the 20th installment of the International Relations Review. Since 2009, this journal has grown from 8 to 72 pages, 5 to 20 articles, and to a readership that extends across and beyond Boston. We are so excited to see where it goes next. Since the beginning, we have committed to addressing the issues that impact our world most, and with our 20th issue, we are taking a stand on the fact that climate change is one of them. It is time to take responsibility: time to stop debating whether manmade climate change is real and start to debate how each of us can contribute to a solution. Climate change manifests not only as an environmental degrader but a security threat, a roadblock to development, and a challenge that diplomacy has yet to effectively tackle. We hope that by the time we publish our 40th issue, global discourse will be different and solutions will exit. In the meantime, we challenge you to get the conversation started.

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DIPLOMACY

Spring 2018

The Last Breakaway Movements of Dead Empires by Anna Ellis

Like an Antelope in the Headlights by Christopher Brown

The Roots of “Swixit” by Desmond Molloy

Tension in Tehran by Samira Jafar

Photo by Michael Yang

The International Relations Review Photo by Meaghan Delaney

Cyprus to Catalonia:

The Lead-Up to the Last Breakaway Movements of Dead Empires By Anna Maeve Ellis, CAS ‘20

“The history book on the shelf is always repeating itself.” Waterloo by Abba, 1974 ABBA wrote their first place, hit single Waterloo for Eurovision in 1974, the same year that the illegal Cypriot referendums of 1950 finally came to a head in a coup d’etat. This began a rocky road to both the country’s eventual independence and its decades long partition along ethnic lines. That a song describing inevitable defeat peaked in popularity as Cyprus met its own inevitable turning point was, of course, a coincidence. History again repeats itself as Catalonian referendums are splashed across the news media and fiercely debated on every level. Dead empires unravel at different rates, but ultimately the patterns are similar, with the last breakaway movements influenced primarily by two factors: ethnic tensions and economic benefits of secession. In both Cyprus and Spain, a careful consideration of past conflicts and current economic

realities can help predict political responses and prepare for the quickly evolving future. Breakaway movements are defined as movements for independence or self-determination in a territory that is claimed by another country. The dead empires referred to are the Spanish Empire as well as the Ottoman Empire. Both of these have left legacies which extend into modern day. Although Spanish and Turkish reign is now confined to their national borders, these borders have been and still are fiercely debated. Bernhard Zand of Der Spiegel wrote of the fall of the Ottoman Empire (1285-1923), “The states that were founded in the region after 1914, and the borders that were drawn then, are still seen as illegitimate by many of their own citizens and by their neighbors”. While the Ottoman Empire was technically dismembered by the

Treaty of Lausanne, it had fallen apart much earlier during Armistice at the end of World War One. The very nature of its regional colonization with arbitrary delineation of state and province boundaries, coupled with its societal religious divisions, created the roots of many conflicts we see today in the footprint of this dead empire. This is one aspect of the multifaceted legacy of the Ottoman Empire, which extended to the 1974 situation in Cyprus as well as the present day TurkishKurdish conflicts. Although Spain’s colonial acquisitions dispersed more gradually, as opposed to collapsing at the end of a global conflict, it still left scorch marks. The outer limits of the Spanish Empire can be dated to its birth in 1492, with the “discovery” of the New World, and its fall in 1968, as defined by the Oxford University Press. However,

Spring 2018

6 Photo by Anastasia Kukonova

the Spanish Empire could have been mortally wounded as early as 1898 with American victory during the Spanish American War. The Salt Lake Herald famously proclaimed “The Spirit of Balaklava was shown by the Rough Riders at San Juan”, and boasted that the entire Spanish fleet was crippled or destroyed by Admiral Sampson. The invocation of Balaklava was alluding to a bitter war fought between the Ottoman Empire, France, Great Britain, and Russia over Russia’s access to the Mediterranean via the Straits of Constantinople, the Ottoman Empire’s capital. After the conclusion of the Spanish-American war, the following peace process was humiliating to the Spanish as they ceded their territorial rights to Cuba and the Philippines. By 1968, Spain was tenuously clinging on to Spanish Guinea, which became Equatorial Guinea. Both France and Spain had already been forced to give up their colonial holdings in Morocco as early as 1956. Although these empires are no longer deemed alive by the international historical community, it has been argued that Spain’s last holdings in Ceuta and Melilla on the coast of Morocco are

imperialist in nature. The conflict, referendum, and resolution in Cyprus in 1974 and the current situation in Catalonia are some of the lingering remnants of the consequences of Ottoman and Spanish imperialism. While the Cypriot situation in 1974 has its direct roots in its colonization by the Ottoman Empire, it was majority Greek by ethnicity (80%) and had been under varying degrees of British control since 1878. The British held on tightly to Cyprus. A long standing theory is that Cyprus was the best listening post in the region, due to a large British Intelligence (MI6) base there, and thus, Great Britain was loathe to surrender Cyprus. A more recent theory, however vehemently denied by No. 10 Downing St., is that Great Britain had begun creating a nuclear arsenal at its Royal Air Force base in Akrotiri. At any rate, Cyprus was caught in the middle of a precarious balance - both Turkey and Greece claimed Cyprus as their own, citing irredenta or a historical claim to the island, as did Great Britain, which was heavily invested in Cyprus for its own national security.

The Greek Resistance is a blanket term for a prolificacy of organizations which had arisen during the Nazi Occupation of Greece, and continued to be politically active under various banners through the Three Colonels military dictatorship which began with a coup d’etat in 1967. These groups had been active in Cyprus as well. They called the movement to reunify Greece and Cyprus the ENOSIS (unity) movement. In 1950, pro-ENOSIS leaders in Cyprus organized an illegal, unofficial referendum to poll the public on the direction of Cypriot independence from Great Britain. This movement was sponsored by Archbishop Makarios III, the Greek Orthodox leader on the island. As a result, only Greek Cypriots were privy to the vote, which was conducted in Orthodox churches all over the island. Citing this 1950 referendum, which excluded 20% of the Cypriot population, the movement pushed for the reunification with Greece and reached out to the Greek dictatorship for help. Makarios was able to escape and eventually deliver a speech concerning the plight of Cyprus

7 to the United Nations in New York City. Meanwhile, Turkey and Greece sent military detachments to the island to exert influence and control. Due to Greek corruption and inefficiency, the Greeks found themselves unarmed. This fiasco saw the collapse of the Greek military regime, as well as the partition of Cyprus into Northern Cyprus, a de facto nation of Turkish Cypriots, and the Republic of Cyprus, the internationally recognised (de jure) nation of Greek Cypriots which is a member of the UN and the European Union. All of this could have been a large international conflict between all NATO members against the backdrop of the Cold War. A cursory study of the twenty-four year incubation period of Cypriot unrest between the 1950 ENOSIS referendum and the 1974 failed coup d’etat exposes the roots of the conflict: economic motivations and ethno-nationalistic movements. While roots of the ethnonationalist tensions in Catalonia can be traced back to several points in Spanish-Catalan history, the most recent roots of Catalan separatism can be dated to 1933 and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. The rise of the Nationalist guerrillas was fiercely condemned

The International Relations Review by local Catalan leaders, who lent their support to the Republic. Catalan separatist movement holds economic roots as well. Following the death of Francisco Franco in 1975, Spain cast off its shackles and became a more active participant in the international community while dissociating itself from its imperial past. Spain joined the European Union in 1986, the Schengen Area in 1995, and adopted the Euro in 1999. It even granted Catalonia provisional regional autonomy in 1977. Spain needed to adopt many policies and programs as a prerequisite to joining the European Union, such as a commitment to democratic proceedings and integration with European markets, and was required to undergo many austerity measures and financial restructuring programs before qualifying for Euro membership via the Maastricht criteria. Once Spain began using the Euro as its currency, investors saw Spain’s markets and industries in a different light. Spain was a country with low levels of industry and a low real GDP per capita, but it was not experiencing large levels of public or private debt, “displaying the deep-seated aversion to debt that recent memories of poverty engender”.

Lenders in more affluent European Union nations were able to take advantage of the newfound confidence in the Euro to promote higher and higher levels of borrowing loans at the individual and government level. This came to a head in 2008, when the American economy went sharply into recession following the collapse of the housing bubble. Unlike the United States, which only generated 4% of its GDP in the housing market, the housing market in Spain comprised 9% of their GDP, leading to hundreds of unfinished construction projects. Because the European Central Bank, the Bundesbank, and many other European giants had invested a lot of money in American assets, one by one these banks began to fail. Ben Bernanke, the chair of the US Federal Reserve, later remarked that ““international capital flows likely played a significant role in helping to finance the housing bubble and thus set the stage for its subsequent bust”. Yanis Varoufakis says of the international panic: “Parliamentarians in European nations were told in no uncertain terms: cough up ridiculous sums for the banks or the world as you know it comes to an end”. This meant that Spain needed to double down

Spring 2018 on austerity measures and accept much needed loans -- and pay them back at hefty interest rates. This did not sit well in Catalonia. As the BBC succinctly reported in 2017, “Many Catalans believe their affluent region pays more to Madrid than it gets back, and blame much of Spain’s 2008 debt crisis on the central government.” Although it accounts for only 6.3% of Spain’s land area, Catalonia also accounts for more than ¼ of foreign investment in Spain and of Spain’s total GDP. Catalonia had begun inching away from Madrid as early as 2006, when their autonomy statute was revised to refer to Catalonia as a nation, rather than an autonomous region. Although informal referenda and separatist agreements were made in various Catalan cities in 2009 following the financial crisis, these were not official -until in 2014, the Catalan Regional President, Artur Mas, called for the first separatist referendum which yielded 80% support for Catalan independence. It is worth noting that only 32% of the electorate turned out for the vote. On October 1st, 2017, the Catalan Regional Government, led by Carles Puigdemont, held an illegal referendum for Catalan independence, which had a 42%

8 22 turnout, with 90% voting for independence. Many Spanish central government loyalists declined to vote at all, as this lent legitimacy to the movement. This referendum was strongly condemned by Madrid, and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy denounced them, saying it “didn’t happen”. In a move which seems to hark back to the days of Francisco Franco, Spanish national police cracked down on the illegal referendum, closing down polling stations, striking civilians with batons, and firing rubber bullets into crowds. In a statement following an independent investigation, the Human Rights Watch reported that “Spanish police engaged in excessive force when confronting demonstrators in Catalonia during the disputed referendum”. The now exiled Carles Puigdemont gave a speech from Brussels in which he stated that he had “offered to suspend the declaration of independence to promote dialogue, but this was rejected… The Spanish government only confronted this problem with oppression”. In Spain, the movement towards separation is still in its early stages. Will there be a twenty year incubation period between an illegal referendum and explosive

national conflict, like in Cyprus, where decades later their troubles remain far from over? Even today Cyprus appears to be struggling to recover from the mistakes of its past. Most recently, reunification talks were derailed in 2017 when Greek Cypriot lawmakers voted to commemorate the 1950 ENOSIS referendum as a holiday to be celebrated in schools. Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Nicos Anastasiades and Mustafa Akinci, were engaging in talks over the reunification of Cyprus when Akinci broke off negotiations, declaring that this “vote was ill timed, wrong, and meaningless”. Present day politicians and leaders would be well to look at the past to prevent future conflicts, as could have been done recently in Cyprus with the doomed vote on the commemoration of the ENOSIS movement. Settled in the footprints of dead empires, the last, lingering remnants of imperial conflict simmer on. Cyprus and Spain are plagued with economic woes and ethnic tension to this day and must proceed carefully to avoid escalation of these crises.

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Spring 2018

Like an Antelope in the Headlights? By Christopher Brown, CAS ‘20

Africa has often been viewed as an object in international relations: an object subjected to a tenebrous slave trade, years of being carved up and controlled by various foreign powers, and now, according to Foreign Policy’s John Campbell, the Council on Foreign Relations’ Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies a terrain from which the Trump Administration will conduct a “Dangerous Retreat”. The new Trump budget has severely cut aid to the continent through USAID cuts and a probable reduction or reversal of Obama’s Power Africa plan. Meanwhile the decolonizing power of France, as a result of its newfound importance in the international scene and moreover in Europe, has been forced into a corner in terms of its defence budget and interventionary policy, facing bureaucratic conflict between President Macron and his generals. These changes in interest constitute a pivot of the west away from Africa, with Macron focusing on advancing Europe while Trump occupies himself with his own national interest. While Campbell may claim that “other countries are already filling the void” in Africa, perhaps the true heart of Africa should no longer be viewed as devoid of its own

policymaking and potential to unify against foreign actors. Much unlike Campbell’s analysis, this paper will view Africa in terms of its own actors, beyond the scope of western involvement, and their potential to transition from a decline in western interests to the formation of its own policy. It begins with a careful examination of the capacity of the AU to grow in areas where foreign interest may soon recede. It then observes changes in the political climate of the key countries that partake in the debate over Africa’s function, and how those changes may shape the future of the African Union. In the absence of a reallife Wakandan kingdom, placing African interests all in the same basket seems difficult. For a decade and a half now, the AU has tried to unite intellectual resources to achieve a new layer of governance in Africa. In some areas, the Union’s actions have clear foreign policy consequences, and are relevant to the conversation about African stability as a whole. For example, this year kicked off with Moussa Faki, the AU Commission’s president, calling for AU sanctions against South Sudan. His stance could impact South Sudan more than indirect arrangements proposed

by the United States or in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA); regions and geography can be key to trade. Sanctions imposed by all African countries could potentially inhibit South Sudan’s exporting of agricultural products in the future; products which are less likely to be imported further abroad, by Security Council members or other UNGA states. Moreover, it signals globally that the AU adheres to a set of values that may involve enforcing multilateral governance, even without pressure or insight from foreign states, such as the United States. Shaping a universal set of policies for the advancement of the AU, in spite of Faki’s universalist signaling, remains one of the greatest challenges the AU faces. The conversation about the AU’s role as a multi-state actor began with Libyan Col. Khadafi’s proposition that the AU be formed in the first place. Similar to the fragmented politics which historically surrounded the creation of the European Union, two conflicting standpoints on the role of the AU in the future of Africa: gradualists and immediatists (also referred to as unionists). Gradual unionists from Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa, and a host of other states from Africa’s south all

“Shaping a universal set of policies for the advancement of the AU, in spite of Faki’s universalist signaling, remains one of the greatest challenges the AU faces.” Photo by Josh Smith-Sreen

11 believe that the Union’s formation should be the product of a more gradual process of implementation. Meanwhile, Senegal, Libya, Mali, and a grouping of the former French colonies which comprise Africa’s west all advocate for the immediate implementation of policies favoring the advancement of an African Project. Debates along these lines are essential to the development of the AU, as they provide a timeframe for its consolidation of an identity. Meanwhile, the states listed, and their interests and changes in leadership have the potential to impact the balance between the two political camps on unification. Thus far, the trend towards unification has been slow. In Vers un gouvernement de l’Union africaine ? (Towards a Government of the African Union), Lecoutre Delphine describes some of the details of past debates regarding the consolidation of the AU, and outlines some of the roadblocks within African politics which inhibit the AU’s success. Up until 2008, the gradualists had become reasonably successful at gathering political support, whereas the immediatists only held their ground by boycotting several AU conventions where their chances for success seemed unfavorable. This trend continued in the years after Lecoutre’s piece was written, when both leaders of immediate unionism were ousted, with Senegal’s Abdoulaye Wade losing to contender Macky Sall, and Libya failing as a state altogether. At the same time, other changes in the growth and capacity of states across Africa have the potential to upset

The International Relations Review this pattern. Kenya currently has to contend with the divisive aftermath of a botched election in the midst of economic stagnation. Uhuru Kenyatta’s, when elected, secured a vast majority over a low voter participation rate. This has allowed Raila Odinga, his main opponent, to challenge the legitimacy of his election to continue rallying opposition support, even “symbolically” swearing himself in as president this January. Odinga’s opposition has brought about a rapid crackdown within Kenyatta’s state, which reduces the quality of Kenya’s democracy. On one level, this change in Kenya’s democracy has a huge impact on the politics of African unification. Now, a major player in East Africa and a key member of the gradualist voting bloc has lost its legitimacy and democracy. This change, compounded with the abrupt of Jacob Zuma’s presidency in South Africa, could empower the leadership among immediatists to take a stronger stand for unification. The volatility of state status could lead to multilateral political changes just as Trump’s election impacted trust in NATO, or Brexit shall reshape politics within the European Union. On another level, Kenya’s struggle represents a common theme in African democracies, where democracy fails due to the nature of its implementation, and the traditions of the state that adopts it. This opinion, however, is not explained at the pan-african level, where other actors have, in

the past, intervened to maintain democracy. To build upon the points made in this article, that “One size of democracy does not necessarily fit all”, perhaps the problems with Kenya’s democracy cannot be resolved by democracy, itself. Senegal, West Africa’s rising star, and one of the key leaders for immediate unification, has served as a remarkable example for stability and set numerous precedents as an African watchdog state. The loss of Abdoulaye Wade in 2012, though it removed one of the faces of immediatism, served to replenish the Senegalese spirit of democracy. His replacement, Macky Sall, gained much of his popularity through a grassroots rap movement aimed at replacing Wade, known as Y’en a marre, or “Fed Up”. The election itself was run alongside one of the more advanced verification campaigns of recent years, and the result proved the capacity of voters to form a bulwark against Wade’s attempt at an unconstitutional third term. In the wake of this power shift, Senegal has only grown stronger and more capable. After numerous reforms, Senegal finds itself in a favourable economic position, with one of the highest rates of GDP (PPP) growth on the continent. This growth has Senegal approaching “middleincome state” status, and reinforces the Economic Community of WestAfrican States (ECOWAS). The success of an economic community within Africa validates the idea that African unification can be profitable, and resolves some of

Spring 2018 the political tensions that Lecoutre claims would prevent unification in Africa. Lecoutre sees one of these roadblocks as the necessity to demonstrate what the AU is capable of even before its framework is fully developed. Senegal’s success is the product of good governance and international partnerships, and an empowered ECOWAS could encourage other blocs in the AU to participate in similar goal-setting initiatives. Senegal’s resilience as a democracy has also directly impacted other AU members. Last year, Senegalese forces led an ECOWAS intervention in the Gambia after acting president Yahya Jammeh refused to step down. After months of tension, Jammeh ultimately folded, and the Gambia finds itself in a new era of increased freedom. Thus far, Senegal’s demonstrable interventionary leadership is a success story for one of the regional organizations operating under AU principles, and sets a standard for intervention by African states. Senegal’s growing role in African governance has also manifested itself through international law organs. In August of 2012, the AU Commission established a tribunal based in Senegal which would have jurisdiction over a case of rights violations in Chad in the 1980s and 90s. Though this commission was formed around a unique case, that of war criminal Hissène Habré, it has set multiple precedents for African Union law. Furthermore, it serves to respond to the past misuse

12 of universal jurisdiction by the European Union and International Criminal Court, which many African countries have found themselves united against in the past. The decisions made at this time led to the creation of multiple African legal establishments within the appeals court in Senegal’s capital, Dakar. This laid the groundwork for the future of African law. Senegal’s improvement in these many areas strengthens the politics around immediate unification in a way that could fill the African policy “void” well before other states have the chance to interfere. Kenya’s struggle and Senegal’s rise in influence within the African sphere tell a story about the political conditions of the AU’s development, and show a path to ECOWAS’s success increasing the political capital behind unification. Lecoutre’s list of roadblocks is also cleared up in part by other changes in conditions on the African Continent. One key concern in regard to the AU’s potential to act as an ensemble in terms of foreign policy has been its goal setting and definitions. The AU, as of 2012, still had a vague definition of its own right to intervene within its own founding documents, despite this being one of the tasks required of it via responsibility to protect doctrine. If anything, the doctrine of the OAU was relatively heavyhanded in its interpretation of Sovereignty, in such a way that discourages R2P-related action, like in Rwanda. However, some changes

in the conditions of African security have changed this. The recent manifestation of terrorism in the Sahel forced the African Union’s hand. Last year, the AU formed its own 5-state counterterrorism force, meant to respond to the growth of transnational terrorist groups. If this task force succeeds, it has the potential to greatly sway public opinion on the AU’s capabilities and could bridge a gap mentioned by Lecoutre, where African States need to prove the viability of interstate governance before it is laid out across the AU. The AU’s past struggles in this area, particularly in the case of Rwanda, remain discouraging. Ultimately, the outcome of this conflict will play a key role in establishing the guidelines for R2P in a new era for the AU. Though the term “finding African solutions to African problems” may sound like an excerpt from a tweet made by Donald Trump, this happens to be one of the guiding principles of the African Union itself. The process of strengthening the AU will take a serious level commitment from stable actors within the AU, and this article shows how recent changes in the stability of African states may shape the overall dynamic of African unification, and how strong states like Senegal have pathways to fill the “void” left behind by the United States. To juxtapose as T’challah did in “Black Panther”, Africa did not yield, and as you can see, Africa is not dead. The challenge continues.

Photo by Derek Harknett

The Roots of “Swixit”

By Desmond Molloy, SAR ‘19

Photo by Cameron Barkan

The International Relations Review Never strong at the best of times, Switzerland’s relationship with the European Union took a turn for the worse this January. As long-running talks over formalizing trade and other agreements between Bern and Brussels threatened to collapse, other countries began to pressure European Commission (EC) regulators to reexamine Swiss firms’ access to European financial markets. And after a four-year respite, the perennial issue of immigration reared its head once more: the rightist Swiss People’s Party (SVP, from the German Schweizerische Volkspartei) endorsed a new referendum to end freedom of movement between the EU and Switzerland. Should it pass and be endorsed by the Federal Council (Switzerland’s parliament), the referendum would both force Switzerland out of the Schengen Zone of free travel and end its other deals with the EU, given that all EU nations have freedom of movement as a precondition. A similar referendum passed in 2014 went nowhere after the Federal Council watered it down in order to avoid a showdown with the EC. But the political climate has changed: immigration to Switzerland hit an all-time high early this year, and polls have shown that voters see migration as the secondmost important concern for the Federal Council to address (shortly behind healthcare). Switzerland’s fractious relationship with its neighbors is rooted in the country’s centuriesold commitment to pacifism. The Alpine country was able to avoid taking sides in either

World War, and missed out on the rapid social upheaval that characterized both the interwar period and the early days of the Cold War. As Tony Judt explained in his 2006 book Postwar, which chronicled Europe’s history from the “Year Zero” of 1945, Western Europe became a much younger, richer and more urban region in the postwar years. Social democratic parties rose to power, social mores were relaxed, and women’s rights improved across the region. This era also marked the birth of proto-EU institutions such as the European Coal and Steel Community, and eventually the European Economic Community. Politicians across the region saw regional integration as the best way to prevent a third World War. By contrast, Swiss leaders saw isolation and conservatism as the best strategies for selfpreservation and prosperity. Not everyone agreed. Switzerland is one of the most decentralized countries in Europe, if not the world; on paper, it remains a confederacy (Eidgenossenschaft) of independent cantons, and most governmental functions are carried out at the cantonal level. The cantons remain divided along linguistic and religious lines, which ripple over into politics; the French-speaking, Protestant cantons in the west are far more liberal than their German-speaking counterparts to the east, especially the Catholic German Waldstatten, or Forest Cantons, in the center of the country. This is partly a function of geography. Geneva, Vaud, Neuchatel and the other

Spring 2018 French cantons are low-lying areas with close economic and cultural ties to the Republic of France itself, while many German cantons are cut off from southern Germany by high mountains. And yet, even northern cantons, which lie close to the heavily urbanized state of Baden-Wurttemberg in Germany, are far more conservative than their French counterparts. Another factor may be language. While Swiss French has a few differences from Parisian French, the two languages are mutually comprehensible. Swiss German, on the other hand, is profoundly different from the “High German” (Hochdeutsch) spoken in Berlin or Bonn, varies by canton, and can be difficult for even German tourists to understand. While Swiss newspapers and national radio use High German, daily conversation and local radio use various Swiss German dialects. This ties into the country’s isolationist foreign policy; to inoculate its German-speaking population against National Socialism in the 1930s, Switzerland promoted the use of local German dialects and the celebration of local traditions (including direct democracy). In the age of the European Union, this approach has had ripple effects: German Switzerland is interestingly isolated from the most liberal, pro-European German canton, Basel-Stadt that directly borders the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg and has close cultural and economic ties to southern Germany. These fault lines were thrown into sharp relief in the 1960s, when women’s suffrage became a hotbutton political issue. Switzerland was the last country in Europe to adopt universal suffrage in federal elections, in 1971. Several cantons,

14 however, chose to give women the right to vote in cantonal elections much earlier. Most of the early adopters, were French- or Italian-speaking. The only exceptions were the most urbanized German cantons, including Basel-Stadt, Zurich and Luzern. By contrast, all of the late adopters - those that only added women’s suffrage after it was added at the federal level - were predominantly German, with Catholic Appenzell-Innerrhoden holding out until the early 1990s. The end of the women’s suffrage debate coincided with a dramatic shift in Switzerland’s relationship with the rapidly growing European Economic Community, the direct forerunner of the modern EU. As the EEC’s powers continued to expand, Swiss liberals were able to put membership on the national ballot in 1992. But concerns over Swiss traditions derailed their efforts. Many Swiss German voters voiced concerns over preserving the country’s direct democracy, which in some cantons requires that citizens vote by a show of hands. The vote broke down along familiar lines. Here, geography played more of a role than in the women’s suffrage vote; northern cantons abutting Germany were more favorable towards EEC membership, but overwhelming opposition in the rural east sank the cause. French cantons were heavily in favor of membership (over 70% in Geneva). More recently, Switzerland has been at the forefront of Europe’s recent surge in nativism. The late 1990s marked a sea change in Swiss politics; as the formerly moderate SVP was transformed into a far-right party, it became the most powerful single

political party in the country. Much like their conservative counterparts in the United States, SVP leaders focused on fears of Islamization. In 2009, two years before the Arab Spring would set off a wave of politically destabilizing migration towards Europe, the SVP joined forces with the smaller Federal Democratic Union (EidgenössischDemokratische Union or EDU in German) to put a ban on the construction of minarets (the towers built on top of many mosques) up for a referendum. It ultimately passed by 53%, once again dividing cantons along geographical and linguistic lines. With the exception of Basel-Stadt, French cantons were the only ones to vote against the ban ,even bilingual Fribourg approved of it. Despite refusing to join the EEC in 1992, Switzerland has found it impossible to remain cut off from the group, which surrounds it on all sides. Consequently, Bern has taken on many of the accoutrements of EU membership over the years. Swiss students receive the same discounts and tuition benefits as their EU counterparts if they choose to attend university in a member country. Switzerland has joined the Schengen zone, allowing passport-free travel to the EU albeit with some restrictions; border crossings remain functional, and your correspondent went through a random immigration check when returning from France last year. And EU citizens have the right to live and work in Switzerland, provided they receive a job offer before arriving. Together with the strong Swiss economy and high standards of living, this has made the Eidgenossenschaft a leading

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destination for immigrants. Early this year, the Federal Secretariat for Migration reported that 2.05 million of Switzerland’s 8.4 million inhabitants are migrants, with a record-breaking 53,000 people settling in the country in 2017 (Die SVP will….). Unsurprisingly, the SVP is staunchly opposed to increased migration. It introduced a referendum to end freedom of movement in 2014, which would have pulled apart all of Bern’s handshake agreements with Brussels. But despite passing, the referendum died in committee; the Federal Council watered it down to nothing when Brussels refused to budge. The referendum currently being circulated is almost identical. But this time, the Federal Council is unlikely to dismiss it as quickly. While the SVP was already focused on migration in 2014, the Swiss population was less concerned than it is today. Swiss voters currently list migration as the second-most important issue facing the country today, behind healthcare access. As the vote or lack thereof,

if the SVP fails to garner enough signatures approaches, French and German Switzerland have already begun to split over the question of migration. The French cantons rejected the previous migration referendum, but by a relatively narrow margin; even in Europhilic Geneva, more than 40% of residents voted in favor of ending freedom of movement. Consequently, the SVP (known as the UDC, or Union democratique du centre in French cantons) has stepped up its messaging effort in the west. But their approach is dramatically different. SVP/ UDC politicians appearing on the French national broadcaster, Radio Television Suisse (RTS) have spoken about the economic hardships caused by mass migration, citing Geneva’s increasing cost of living and crowding as reasons to reject freedom of movement (Le groupe PLR...). This is tailored to Swiss French concerns; in print media, the leading French-language daily newspaper, Le Matin (The Morning) often covers cost-of-living concerns in Geneva. By contrast, German

SVP representatives and Germanlanguage commentators focus on the cultural struggle between Islam and the West, and what they see as a clear and present danger to the Swiss way of life. A search for “islam” in Le Matin’s archives returns few results. The same search in Neue Zurcher Zeitung, the main daily paper for Zurich and German Switzerland that is purportedly a center-right, classically liberal publication, looks like a dive into Breitbart News. Oped pieces include warnings about the Swiss left’s complicity in creeping Islam (“Warum die Linke…”) and a broadside against politische Korrektheit (political correctness). Switzerland is a country of paradoxes. Its companies do business worldwide, and its politicians fulminate against corrupting outside values. Its students and workers cross borders into the EU with relative ease, and its citizenship laws are among the world’s most restrictive.

Spring 2018

Tension in Tehran:

How Iran’s New Government Protests Echo Old Issues By Samira Jafar, CAS ‘20

Photo by Sophie Engen Throughout Iran’s history, public protests have been a popular and effective method for bringing about much-desired political and change in public policy. Beginning in 1979 and becoming popularized once again in 2009, protests in Iran have long been responsible for new regimes. For this reason, the start of the New Year unexpectedly brought a myriad of civilian protests across different areas. Focusing mainly on too-conservative political policies and ineffective economic plans, these protests strongly resemble the 1979 government overthrow that managed to change Iran’s secular political trajectory completely through different motives, responses and impacts. Though they differ from one another in a variety of ways, they are similar in that the current protests also seem to be on the path to re-shape the Iranian government and raise questions about the country’s efforts towards hegemony and religious solidarity in the Middle East. The recent civilian protests began on December 28, 2017 in Mashhad and Tehran and spread to smaller villages and cities, such as Kahrizsang and Esfahan, where a police officer was killed in a gunfight. The first protest spiralled into chaos over the high price of eggs that is the result of significant inflation. By January 1, 2018, the protests were persisting and were inciting a violent response from Iranian police. According to a contributing professor at Boston University, who wishes to remain anonymous, despite this being a celebratory time

in Western countries, the New Year in Iran occurs on March 21, 2018 and is known as ‘Nowruz.’ For this reason, civilians eagerly took to the streets to voice their disapproval over government policies and President Hussein Rouhani’s regime. At the start of the protests, Rouhani urged civilians to stay home and avoid engaging in the violence, but evoked the Iranian Revolutionary Guards for defense. The tensions occurring at this period in Iran’s history share many common characteristics with the 1979 protests, but significant differences suggest that political change may be harder to achieve for Iranian civilians this time around. While the 1979 overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty was driven by a desire for more conservative government policies, current protests are more economic than political, spurred by a sense of dissatisfaction at high inflation and unemployment rates caused by a focus on the 2015 nuclear deal with the United States. According to a contributing BU Professor, the protests in 1979 were mainly caused by civilians who were frustrated with being religiously oppressed under Shah Pahlavi in his efforts to give Iran a secular political image; Pahlavi’s restrictions did not just apply to Muslim Iranians, but to all religions as well. This posed a big problem for Iranians, because for many, “Shi’ism has always remained a political ideology” as well as a religious one. Additionally, Ayatollah Khomeini’s proposed rule focused on creating political equality between city residents and

village dwellers. For these reasons, the civilians of the revolutionary 1979 period were focusing mainly on their political grievances rather than their economic ones. In contrast, the recent protests are driven by a mix of both factors, with a stronger focus on economics. Many blame Rouhani for the high unemployment rate, which has consistently been above ten percent for the past ten years. Simultaneously, Rouhani has also been accused of being a driving force behind the rising corruption among Iranian politicians. Many Iranians are questioning Rouhani’s reasoning behind sending aid to other countries in the Middle East while citizens in Iran are struggling economically. Rouhani’s lackadaisical response to the issues that have been plaguing Iranians since the before his rise to power is mainly due to his focus on finalizing the 2015 nuclear deal with the United States. While Rouhani promised that the lifting of sanctions against Iran would kickstart the economy, Iranians in the middle and lower classes have failed to see these statements manifest themselves. Additionally, these protests also differ in the harshness of the government responses to them and the actions taken against civilians. In 1979, civilians succeeded in bringing about the Islamist Revolution in Iran by overthrowing Shah Reza Pahlavi, resulting in Ayatollah’s Khomeini’s rise to power. This result was achieved because Pahlavi’s power was not nearly as iron-clad as Rouhani’s is today; while the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is currently

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following Rouhani’s orders, they declared that they would “‘remain neutral’ in disputes between the Shah’s regime and the nation” in 1979. Similarly, Pahlavi was put in a similar situation to Rouhani’s today in that he had little control over the negative that circulated against him in the media and in other societal groups, such as the religious Shi’ite Ulama in Iran. However, due to the more lenient policies and laws that were already in place at the time of his control, Pahlavi was less able to control the public backlash against him than Rouhani is today. The current Iranian regime seems more prepared for and less tolerant of any actions being taken against them, evidenced by the harsh response against protests taken by the Revolutionary Guard. So far, twenty-one people have been killed in the clashes between civilians and police officers and more than one thousand people have been imprisoned. Many of those imprisoned are being held in unofficial, unsanctioned prisons, sparking concerns over potential human rights violations that might possibly be carried out to send a strong message to the public. As of mid-January, protests have been fully halted, suggesting a temporary success on Rouhani’s behalf. The long term impacts of both events are both diverse and deeply significant. The 1979 Islamic Revolution paved the way for many of the Islamic policies in place today, instigating regime change and an emphasis on religious importance that Shah Reza Pahlavi tried to avoid. Some of these policies, such as the mandatory wearing of the hijab for women, were protested at the start of December in an effort to draw attention to the prioritization

Spring 2018

“Rouhani’s rising unpopularity and oppression of Iranian citizens poses a challenge to their appeals to Western powers and quest for hegemony in the region.” of religious policies over soughtafter political and economic ones. Many analysts argue that the events of 1979 made Iranians less tolerant of oppression, especially in middle and lower classes; events like the Black Friday protests during the 1979 revolution are what forced Pahlavi to make more concessions to his people at the time and what allowed for their voices to be heard during the Green Revolution of 2009. Despite these abundant differences, a source of similarity between these two events is the resentment on behalf of civilians over the political and economic “hypocrisy” of Iranian rulers. The growing idea of Rouhani as an ineffective and unconcerned leader has been popularized in much of the Iranian media, which tends to favor the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. However, even Khamenei himself has been criticized for failing to contribute any concrete solutions; protesters in the streets of Mashhar chanted “death to the dictator,” referencing the Supreme Leader. Despite this, much of Rouhani’s failures in the eyes of citizens have been promoted by pro-Khamenei religious hardliners who are upset at Rouhani’s “false promises” to the Iranian people. It has been argued that Rouhani’s image as a religious and pious leader is countered by his placement of international politics over the welfare of his citizens,

evidenced by the significance of the 2015 nuclear deal. Many felt the same disapproval towards international power moves when it came to Khomeini’s role in the Iranian Hostage Crisis; the scandal that accompanied it made Iranians question the authenticity of Khomeini’s image as a religious and moral authority figure. An anti-Iranian sentiment in international politics is what seems to be a link between the past and present with respect to Iran’s image in the long run. Though the Nuclear Deal of 2015 seemed to be finalized, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that if Rouhani continues to oppress his citizens, the U.S. might consider backing out of the deal. Similarly, during the rise of Khomeini’s regime, tensions with Western countries became worse for Iran. The Iran Hostage Crisis of 1979 to 1981 led to American hostility against Khomeini and also to rising disapproval against him on behalf of many Iranians. However, over the course of the next few years, we might actually see Iran adopt more Western and secular policies. Due to Rouhani’s current unpopularity, he is unlikely to be re-elected in the next cycle. Iranians will be placing a heavy emphasis on economic recovery and regime change over religious sentiments, seen not only through recent protests but also through protests earlier in December on behalf of

women against the mandatory hijab policy. While many hardliners are still against him, simultaneous dissatisfaction with the Supreme Leader may prevent the installment of any leader who places a heavy emphasis on religious policies. This is a definite change from the political goals expressed in 1979. Altogether, current political dissatisfaction in Iran is similar and different to the Islamist Movement in 1979 in motivations, results, and long-term impacts while still managing to be just as suggestive of Iran’s political future. Rouhani’s rising unpopularity and oppression of Iranian citizens poses a challenge to their appeals to Western powers and quest for hegemony in the region. This is due to tensions created with the U.S. over Rouhani’s harsh response, as well as the threat of Iran’s rivals, such as Saudi Arabia, taking advantage of Rouhani’s wavering support to strike against Iran. If Rouhani were to not be re-elected, it may well result in a more liberal turn in Iran’s politics, displayed by growing animosity towards hard-line religious policies that overshadow economic and political reform. More democratic policies, coupled with inevitable short-term instability, would ultimately make Iran more appealing to international powers in the long run while finally giving Iranians the reforms they so desire.

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HEALTH & ENVIRONMENT

Spring 2018

An Environmentally Better World For All by Aseel Althari

Hourglass: The Detriments of Sand Mining by Jordann Krouse

The Collateral Damage of the Mexico City Policy on Kenya by Alex Del Tufo

Shrinking Ice Exposes Growing Diplomatic Rifts by Rachel Petherbridge

Photo by Michael Yang

The International Relations Review

An Environmentally Better World for All The Case of Green Gas Emissions in the Content of the Paris Agreement and Energy Poverty Reduction By Aseel Alharthi, CAS ‘19

The Trump’s Administration has decided to authorize offshore oil and gas drilling in almost all United States coastal waters, creating criticism among governors of coastal states. This decision permits energy companies to open billions of acres in the Arctic and along the Eastern Seaboard. Not to mention, allowing access to lease off California shores for the first time in decades, since the Santa Barbara spill in 1969. This proposal lifts the ban on such drilling initially imposed by President Obama, a move made to strengthen his environmental legacy. Moreover, the Interior Department repealed regulations for hydraulic fracturing on federal and tribal lands. This decision depicts the administration on the side of the energy industry and against environmental groups. At least 15 governors of coastal states, one-third of them Republican, have publicly opposed Mr. Trump’s offshore drilling plan. Many of these governors are concerned with offshore exploration posing a serious threat environmentally and the potential effects on tourism. For instance, Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina, stated that drilling was a critical threat to his state’s economy. In addition, Virginia’s governor-elect, Ralph Northam, expressed to the Trump Administration that Virginia be excluded from the offshore drilling plan, fearing it would potentially endanger his state’s fishing industries and military installations. On the other hand, Shell has invested over $4 billion into buying undersea

leases and preparation for work in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. Shell claims that energy can be extracted safely, will cut foreign dependence and create thousands of jobs. With all the criticism and concerns, the possibility of the United States being a major oil producer could actually be a positive change for the United States in moving towards a more sustainable future through ‘clean’ energy competition and addressing many of the sustainable development goals. The debate lies among a complete transition from conventional sources of energy and looking for a transition to cleaner energy utilizing all sources, conventional and otherwise. Behind each of these groups are powerful policy makers and investors. With the complete transition from conventional sources of energy, there are two types of individuals that fit into this category: environmentalists who want to preserve the earth and those who are more interested in making income through the environment, not necessarily to help the environment. The environmentalists are individuals who believe in the natural life and want to preserve the Earth with very good intentions. However, there are some concerns regarding environmentalists neglecting the social and economic impacts of what they’re asking for. They want to live in a certain way, but they don’t take into account the reality of what they are asking and their impacts. In a sense, they want

an ideal world, but it can’t happen. It certainly can happen with time, but we also need to be reasonable now. The other group of individuals are renewables-based investors who are more concerned with expansion and market domination where they have technology and products that they want to sell, however, they are using the environment as pre-text. The other side of the argument is transition to cleaner energy utilizing all sources, conventional and otherwise: Fossil fuel-based investors (Coal, Oil and Gas Companies) favor preserving irreversible investments and market share. Investor’s like oil, coal and gas because they have invested so much money which is why its irreversible; trillions of dollars are invested and they don’t want to lose it if they go through a complete transition. A lot of people will lose their jobs. This includes people working in the oil, gas and coal industry, those who are working with cars and spare parts as well as many other second hand individuals. This job loss will create a huge global economic impact. Therefore, we need to preserve the use of oil, gas and coal as one source of energy, which the Paris agreement states regarding all eight emissions, not just carbon dioxide. Livestock, landfill, agriculture, energy and even renewable is not clean and will ultimately need to use coal or gas. How can you produce solar panel without using electricity? Is it coming from coal, oil or gas? This is a long term business which requires years and years in order for them to

Spring 2018

22 Photo by Darren Stanizzi

recover their invested capital. Moreover, there are proponents of universal access to energy. SE4ALL is an example with an initiative of cleaner, affordable, reliable and valuable sources of energy. They focus on what matters here: the utilization of all cleaner, affordable energy access for poor countries in order to be sustainable. For instance, solar panels are great, but when the sun goes down you don’t have it anymore, thus not benefitting from it fully. SE4ALL’s mission is a more realistic approach because it meets the climate change requirement since it is clean energy and supplies to all humankind with the emphasis of a world for all of society. One society cannot be better off than any other society. The path to this is technology because technology will bring job and prosperity to people. Technology is not limited to these companies whether its fossil fuel or renewable, it must be expanded to academia. Politically driven climate change negotiation will not result

into a better state of the world as each nation is focused on selfinterests rather than the interest of the society of the world. There should be an emphasis on human value above self interests of business as the former will result in the latter due to the importance of energy creating jobs and overall well being. According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development, energy services are a key point in eradicating poverty and ensuring food security. Today, 3 billion people rely on traditional biomass fuels (wood, charcoal and dung) as their principal source of energy for cooking and heating, and more than 1.6 billion people have no access to electricity. Tomasz Chruszczow, Poland’s top climate negotiator and 2018 UN climate champion, said a push to increase national pledges to stop the world warming more than 1.5 C should not be the focus for the world’s climate negotiators when they meet in the Polish city of Katowice in December, 2018. Instead, Chruszczow called for other

states to slow down and concentrate on agreeing on the rulebook for the Paris Agreement. He explicitly states an implementation process needs to be adopted as opposed to creating more policies that are solely driven by enthusiasm. Instead, he suggests for policy makers to be driven by responsible common sense through implementing processes to solve poverty eradication, combating hunger and security of energy supplies. Technology innovation can be a game changer and ultimately produce the greatest change while increasing economic growth. Scientists and entrepreneurs are working on technologies that they hope will improve in making carbon dioxide a profitable industry. Ethan Novek, a 19 year old founder of Innovator Energy, believes he can tackle the issue of climate change through his idea of capturing carbon and cleaning up fossil fuels. He believes his idea can capture over 90% of CO2 emitted by coal or natural gas power plants while

23 working at a cheaper price than other carbon capture technologies ($5-8 per ton of carbon dioxide). CO2 is released into the atmosphere due to the majority of energy being sourced by burning fossil fuels. Unless the act of burning fossil fuels can be cleaned up, it will be impossible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius at this rate. That is where Novek and many like him are in the business to ensure that does not happen, thus creating a more sustainable future. Furthermore, accurate data and academia engagements are crucial in understanding the core issue of climate change and other environmental problems. It

The International Relations Review is vital to understand and carefully interpret the Paris agreement about all eight gases and emissions not only carbon dioxide. The United States engagement in the Paris agreement is very important, since the United States holds great importance in the aris of the agreement. Trumpâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s decision for them to open coal and oil does not contradict the Paris agreement so long as technology is there to provide an energy in line with SE4Allâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mission of cleaner and affordable energy, while keeping in mind energy poverty. Furthermore, we can turn these eight gases into more valuable products. They can be utilized in reducing fuel. For instance, livestock waste can be

used as a source of electricity or cooking. They collect animal waste and store it in large cans in order to retrieve the gas out of it to produce electricity for cooking and other means. The rest of the waste can also be used as organic fertilizer. This way you can sell the electricity or use it to save money and sell the waste after you clean it from gas as fertilizer for cleaner and nice food, which creates value. The benefits of these proposed solutions yields a focus on one objective- sustainability of energy. Moreover, it will create an increase in planet wellbeing with cleaner energy regardless of the source. Furthermore, it creates

Spring 2018 economic gain with a competitive stance among energy companies for ‘cleaner’ energy. Most importantly, it will lead to an increase in human well-being with energy poverty eradication. Politically-free science, technology innovation and accurate data and academia engagements are solutions that can ultimately lead to a better world for all. There is a large range of nonregulatory methods in improving environmental progress through education, awareness, technology and innovation. With the help of organizations and governmental assistance, the reduction of energy poverty, while producing a better

24 world is achievable. In addition, more scientist and entrepreneurs continuing in research and innovation will make a huge difference in significantly reducing energy poverty. These researches can open opportunities for farmers and villagers to a variety of work in order to provide a higher income for themselves and their families, while improving the country’s economy. The emphasis on human value above self interests of business will inevitably defeat energy poverty through the creation and access of jobs. Global companies and small businesses are making huge steps towards environmentally sustainable methods, including

energy companies with the use of CO2 emissions. Most importantly, The IPCC eight gases produces numerous uses and benefits, such as creating value from emissions, creating employment, turning harmful products into valuable source of income as well as a addressing climate change and expanding energy to all. Thus, the Trump Administration’s stance on opening federal water for oil drilling could create a driving force and competition between energy producers for clean energy, resulting in a realistic sustainable energy supply for all. And this is ultimately how you can create a better world.

Photo by Natalie Carroll

The International Relations Review

Hourglass:

The Detriments of Sand Mining By Jordann Krouse, CAS â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;20 The greatest unsung resource that is present in our lives is sand. Every year, we use over 40 billion tons of sand, most of which is processed for construction, as sand is the key ingredient for materials such as concrete or asphalt. The main method for acquiring sand is by way of dredging from oceans and beaches. The ocean provides a seemingly endless supply of easily accessible sand. The sand mining industry is a global 70 billion dollar investment, with major world powers such as the United States, China, and Australia all maintaining significant sand mining operations. These states have laws, albeit limited, that help prevent the overmining of sand; smaller, less regulated countries however mine sand illegally and excessively, leading to the destruction of our environment. An early example of this practice is back in 2012, when in an effort to diversify its economy and disassociate from blood diamonds, Sierra Leone agreed to allow companies to mine its sand for the production of asphalt and concrete. These Senegalese and Chinese construction companies signed contracts with the government and sand mining operations commenced immediately. In the beginning, it was a highly profitable business that helped provide jobs and income for the small communities located on the beaches of Sierra Leone. Shortly thereafter however, nonPhoto by Jessica Baron

contracted companies realized the huge upside potential and bribed government officials to ensure their unregulated mining operations went unreported. Within a year, the excessive mining of sand destroyed many communities in Sierra Leone. The impacts of overmining are vast. In Sierra Leone, a relatively large, uniform country, rapidly diminishing beaches caused trees to collapse, mangroves to disappear, and the coastal line to shrink, increasing the risk of flooding in coastal towns. In Indonesia, a nation comprised primarily of islands, an estimated two dozen islands have disappeared since 2005 due to sand mining and over 2,000 more islands are at risk of disappearing soon if sand mining remains insufficiently unregulated. Do not assume that this mining is a peaceful operation as well. For example, in India, the illegal raiding of sand mining operations has occurred countless times. Mafia gangs usually initiate these raids with several reports detailing the violence that typically unfolds in such situations; in Ramnagar for example, a Corbett forest guard was run over by a tractor when he tried to prevent illegal sand mining. Gun fights and other outbreaks of violence between mafia groups and Indian workers have occurred periodically within the last five years. Unfortunately, the government has failed to address the violence, and continues to allow the mining to

occur in the interests of growing its export industry and promoting infrastructure development. Failure to regulate illegal sand mining activities more thoroughly also augments the risk miners themselves face. The lack of support from legal entities in addition to the dearth of tools available substantially increases the risk of injury to miners who work for illegal sand mining operations. Just in December, 2017, three miners were killed, including a father and his 15 year old daughter, in a sand collapse near Noorpur, India. These workers are low-skilled laborers who take on all the risk while those who hire them stand to profit. The only preventative measure that has been implemented by the Indian government is a mandatory vigil by communities, who are required to report any illegal activity they see. This however is ineffective against the bribes that miners provide to communities to look the other way. The greatest impact arising from illegal sand mining activities relates to the environment. As mentioned previously, the excessive mining of sand reduces coastal lines. This obviously has a significant detrimental effect on its own but, when coupled with rising sea levels, the problem is exacerbated. As reported on by National Geographic, the Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) has risen by four to eight inches, a rate that is roughly twice the reported normal

Spring 2018 average speed over the last 20 years. Rising sea levels have been attributed to the following four major factors: thermal expansion, melting glaciers, polar ice caps and ice loss. The fundamental cause of global warming is the unnatural increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, have a higher ability to absorb IR radiation, which causes an increase in kinetic energy that can then be transferred to other non-greenhouse gases. Because of this, even a small increase in greenhouse gas has a major impact. The overall increase in energy causes a temperature increase, which facilitates the three factors mentioned above. Thermal expansion is the effect of water molecules expanding due to the increase in temperature. About half of the rise in sea level can be attributed to warmer oceans. Melting glaciers and ice loss are most evident in the north and south poles and can also be attributed to an increase in temperature. All in all, the above average increase in melting glaciers and ice loss is contributing to an unprecedented rise in sea levels that is only likely to continue. The impact of rising sea levels on coastal habitats is

26 absolutely devastating. Destructive erosion, wetland flooding, soil contamination, and a significant loss of habitat for birds, fish, and plants, when coupled with unregulated sand mining, is resulting in rapid environmental degradation. For island nations such as Indonesia, the potential for their state to be reduced to nothing is high. For the wildlife that live on the coast, there is potential for permanent destruction to their homes. Unless this issue is addressed, the rate of this devolution will continue to increase. An additional adverse effect of sand mining on the environment is the increase in air pollution. Transportation of the sand causes a major increase in harmful emissions, which contribute to the greenhouse effect explained earlier. Cement production, a process occurring after sand has been mined but that nonetheless contributes further to emissions, is also important to consider when examining the factors contributing to pollution. The elimination of sand mining would result in a decrease in CO2 emissions by nearly every nation in the world. Some states have already recognized the destructive nature of sand mining, and have taken steps to end, or at least decrease, the

industry. Australia, for example, took the initiative in identifying the outweighing benefits of green jobs over sand mining, and in 2010 declared a major sand exporting island, North Stradbroke Island, a national park thus ending all sand mining operations. Australia then began to implement further measures to move out of the 50year old industry over the next 17 years. Australia is a unique case when it comes to addressing the problems of sand mining, unfortunately. The Sand mining in most countries is a major industry that is rarely reported on due to the nature of its operations. The effects it has on communities and the planet should not be ignored, and steps need to be taken to prevent any further damage. Educating people on the destructive aspects of excessive mining is one solution that will help demonstrate why the costs of sand mining outweigh any short-term economic benefits. Alternatives to this resource should also be explored, as well as the recycling process for pre-concentrated sand. If our ability to evolve and engineer does not reach our most basic resources, then we will all run out of time.

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Collateral Damage of the Mexico City Police on Kenya By Alex del Tufo, CAS ‘21 During his third day in office, President Donald Trump used his power of executive action to reinstate the Mexico City Policy, a policy that will impact regions far beyond Mexico and the United States. The reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy, commonly known by critics and much of the public as the Global Gag Rule, brought back Reagan Era restrictions on healthcare abroad. In Mexico City in 1984, this law removed U.S. funding for non-governmental organizations that provide abortions to foreign countries. Therefore, an NGO that provides resources in addition to abortion would be defunded entirely. The policy has swung in and out of establishment with changes in administration. It was removed by Clinton, reinstated by Bush, removed once again by Obama, and now reinstated by Trump. Every reinstatement and removal occurred within the first few days in office through executive action. Of the 32 years since the policy’s birth, it has been instated for 17 of those years, or approximately half the time. Exceptions to this policy can be made when the woman’s life in is danger, or in cases of rape or incest. However, these circumstances can be difficult to prove. For example, in many developing countries court cases can be extensive and expensive, making proof required for abortion challenging. Additionally, some abortion-supporting or providing

NGOs are excused from this policy entirely. In the case of humanitarian relief for drastic situations such as natural disasters and famine, the reach of the policy is restricted. Therefore, organizations such as the State Department’s relief programs and Food for Peace are able to receive funding. Under President Trump, the Mexico City Policy has been expanded further. Currently, any NGO receiving foreign aid must prove that none of their funds, US provided or otherwise, will go towards providing abortions, information about abortions, or advocating for abortion legalization. Previous versions of the Mexico City Policy decreased U.S. foreign aid by

defunding of major healthcare centers abroad every few years establishes an unreliability on United States support. The Mexico City Policy has not yet achieved its goal of reducing abortions abroad, and has instead created a widespread danger of self-induced abortions, specifically in developing nations. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 7 million women in developing countries are admitted to hospitals every year due to induced abortion complications. The Mexico City Policy’s greatest impact lies far outside North America, in sub-Saharan Africa, a region of the world that relies greatly on U.S. healthcare aid and lacks access to sufficient forms of birth control. Approximately 20 percent of sub-Saharan women use contraceptives, a figure that contrasts starkly with the 98 percent of women in the United States who have used or currently use contraceptives. A study done by WHO breaks down the correlation between the presence of the Mexico City Policy and increased rates of induced abortions in Sub-Saharan Africa. Bendavid’s study, which approximately 600 million dollars. collected data from 20 countries Trump’s version will decrease foreign over a period of 14 years, displays aid by up to 8.8 billion dollars. the drastic increase in self-induced The immediacy and abortions in these nations. After frequency of the policy’s status former President George W. Bush’s change creates a whiplash effect reinstatement of the policy in 2001, on the many nations that rely on the annual rate of induced abortions U.S. healthcare aid. The immediate gradually rose throughout his term,

“In many developing countries, court cases can be extensive and expensive.”

Spring 2018 starting with approximately 10 in every 10,000 women to over 25 per 10,000 women. Although the timing correlates with the instatement of the policy, other potential factors are likely present such as increases in socioeconomic concerns due to overpopulation, famine, and poverty. Besides an increase in the rate of self-induced abortions, subSaharan nations also suffer from other consequences of the Mexico City Policy. An analysis of the policy’s effects on Kenyan society can shed light on how dangerous it has become to sub-Saharan populations. Under Article 26 of Kenya’s constitution, which states that everyone has a right to life and that life begins at conception, abortion is illegal in the country. Therefore, it is up to NGOs to provide opportunities for abortions, information about abortions, and general family planning information. Organizations such as the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) provide extensive help in family planning and rely heavily on US funding. Due to ambiguous phrasing in Article 43 of Kenya’s constitution, abortion can be provided in government facilities through the help of activists, making this NGO aid possible. With the reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy, these organizations can no longer be funded. Kenya’s population is growing exponentially. In the past 40 years, the nation’s population has nearly quadrupled in size, from approximately 10 million to now as many as 40 million citizens. Due to this quick increase in population, the majority of Kenyans are under the age of 20.

28 An aspect of Kenyan culture, as with many sub-Saharan countries, is marriage at a young age. In Kenya, one fourth of women are married by age 18. This, in consequence, leads to a younger average childbearing age. According to the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), one fourth of women have an “unmet need for family planning.” In other words, a quarter of the country’s women wish to delay their pregnancy but are unable to do so because they lack access to contraceptives. It is also important to note that there is a direct correlation between how poor a woman is and her unmet need for family planning. These circumstances created an atmosphere susceptible to unsafe abortions and unsafe births. According to a data collection by the Central Intelligence Agency, 510 out of every 100 thousand Kenyan mothers will die giving birth. With the Mexico City Policy, access to abortions will be significantly more challenging, leading to an even higher increase in population. This exacerbates the strain that overpopulation already places on Kenyan society, most notably leading to a deficiency of employment opportunities for the growing youth population. Furthermore, according to PRB, the amount of viable land for farming is quickly shrinking. With 70 percent of the population surviving from rural profits, two thirds of Kenyan farmers claim that their land will not be sufficient for the next generation. With the Mexico City Policy, access to abortions will be significantly more challenging, leading to an even higher increase in population.

Another unintended impact of the Mexico City Policy on Kenya is the consequential defunding on HIV/AIDS prevention and cures. The leading family planning healthcare provider in Kenya, Family Health Options Kenya (FHOK), gains approximately 60 percent of their funding from the U.S. government. The NGO refuses to remove abortion aid, therefore they will lose all U.S. funding. The company is lobbying to gain funding from local governments, but the resources are too limited to replace the funding lost from the Mexico City Policy. Kenya is among the six countries with the highest rates of HIV infection in the world. With 5.4 percent of the adult population living with the disease in 2016. After the reinstatement of the policy in 2017, FHOK has already canceled 100 outreach events including those for HIV testing. Because so many of these family planning organizations provide abortion counseling as well, their other sectors suffer greatly. Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole suffers greatly from the threat of HIV/AIDS. The region disproportionately accounts for 70 percent of the global HIV infection rate and an even higher AIDS mortality rate of 74 percent. The largest victim population, like that of abortions, is young women. Although HIV has historically been associated with males, studies now show that young women are twice as likely to be infected with HIV than young men. Genetically and physiologically there is no difference for the infection of HIV/AIDS in women and men. Therefore, the difference lies in societal inequalities.

29 In many developing countries specifically, local governments are unwilling to provide HIV services to unmarried women or women under 18. This is exacerbated by criminal charges against sex work. In Kenya, sex work in widespread, with nearly 150 thousand sex workers in the nation. The prevalence of sex work and inaccessibility of contraceptives perpetuates HIV in young women. Therefore, the Mexico City Policy again has a far greater impact on the livelihood of women than men. Another consequence of the Mexico City Policy is to cut funding for organizations devoted to the prevention and cure of malaria. The spread of malaria is undeniably the largest health concern in subSaharan African. And initially Photo by Claire Martin

The International Relations Review seems unrelated to family planning healthcare. However, the Mexico City Policy defunds any programs relating to newborns, infancy, and pregnancy as well. And malaria has significant health impacts on both the mother and child during birth. The United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is one of the organizations affected by the Mexico City Policy. PEPFAR provides $6 billion, of the $8 billion cuts made in 2017, to organizations globally that allow for abortion. PEPFAR is one of the largest healthcare companies combating malaria around the world. Additionally, the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) is greatly impacted by the policy. PMI is a U.S. government funded program, developed under President George W. Bush, aimed at preventing malaria worldwide. And although

developed by a republican U.S. president, it falls under the breadth of the policy’s defunding as well. With over one million people dying from malaria annually, the Mexico City Policy will likely make an impact on those numbers. The Mexico City Policy, although established to reduce abortions globally, has already had extensive impact on the wellbeing and health of nations around the world. As seen through the lense of Kenya, these impacts vary from economic fallouts and overpopulation to seemingly unrelated diseases such as HIV/ AIDS and malaria. The policy not only increasing these problems, but causing a whiplash throughout the whole of sub-saharan Africa along the way.

Spring 2018

Shrinking Ice Exposes Growing Diplomatic Rifts By Rachel Petherbridge, ENG ‘19 The Arctic is melting. The statement is almost meaningless at this point, 50 years into the battle against climate change. We (politicians, activists, and college students on Facebook) continue to recite this mantra and others like it in the hope that repeating it over and over again will somehow convince the naysayers, scare the lethargic into action, and ultimately halt the damage. We recite statistics - global temperatures have risen 2 degrees in the last century, the surface of the ocean has become 30% more acidic in the same amount of time, we are facing a 6th mass extinction of life, etc. - almost as a shield against what looks inevitable. Yet, this has not worked and it will not work, for it has only resulted in desensitization to the austerity of what a melting Arctic really means. What we often fail to remember is that the demise of the Arctic will impact society beyond the scope of any apocalyptic predictions. The North Pole will soon be covered by water, and Arctic countries - Norway, the United States, Russia, Iceland, Greenland (ruled by Denmark) and Canada - will have to navigate a new ocean of diplomacy. Before nose-diving into the labyrinth that is international relations in the Arctic, we should explore climate change itself to put its expected consequences in context. Essentially, the Earth’s atmosphere acts like a giant security blanket covering the

planet, keeping all living things warm, oxygenated, and safe from the worst parts of solar radiation. Climate change is the result of the Earth’s natural warming process going haywire. When sunlight hits the atmosphere, most of the higher energy light is absorbed in the ozone layer or scattered (made to change direction). Lower energy red and infrared light continues to the Earth’s surface, where it is either absorbed or reflected back into space. The Earth’s absorption of this light, as well as the energy produced from the Earth’s molten innards, accounts in part for our warm surface temperature; without an atmosphere, the Earth’s surface would be a toasty 0°F (-18C), as opposed to the freezing expanse of space at -455°F (-271C). However, our planet maintains an average 59°F (15C) because of the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Some of the light reflected from Earth is absorbed by these gases, which includes carbon dioxide, methane, and water (the most abundant greenhouse gas - ever felt extra hot on a humid day?). When these gases absorb light, they begin to vibrate with the extra energy, and when they collide with other gases (oxygen and nitrogen gas), they pass this energy off as an extra burst of speed. Thermodynamics tells us that faster gases have a higher temperature, and thus the Earth is warmed by the greenhouse effect. Historically, greenhouse gases have only comprised about

Photo by Raina Kadavil 0.028% of our atmosphere. Since the Industrial Revolution, however, the percentage of our atmosphere made up of greenhouse gases has increased to 0.042%, an amount that seems miniscule but has already significantly changed the average temperature of the Earth. This change of average temperature is what is disrupting the Earth’s overall climate and melting the Arctic ice. Ironically, ice actually reflects light back into space at a higher energy than the Earth, which greenhouse gases are incapable of absorbing; thus, the more ice we lose, the more light is absorbed and reflected by the Earth, and the hotter the planet becomes. Some of the consequences of melting Arctic ice are commonly reported: water previously locked in glaciers and ice sheets melts into the ocean and contributes to rising ocean levels that swallow lowlying nations; polar bears, with no land left to walk on, starve; native peoples lose their way of life and the world loses natural wonders and megacities alike. However, as a global community, we must begin to consider the economic and diplomatic impacts of a melting Arctic. Disappearing ice means an emergent new ocean with bountiful resources and brand new passages. There are six nations with land around the Arctic Circle that could stand to gain economically from the new ocean: Norway, the United States, Iceland, Canada, Russia and

31 Denmark. Each of these countries has an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ): an area of the seafloor that a country has exclusive economic rights to (think drilling, wind energy harvest, and more). These extend either 200 nautical miles from shore, or to the end of the continental shelf, whichever is an even farther distance. Since the Arctic has been mostly covered in ice for the past several thousand years, it has not been necessary for the six northern countries to establish EEZ’s in the Arctic past their allotted 200 nautical miles. However, as glaciers and ice sheets in the Arctic become new passages bridging the Eastern and Western hemispheres, it is likely that major nations will begin to covet these waterways in order to create new shipping lanes, communication pathways, and fueling stations. In order to extend an EEZ, a country must submit a proposal to the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, arguing scientifically that its proposed extension makes scientific sense. The committee must deliberate and either deny the proposal or accept it as scientifically valid, then leaving it up to the Arctic countries to settle the newly proposed borders amongst themselves. Thus far, Norway and Iceland have both submitted and had proposals approved to extend their EEZ’s past their normal 200 nautical mile limit. These extensions better defined the economic borders between the two countries and increased Norway’s EEZ slightly farther north. Other proposals, however, have been more controversial. Since the early 20th century, Russia has maintained that it has sovereignty

The International Relations Review over the seafloor from its borders to the North Pole, a claim which is reflected in its extension proposal submitted in 2001. The UN commission neither rejected nor accepted this proposal, saying instead that the Russian government should conduct further research to clarify its proposal. In 2007, the Russians launched the Arktika 2007 expedition to better map their continental shelf. This expedition was actually successful in planting a Russian flag underneath the North Pole. Their re-submitted claim for an extended Arctic EEZ expands Russian economic sovereignty over more than 463,000 square miles,

“Native people lose their way of life, and the world loses natural wonders and megacities.” extending north to and including the North Pole. In conflict with this, Greenland has also submitted a proposal which includes the North Pole and extends further, into the Russian sector of the Arctic. These overlapping claims have not been addressed by either country. One would think that an extension of an EEZ would reap some sort of economic benefit, mostly in the form of undiscovered oil and gas reserves. However, this is not so; most predicted oil and natural gas reserves lie along undisputed areas of the Arctic that are well within a country’s standard EEZ. Instead, an extended EEZ is

essentially a projection of power into a region, effectively expanding the sphere of influence of a country. Some squabbles between countries over Arctic territory can even become more amusing than starkly competitive: Denmark and Canada, for example, have been fighting over ownership of one particular barren island, Hans Island, for the last 35 years. Since 1984, contingents of troops from both countries have alternated visiting the island, planting their respective flag, and leaving a bottle of Canadian whiskey or Danish schnapps. While this dispute is not over an EEZ, the friendly rivalry over Hans Island is a great example of positive Arctic diplomacy. Other countries, however, are taking a more hostile approach to the Arctic. Russia, for example, is actively extending its soft and hard power in the region. It has established a small coal-mining town on the island of Svalbard in order to establish influence over it. Svalbard technically belongs to Norway, but may be economically exploited by any nation according to the treaty that governs it, and Russia has decided to take advantage of this concession. Beyond Svalbard, Russia has opened, renovated, or planned over 25 military bases in the Arctic Circle just over the last few years. In response to Russia’s increased militarization of the Arctic (and Russia’s actions in Ukraine), the United States and Norway have been running joint military exercises in the Arctic Circle since January 2017, increasing tensions. Russia is not the only one to take an economically and militarily aggressive approach to the Arctic. The United States has been active in Arctic military drills, and has yet to

Spring 2018 even ratify the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS, which established the territorial and EEZ limits that Russia, Norway and Iceland have already explored in depth. Canada has been collecting data on its own claims to the seafloor, and it is expected that it will submit claims for an extended EEZ shortly, parts of which will likely overlap with the claims that Russia and Greenland have already submitted. The Canadians have also been running extensive Arctic

32 military training drills in their northern provinces every year for the past ten years. Iceland is the odd one out in this game of influence: having already extended its EEZ, it has made no further moves to further its influence. While we face harrowing and long-term consequences from rising sea levels and a changing climate, the melting Arctic also presents the potential for political turmoil: growing interest in the Arctic is leading to greater tension between

Russia and the other Arctic nations. Thus far, this has taken the form of soft power projections, military exercises, and the trade of national alcohol, but what new forms it will take in the future remains to be seen. In the Arctic, it is likely that climate change will force not only scientists but politicians, too, to see the world in new ways as they fight to solve problems that the world has never faced before.

Photo by Raina Kadavil

The International Relations Review

DEVELOPMENT

Spring 2018

Plenty to Learn from the Worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Poorest Countries by Jessica Mansur

The Dark Side of Urbanization by Yoni Tobin

The Perfect Dictatorship by Matt Manarchy

Photo by Lauren Peterson

The International Relations Review

Plenty to Learn from the World’s Poorest Countries: A Look at the Free Health Care Initiative in Sierra Leone By Jessica Mansur, CAS ‘18 In 2010, Sierra Leone abolished healthcare costs for pregnant women, lactating mothers, and children under the age of five years old as its president introduced his new Free Health Care Initiative (FHCI). The FHCI is regarded as an ambitious turning point in Sierra Leonean health policy; in it, Sierra Leone committed itself to not only providing direct aid to its target groups, but to dissociating itself from the tragically high mortality rates that have come to define its health culture. Leading up to 2010, Sierra Leone had nearly the worst maternal and child health outcomes in the world. By the time the new decade began, the prevalence of HIV amongst those aged 15 – 49 in Sierra Leone fluctuated between 1.5 – 1.6 percent; and at the same time for every 100,000 live births 1,200 women were dying either while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of the pregnancy. The nation’s maternal and under-five mortality rates were slowly improving, but nonetheless still painted a devastating picture as to what decades of conflict, mismanagement, and scare resources left in their wake. These issues manifested themselves in many areas of Sierra Leonean society, especially when examining the barriers women faced to access proper health care. During that time, 80% of women reported to the Demographic and Health Survey that the money required for treatments inhibited them from getting the care that they need; 50% of the surveyed women attested that distance to a facility or the need to obtain suitable transport were major obstacles to them receiving proper health care. Another 37% reported

that health care worker availability was a major problem, and 8% reported that getting permission from their husband was a serious problem. All in all, 89% of women surveyed cited a serious problem outside of their control as to a reason they were not able to benefit from proper health care. It is important to note that Sierra Leone had made an attempt to mitigate the obstacles these women faced before introducing the FHCI. In 2005, the National Public Services Survey estimated that not only did 88% of women who used a government clinic in the past year had to arrive there on foot, but 33% of those surveyed lived over two hours away from the nearest government clinic or hospital. However, by 2008, 62% of respondents had access to a government clinic within one hour’s travel and only 14% of respondents still lived over 2 hours away from the nearest public clinic or hospital. Small victories aside, larger barriers to access still persisted and dismal health indicator reports were further enforced by improper management of Sierra Leone’s health financing. Before the FHCI significant donor support was not included in the Health sector’s budget and thus undermined any attempt made to coordinate and strengthen government systems already in place. Total health expenditure was incredibly subpar, and slowly rose to just US$78.71 spent per individual. Sierra Leone’s out of pocket expenditure on health was far worse than most low-income countries in the decade leading up to the FHCI, and was outperformed by 95% of low-income countries in terms of government expenditure on health.

Furthering the financial strain placed on Sierra Leone’s health sector was the lack of protocol regarding the procurement and distribution of drugs and medical supplies. Costrecovery drugs were predominant, meaning that users were charged a fee if they wanted to be able to actually take the medicine that they need. The procurement of these drugs was also handled on an ad hoc basis, making them even less available to Sierra Leoneans than they would have been otherwise. Costs associated with these drugs only increased for those who needed to use them, and the average patient was at the whim of a private sector that provided approximately 70% of all medicines and supplies that they were being charged to use.

Photo by Anna Janetos

Spring 2018 Lastly, the quality of care in Sierra Leone must be addressed in order to fully comprehend the situation women and children found themselves in before the implementation of the FHCI. In 2008, roughly only 10% of all expected births took place in health facilities. This, in turn, implies that up to 90% of pregnant women in Sierra Leone had been delivering children outside the hospitals - either in their homes or at a Traditional Birth Attendants’ facility. In Sierra Leone, Traditional Birth Attendants are known as the secret keepers of their society and often use herbs and other natural methods to care for pregnant women. They are often thought of as trusted members of their respective community while criticized by healthcare professionals for their unsafe delivery procedures and inability to handle severe complications. In one piece of legislation, the Government took a systemic approach to tackling the issues of barriers to access, sector governance, monitoring and evaluation, drugs and medical supplies regulation, health infrastructure, and communication. By eliminating user fees for its target groups, health financing saw a loss of revenue for the health system since they were no longer able to charge specific groups of patients to use their cost-recovery drugs. The increased utilization rates also placed pressure on existing budgets – especially those for salaries and drugs – and prompted a reduction in out of pocket payments expected to be made by households when visiting clinics and hospitals. While the actual structure of the health financing scheme has remained relatively unchanged, its composition in regards to household and donor funding has taken new shape since the implementation of the FHCI. The two have almost an inverse relationship compared to their pre-FHCI statistics; the proportion of household funding

36 Photo by Archit Agarwal

that made up Sierra Leone’s total health expenditure dropped from 83% in 2007 to 62% in 2013, while donor funding rose from 12% to 32% during the same respective years. While this is certainly progress in the right direction, a 62% household funding rate is still dangerously high once it is compared to the 15-20% safety benchmark set forth by the World Health Report of 2010. However, perhaps the biggest impact made by the FHCI is the increased awareness and willingness of women to seek better healthcare both themselves and their children. Mothers are able to more readily identify symptoms of fever and diarrheal diseases, which suggests increased health-seeking behavior at least in regards to young children. Additionally, there is also a growing body of literature regarding health-seeking behavior in Sierra Leone. Increasing amounts of public attention have been drawn to the

health system of this small African nation, and more resources have been donated to the region as a result. Many other nations have experimented with the idea of universal healthcare, but the FHCI was particularly ambitious for taking an exceptionally broad approach to tackling Sierra Leone’s dismal health. Rather than solely focusing on the target groups most affected by the situation, the Sierra Leone Government tasked itself with improving all major elements of its health care system. The true value in this legislation lies in the fact that the Sierra Leonean Government genuinely confronted the issue and did not merely attempt a halfhearted response to the pain and suffering their women and children face. One might even say that other, more prominent world leaders could learn a thing or two from the work of Sierra Leone.

The International Relations Review

The Problem With Cities By Yoni Tobin CAS ‘21

Cities have been at the epicenter of human activity for millennia, a reality that hasbecome magnified over the past 60 years by a rising global urban population. The technological advances of the last several centuries, coupled with the period of globalization and relative peace of the second half of the 20th century, ushered in a rate of urban growth unprecedented in history. The percentage of the global population living in cities was 30 percent in 1950; today, that figure has risen to 55 percent, with nearly 4 billion people residing in an urban setting. The colossal rate of urban growth isn’t showing any signs of slowing down, with the United Nations predicting that the world’s urban population will increase by 28 percent between 2015 and 2030, with Africa’s urban population growing by as much as 60 percent in that span. Although cities are conventionally understood as being a net positive, fostering tremendous intellectual growth and economic prosperity, experts have begun to call those notions into question. Critics point to health and infrastructure issues in cities, many of which disproportionately arise in the developing world, and burgeoning economic and social stratification, resulting in serious imbalances between rural and urban populations. These complications raise the questions of whether cities are in fact the catalysts of growth and prosperity that they traditionally have been assumed to be, and whether the contemporary concerns associated with cities will become amplified by high rates of urbanization going forward.

The primary engine behind urban expansion is the conception that the metropolitan system engenders massive economic growth, which, while technically true, paints a incomplete picture. Although cities generate over 80 percent of global GDP, most of that is heavily concentrated only in a select number of cities, not spread across the world’s cities as a whole. For instance, a combined 23 cities were responsible for 14 percent of the global GDP in 2007, more than all cities in China and Latin America put together that year. Globally, the majority of urban areas neither produce, nor reap the benefits of, the type of material prosperity that the world’s powerhouse cities do. What explains the discrepancy between the minority of cities with powerful and robusteconomies and the rest of the globe’s urban regions? The answer lies primarily not in the innatecharacteristics of individual cities, but in how close those cities are to one another. Metropolitan areas in close proximity to others forming what is known as a megalopolis (also called a megaregion), tend to thrive both commercially and in terms of standard of living. Megaregions are often characterized by the formation of transportation corridors, which facilitate greater movement of people and resources. The exchange of ideas and goods between adjacent, yet distinct, local economies tends to foster rapid economic growth. The fastest growing urban economy in the world is Macau, an autonomous territory in Southern China. Macau is part of the Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region, a megaregion

comprised of economic giants such as Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. The world’s second fastest-growing urban economy is that of Izmir, Turkey, which is also located in a megalopolis that includes the Turkish cities of Ankara and Bursa, both of which are also among the top 10 fastestgrowing urban regions in the world. The overwhelming majority of the world’s wealthiest metropolitan areas are in Western Europe, North America, and China, all of which are home to a substantial number of megaregions. Cities in regions of the world without megaregions are significantly less wealthyand developed, and consequently face far greater challenges. Another major factor in determining the success level of cities is whether or not cities arelocated in nations with a culture of urban planning and an emphasis on infrastructure, such as Japan or Indonesia. Countries that tend to lack a culture of urban planning often are home to cities with serious infrastructure issues and a low standard-of- living. These problems have manifested themselves over the past few decades in India, where overpopulation, institutional deficiencies, and faulty infrastructure have made urban life difficult. Many quality-of- life impediments have arisen because of the absence of successful municipal planning, manifesting in complications such as a lack of a proper sewage system. Only 38 percent of the residents of Mumbai, India’s largest city, are estimated to have access to the city’s

Spring 2018

sewage system, and the sewage system itself is over a century old and often malfunctions. India has numerous other examples of atrophying infrastructure stemming from faulty urban planning, including heavy traffic congestion, high levels of residential overcrowding, and severe pollution. The steep levels of air pollution in India’s metropolises have been linked to serious respiratory diseases, a phenomenon not exclusive to India. Researchers have noted a strong correlation between medical conditions and certain facets of urban life across the world.

“The exhange between adjacent, yet distinct, local economies tends to foster rapid economic growth” The WHO released a report in May 2017, titled Health at the Heart of Urban Development, which largely attributed heart attacks, strokes, pneumonia, respiratory diseases and lung cancer to air pollution, and also faulted aspects of the urban industrial economy for several of those ailments. Urban air pollution is particularly widespread in low and middleincome cities with over 100,000 residents, with 98 percent of those cities failing to meet WHO’s air quality standards. The report also

attributed many cases of tuberculosis, as well as the widespread diffusion of highly fatal diseases like Ebola and Zika, to urban problems of waste mismanagement and poor sanitary conditions. Diabetes is another medical disorder which has been directly linked to certain components of urban society, and is particularly widespread in heavily urbanized countries such as Oman, where nearly 80 percent of the population lives in a city. The high prevalence of diabetes in Oman has been linked to urbanrelated factors, such as extensive private vehicle ownership, highcalorie consumption, and smoking. Urbanization’s problematic effect on living conditions extends not exclusively to those living inside of urban centers, but to rural residents as well. For example, rural areas often suffer from what analysts call a “brain drain,” a migration of well-educated individuals to urban settings, where they have far greater opportunity to utilize their intellect. The result is that the people best equipped to bring success and innovation to the rural setting have little incentive to do so, and rarely do. Most markedly, this phenomenon has manifested itself in sub-Saharan African nations. Ghana’s largest city, Accra, has blossomed in recent years into a relatively wealthy modern metropolis with a thriving financial sector. The poverty rate in Accra is unusually low for a large urban area, sitting below 5 percent, while the rate in Ghana’s rural areas is extremely high. The sparsely populated region of northwestern Ghana, with its increasingly elderly and unenergized

populace, suffers from a poverty rate of over 70 percent, peaking at nearly 90 percent in 2006. 18 The sub-Saharan African nations of Burkina Faso, Mali, South Africa, and Uganda all suffer from similar degrees of radical rural and urban inequality. 19 Ultimately, there is no easy or straightforward fix to the continued problems posed by rapid urbanization. What is required is both a systemic approach to issues such as pollution, inequity, and urban slums, and a culture of organization and responsibility when it comes to operational urban planning, particularly in developing countries. Some solutions could certainly be derived from improved urban planning policy, which could be coordinated and supervised by international NGOs. For example, constructing urban population centers in somewhat close proximity to one another may create transportation corridors, and foster the kind of economic growth that has been seen in existing megaregions in Western Europe and Southeast Asia. Another approach may be to focus on building energy-efficient cities, which could create economic opportunities while also improving health outcomes. To be sure, cities are far from being inherently bad. The economic, intellectual, and cultural benefits of urban regions are primarily good, but many of the world’s cities may be headed in a precarious direction if not constrained and properly addressed.

Photo by Nikta Khani

The International Relations Review

The Perfect Dictatorship: Why Reform in Uzbekistan Is a Long Way Off By Matt Manarchy CAS ‘18 December 26th, 1991 was a day of shock and surprise for many in the West: the previous night, the U.S.S.R. formally dissolved itself to form 15 newly independent republics. The fall of the “Evil Empire,” as Ronald Reagan once called it, led some historians to boldly proclaim the “end of history” and the coming of a new world order of peace and prosperity populated solely by liberal democratic nations. This idealism, clouded by the fog of victory, has not yet come to fruition. Unlike many in the West thought, the Soviet Union did not die on December 26th, 1991. Its legacy of authoritarian governance persists to this day in the states born from its dissolution. While many are quick to think of Putin’s Russia as the prime successor of the Soviet legacy, it is the dictatorships of Central Asia, most notably Uzbekistan, that embody both the institutions and spirit of the Soviet Union as though nothing happened on that cold December night in 1991. Naïveté once again filled the air when Uzbekistan’s longtime dictator, Islam Karimov, died in 2015, and his Prime Minister, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, ascended to the throne. There was hope that he would eschew the authoritarian legacy that plagued Uzbekistan and instead open the economy, political system, and civil society in the country. If you paid attention to Mr. Mirziyoyev’s words, and even the limited action taken by his government, you would be forgiven for thinking this opening was on the horizon. Talk, however, is cheap, and the pace of reform has

been listless at best. The government announced that Soviet-style exit visas, which severely limit freedom of movement, are to be abolished, but this decree will go into effect in 2019, rather than immediately. The state recently released sixteen political prisoners, but this is small fry in a country with anywhere from 47,000 to 70,000 prisoners. Children have been officially excluded from the forced collectivization of labor for Uzbekistan’s annual cotton harvest, but one million of their countrymen, many of them students, doctors, and teachers, are not so fortunate. Real reform is a long way off; the Uzbek elite, Mr. Mirziyoyev in particular, have few reasons to support democratic transition, and what little effect outside pressure would have will not be realized so long as Islamist extremism persists in Central Asia and revisionist powers see democracy as a threat. Shavkat Mirziyoyev will bring some reforms to governance and civil society in Uzbekistan, but only enough to improve the economy, attract foreign investment, and strengthen his already firm grip on power. The image of revolutionaries and civil demonstrators overthrowing a corrupt and brutal regime by sheer will and determination is romantic and enticing. It is also an inaccurate and harmful way of thinking about how regimes change. Civil resistance movements have far more efficacy in regime change than do armed rebellions. The more closed a political system is, the more dependent their success is on the consent of enough

members of the elite to the changes demanded. In every government elites calculate the benefits they will gain from supporting a particular person or system and whether they will be able to keep their position, status and present benefits in the event of regime change. When considering democratic transition, the major variable of their calculations is what effect opening the system would have on the political stability of the country and their position in it. In what direction their support is thrown depends on what system they inhabit. Autocracies face exponentially decreasing stability that quickly hits rock bottom when the political system begins to open; without political and civil institutions in place to absorb shocks to the system, the opening can quickly backslide and the longterm gamble taken on the increased stability of a truly liberal democracy is for naught. Even if the transition from a closed to open political system goes swimmingly, the gains of stability are not gained as quickly as stability is lost in an autocracy. It is safe to say a regime that sees itself as the ultimate arbiter who decides which citizens may leave its borders, holds hundreds if not thousands of political prisoners, and essentially enslaves a segment of its population every year to perform manual labor for the state’s benefit can be considered one of the more stable autocracies. As for civic and political institutions, one should look at the transition of power following Islam Karimov’s death to see their glaring absence. As President Karimov’s

Spring 2018 health began to deteriorate, the state’s elite moved to eliminate potential disruptors of Uzbekistan’s stability. The serious outside challenger to the throne, Karimov’s daughter and rumored favored successor Gulnara, was preemptively detained and placed under house arrest by regime elements in 2014 and is rumored to have died in custody. The constitution is easily flouted without second thought, not only through the illegal detention of “unworthy successors,” but also by outright ignoring its contents and provisions. Uzbekistan’s constitution states that upon the death of the President, the Speaker of the Senate is to serve as Acting President for up to three months until elections can be organized. These rules were completely ignored by the Uzbek elites. The speaker instead immediately stood aside for Shavkat Mirziyoyev to assume power in an election that was almost laughably unfair and unfree; no one said anything, especially once Mirziyoyev gained a subtle nod of confidence and approval from Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin. Freedom of any kind is nonexistent or at best hard to come by.. There are no politics to contest: Parliament is all but a rubber stamp for the decrees of whoever occupies the office of the President. Legal political parties function only to serve the will of the regime; any groups that seek to actually affect Uzbek politics are outlawed, forced into exile, or jailed and tortured until they abandon their goals of pluralization or until their death. Civil society organizations and political activists are impeded at every step of the way. To even operate, NGOs have to receive approval for a permit from the Government, which can be withdrawn at any time for arbitrary reasons, and their leaders or members are placed in jail when the regime

40 feels its narrative is under threat. Journalists that spread information that displeases or threatens the regime are likely to face retribution through heavy prison sentences, usually upward of a decade. Self-censorship for fear of regime retribution keeps “independent” news media mostly in

“Talk, however, is cheap, and the pace of reform has been listless at best.” line. To Mr. Mirziyoyev’s credit, he has begun to address the human rights abuses facing more independent minded Uzbeks and the lack of institutional strength that goes beyond personality and elite politics. While five year plans are never the hallmark of a liberal democrat, he has prioritized judicial independence as an essential improvement. While the rate of reform has been close to inert from the start, there has been progress. Not only did a court recently acquit a defendant, a rarity in Uzbekistan, but also the secret police has been removed from a case involving a journalist critical of the regime. Within the same month, the police also saw the dismissal of Rustam Inoyatov, their longtime chief, rival of Mr. Mirziyoyev, and old ally of Islam Karimov. Though important, these are only a few clean drops of water in an incredibly dirty pond. Memories of Russian and Soviet imperialism resonate strongly in the minds of Uzbeks, particularly the

older generation. President Karimov guarded the sovereignty of Uzbekistan greedily, twice withdrawing from a Russian led collective security organization, ejecting American forces from a leased airbase after drawing criticism for using lethal force on protesters in 2005, and, as one of his last acts, refusing to join the U.S. led anti-I.S.I.S. coalition, despite jihadist terrorism being a top concern of the Uzbek security services. This quasi-isolationist stance hasn’t changed under his successor, and Mr. Mirziyoyev has given no indication he will depart from this path, at least not yet. Outside powers have minimal influence in Uzbekistan and squander what little they do possess. Dictatorships used the “red menace” of communism to justify unqualified security aid and a blind eye towards repressive governance and human rights abuses from the West during the Cold War. The tactic has not changed despite the fall of the Iron Curtain, but its bogeyman has morphed from the “red menace” of communism into the “green menace” of radical jihadist terrorism. As long as the United States pursues its Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), sometimes known as the forever war, autocrats like Shavkat Mirziyoyev will exploit Western security concerns to their own benefit. That’s not to say Uzbekistan does not have an Islamist extremist problem: more than 1,500 of I.S.I.S.’ foreign fighters have come from Uzbekistan. Their native Islamist insurgency, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), is a committed ally of al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and the Haqqani Network and is currently fighting against the Afghan Government and the N.A.T.O. led Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan. This fact doesn’t quite give Mr. Mirziyoyev

Photo by Natalie Carroll

41 carte blanche, but it does show how the stability and cooperation of a partner are prioritized over the real, if futile, pressure on the Uzbek government to commit to more than mere paper reforms. The U.S. will not withdraw from Afghanistan in the foreseeable future and thus needs to keep as many military supply routes into the country as open as possible. Pakistan is an important ally in the fight against terrorism, particularly in Afghanistan, and its relations with the U.S. are devilishly complicated when things are going well. President Trump is an erratic disruptor; his decision to cut aid to Pakistan is inopportune considering the importance of its supply routes to American, Afghan and N.A.T.O. forces. There has not yet been major fallout from his decision. This could easily change depending on the results of Pakistan’s upcoming elections, which may become a contest of who can be most defiant towards Trump and the U.S. If the Pakistani supply route is terminated, U.S. re-supply operations will have to go through Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Strategic necessity, coupled with Uzbekistan’s fierce protection of its sovereignty, will guarantee that human rights concerns in Uzbekistan skip the backburner and go off the stove entirely. A potential backslide of an already abysmal state of human rights aside, Uzbekistan will continue to exploit the fears of Western security officials to repress religiosity at home. The growing of beards, celebration of Iftar, and celebration of Eid al-Fitr are outright banned, and attendance of Mosque and the Hajj are severely restricted and monitored by the state. This heavy handed repression did not work under the Soviets, has not worked for the past twenty-seven years, and will continue to not work

The International Relations Review well into the future, only producing more of the religious radicals it seeks to dissuade. Shavkat Mirziyoyev is not a closet democrat finally in a position to affect real change. He and the rest of Uzbekistan’s elites will only pursue reform and political opening to a degree that it makes doing business in Uzbekistan easier and consolidates power under Mirziyoyev and his allies. Small-scale reforms that improve the situation ever so slightly and help to frame Mr. Mirziyoyev as a reformer will continue to be pursued. Even

if the Uzbek elite wanted to gamble on true republican governance and begin the process of democratic transition, Uzbekistan lacks strong institutions to help absorb the chaos of that change, making the process’ failure all the more likely. The efficacy of outside, specifically Western, pressure is dubious. It will not be tested so long as Mirziyoyev plays the Islamic extremism trump card. If you’re waiting for the reforms needed to truly strengthen Uzbekistan, don’t hold your breath.

Photo by Natalie Carroll

Spring 2018

The Nordic Way to Sustainability Photo by Elizabeth Burke

The International Relations Review

A conversation with Ambassador Lars Gert Lose, the Danish Ambassador to the United States, about the strategies and successes of Nordic countries and the European Union as a whole in tackling climate change, despite the United States’ increasingly noncommittal stance on the increasingly significant issue. Interview by Raina Kadavil and Elizabeth Burke Why is green energy a priority for Denmark and what has Denmark done to achieve it that’s unique in the world? Well it started back in the ‘70s (‘71,’ 72) when we were 99% dependent on fossil fuels, most of that imported to Denmark. Then we had the oil crisis which had a huge impact on Denmark: we had economic recessions, we even had car-free Sundays because people couldn’t fuel their cars. So that kind of created a consensus among the population and politicians that we needed to change our energy practices. Back then it was mainly due to necessity: we wanted to become more energy-independent than we were. That started the transition to a greener economy because renewable energy just makes sense. And then of course in the ‘80s, climate change came on the agenda, which was a political objective which was important in itself. All of that combined just led to a very strong social contract and political consensus that we need to move in a more green direction. So we’ve invested in windmills, for example, since the ‘70s. Today, windmills produce almost 50% of our total electricity. We are up to 55% renewable energy, and we set ambitious goals for the years to come. I think the interesting part is that we showed that you can actually de-couple economic growth from a green transition. So we managed to more than double our economy since the ‘80s while keeping the energy consumption at the same level and reducing our CO2 emissions. So all the talk about being ambitious when it comes to this green agenda being bad for economic growth - it’s not true, we’ve proven it, and the other Nordic countries have done the same thing. I think that’s the most important thing to take away from the Danish development of a green economy. Right now, with Donald Trump’s plans to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords and to revive the coal industry, there’s been a very controversial reaction around the U.S. and around the world, and a lot of question as to whether climate change even exists. How do you feel about these reactions, and do you think it’s possible for the United States to adopt a policy similar to Denmark’s? From everything we can see, climate change is real. You know, Greenland is part of the Danish kingdom. If you go to Greenland these days, you can see a massive impact of climate change. The ice is simply residing and it’s changing the livelihood of all the indigenous people in Greenland. Greenland is sort of the canary in the coalmine, so to speak. So for us, climate change is very real. We were very sad that the U.S. chose to leave the Paris Agreement because we lost a partner in the fight for a better climate agreement globally. The Obama Administration was instrumental along with China in forging the Paris Agreement, but we are in a very different place now. Having said that, when I look at the U.S., it’s not going to stop here. And why is that? Because we have states that became more ambitious after the President pulled out of the Paris Agreements: California is extremely ambitious, and so is Massachusetts. But also, green technology is good business today: Texas is the biggest wind-producing state in the U.S. by far. It’s not because - and I don’t think I’ll offend anyone by saying - it’s not because Texas is concerned with climate, it’s because it’s good business. So the price of wind is a competitive price now, and renewables are cheaper in the U.S. today than coal and gas and nuclear are. We actually do a lot of exports of renewable energy to the U.S. and in fact, we don’t see a decrease: we see an increase, this year, between 10 and 15%.

Spring 2018

So the green transition is going to continue in the United States. Maybe not at the same pace that it would have, but it’s going to happen, and we have lots of partners to deal with it, also in the Trump Administration, by the way. I don’t think they have any ideological problem with wind power, for example. We just did an agreement with them on offshore wind because we want to share our experience with how we developed a sector like that. Related to this idea of partnerships that you just introduced, how has Denmark’s role in the European Union and working with other European and Nordic countries had an impact on the movement for a sustainable future? Well, there’s consensus in the European Union, always consensus around these goals: everyone in the European Union agrees that climate change is real and that we need to do something about it. The good thing about the EU is, it’s a very strong corporationship, and it’s also something that forces you to do some things that you would normally not do, if it has been agreed upon in the EU. So we have spent a lot of time hammering out legislation that will reduce the CO2 emissions for the EU as such. And that’s a good thing, because Denmark has 5.7 million inhabitants; it’s not going to make a big difference if we lower our CO2 emissions. It has to be on a broader international scale, and the EU is an amazing vehicle to do just that, so the EU has adopted extremely ambitious goals for CO2 goals and we’ve managed to actually implement that basically through carbon taxes. So the EU is doing a great job when it comes to climate and green technology. Denmark has taken a lot of individual changes and behavioral changes on the citizen level such as the bike-riding in Copenhagen: huge things that change people’s daily lives to try and achieve a sustainable future. So what do you think the citizen’s role is in shaping democracy and policy change in Denmark? Well, you always have to start at the citizen level. When you talk about the biking culture in Copenhagen, for example: 70% of people commute to work by bike in Copenhagen. You cannot force people to do that, but you can create the conditions that will make people actually choose that way of commuting, and that’s the way we do things in Denmark. The whole green transition has not been pushed by legislation; the government has simply created the conditions for companies to develop these technologies and make the necessary investments, providing, of course, subsidies to encourage these investments. It’s not done by the government itself, it’s the citizens and the private companies who are the real people in the front when it comes to the green transition. The Embassy of Denmark works actively with over 30 universities and schools in the U.S. to promote this green agenda. What can students do to make a better future? As I said, it all starts at the citizen level and that also means universities. This is where we have an audience: when we go to the Ministry of Energy these days, they don’t believe in climate change, so it’s difficult to talk about and promote these things, but you have a different audience when you go to universities. If you can implant the idea in young people’s minds that green technology just makes sense whether or not you believe in climate change, you’ve taken a pretty big step.

“Back then it was mainly due to necessity: we wanted to become more energy-independent than we were. That started the transition to a greener economy because renewable energy just makes sense.”

The International Relations Review

SECURITY

Spring 2018

ISIS: A Sustaining Nightmare by Cameron Barkan

Yemen’s Civil War and Ongoing Humanitarian Crisis by Michelle Ramiz

Mexico’s Dirty War by Julia Mullert

Libya’s Slave Trade by Kaylin Ikeda

The War for the World by Raina Kadavil

Photo by Kexin Yang

The International Relations Review

ISIS: A Sustaining Nightmare By Cameron Barkan, CAS ‘18

ISIS’ rapid rise in the destabilized areas of Iraq and Syria showed the success of a well formulated terrorism strategy. ISIS gained territory, recruited foreign fighters and indoctrinated members with a persistent approach that incorporated technological and logistical methods that few nonstate actors could replicate. Despite having the research in place to predict the movements of a terrorist group such as ISIS, models could not have possibly forecasted the effectiveness of ISIS. By examining research from before and during ISIS’ years of prominence, the unique skills of the group can be observed. The group does not necessarily employ experimental

Photo By Cameron Barkan

strategies for exporting their ideology, but rather took proven strategies and improved them. For instance, ISIS is not the first terrorist

the diversity and sheer number of foreign fighters engaged in conflict, ISIS flourished through this strategy. By using theoretical arguments about terrorism, quantitative analysis, case studies and policy analysis, its is possible to examine what made ISIS’ development unique. ISIS evolved through its ability to provide an identity for individuals, craft a logical and persuasive narrative, and function as a self-sustaining organization. First, considerable research on the relationship between terrorism and the search for identity group to use a multimedia approach helps explain ISIS’ ability to recruit to help recruits without an identity well. ISIS qualifies as an entitative foster a symbiotic relationship with group based on their recruiting the terrorist group, but based on methods. Individuals who joined

“ISIS has shown itself to be a global threat with or without territory.”

Spring 2018 ISIS are indoctrinated in their habits, schedule, and ideology. Those recruited by ISIS discuss spending hours online interacting with recruiters through social media apps. In a study of linkages on Twitter, ISIS sympathizers were found to be the 3rd largest Twitter community. With thousands of accounts perpetuating an onslaught of ideology, uncertainty-identity theory applies to ISIS’ message. Those people who do not have their own community or identity can call thousands of people online who adhere to the strict teachings of ISIS their friends. Foreign recruits were received by ISIS recruiters with gifts, constant messages, and an entire new network of friends online. One recruit, an isolated disabled woman from rural Washington, claimed she felt a new sense of community in the ISIS twitter community. Enough anecdotal accounts of individuals feeling attached to the community of ISIS demonstrates the effectiveness of their message and leaders in guiding uncertain individuals towards their ideology. While ISIS’ ideology and practices transform their members into an exclusive organization, there are low barriers to entry. While members were forced to abide by a strict code of conduct upon entering the group, the lack of innate characteristics of an average foreign fighter allowed for anyone seeking identity satisfaction to join. By allowing almost anyone who agrees with their message regardless of background join, ISIS was able to branch out considerably. Young disenfranchised Muslims, petty criminals and the mentally ill were all included in the ranks of ISIS. Disenfranchised Muslims were the most common group of people who sought membership, yet many

Photo By Cameron Barkan of them seemed to be dealing with other issues. There were many cases in the Molenbeek district in Belgium, where many foreign fighters were recruited, when career criminals were converted into ISIS fighters. Almost paralleling the way someone without direction in life would join a sports team or activist group, these recruits found an identity that was not related to petty crime, but instead a larger purpose. To an uncertain individual seeking purpose in a tumultuous period of his or her life, ISIS was a blessing.

In addition to giving these people an identity, ISIS went even further as to sell the ISIS member identity as a trendy culture in a comprehensive narrative. ISIS has reinforced the idea of Jihadi Cool which mirrors the gangster rap subculture. By incorporating popular music and fiery language, ISIS tries to be seen as indicative of popular youth Muslim culture. By portraying fighters as heroic figures in their magazines, ISIS’ relentless propaganda has enforced Jihadi Cool and paired it with a strong narrative.

49 Generally, ISIS’ creation of a strong identity was instrumental in sustaining its recruiting practices. ISIS goes beyond the normality of simply creating an identity and includes a trendy pop culture element by infusing social media with rap elements and heroic imagery. ISIS stresses this popular warrior image as a tactic so recruits will bandwagon onto their cause. The crafting of this identity gave ISIS the power to recruit foreign fighters with success that has not been found by other groups. When examining the narrative itself, one can observe its persuasion and attraction. ISIS is portrayed as an oppositionist underdog destined to fight for the oppressed. ISIS tells stories of Muslims who are discriminated against in Chechnya, France, the Philippines and other places around the world. The group refers to westerners as crusaders and paints any opposition as supporting the extermination of Muslims. Western

Photo by Stephen Conrad

The International Relations Review military operations are considered deliberate attempts to murder civilians through drone strikes and the exploitation of Muslims. After years of western presence in the Middle East with mixed results, it is understandable how Muslims in the Middle East can see Westerners as immoral crusaders with a distaste for Islam. Outside of the Middle East, Islamophobia and the banning of Islamic practices such as the burqa ban in western countries have made Muslims feel unwelcome. ISIS is not the only group to have this narrative, but ISIS has portrayed the role of the underdog with enough skill to draw sympathizers globally. ISIS’ persistent recruiting would not have mattered if they did not have a model to implement both within their territory and in their diaspora. One of the group’s unique attributes is its decentralized structure that at times is only bound by an ideology. A fighter in Syria is indoctrinated with the same ideology as a domestic terrorist in France. This

is part of the reason that despite massive territorial losses in Iraq and Syria, ISIS remains a global threat as a self-sustaining terrorist organization. There are multiple ways for a terrorist group to burn out despite a large following. Audrey Cronin, when examining the decline of terrorist groups, cites multiple causes of a terrorist group’s demise. The factors are as follows: capturing/ killing of leaders, unsuccessful transition, achievement of goals, transition to a legitimate process, loss of support, repression and transition out of terrorism. When some of these relevant factors are examined, it becomes clear that ISIS’ self-sustaining structure has and will continue to make it a global threat. ISIS is self-sustaining in that most of the radicalization literature is resilient online despite efforts to deradicalize the internet. A few clicks to the right websites can instantly connect someone with an ISIS recruiter over Twitter, Skype,

Spring 2018 and other messaging applications. In recent months, ISIS has been losing land in military battles and from constant airstrikes, and by Cronin’s ideas would appear to be collapsing. But despite the killing and capturing of leaders, ISIS’ online indoctrination helps maintain the terrorist group even without territory. Their large Twitter sphere is capable of inspiring attacks and supporting splinter groups around the globe. All of ISIS’ documents, news, and social media accounts are still springing up on the internet as for every account taken down, more rise in its place. ISIS’ online presence is still prevalent despite attempts by large technology companies to take down terrorist material. Considering ISIS’ attacks can occur through internet based instruction, they do not need land to launch attacks against their perceived enemies. Part of understanding how ISIS is self-sustaining is understanding the way it operates. Their online approach of bombarding recruits with contacts, information and sometimes even gifts has been acknowledged, but their other methods for enticing people to commit acts of terror must also be examined. ISIS members will use their online contacts for instructions on how to carry out attacks, with some individuals receiving up to the minute instructions. Terrorists can carry out attacks for ISIS with varying levels of contact. Some terrorists have constant contact and instructions from ISIS leading up to the attack, some only contact ISIS a short time before carrying out their attack without using ISIS resources, and others do not contact ISIS at all and simply pledge support to ISIS at the time of the attack. Without leaders

50 knowing beforehand, individuals can still support ISIS’ agenda. This is what makes ISIS truly unique and self-sustaining. Other terrorist groups have collapsed when their institutional hierarchy collapses, but ISIS has instead built a do-ityourself jihad model where anyone who has read about ISIS’ objectives and ideology can forward its agenda. In addition, other terrorist groups around the world have pledged themselves to ISIS in a loose terrorist confederation. ISIS no longer just represents a strategic caliphate in the Middle East, but also the objectives of subsidiary terrorist groups from North Africa to Southeast Asia. Under ISIS, these groups have an umbrella network that allows for the global distribution of propaganda and resources. In terms of Cronin’s other factors for decline, this selfsustaining model means capturing/ killing the leaders or unsuccessful generational transition will not destroy the group as the online information can keep the group alive. Achievement of the cause, transition towards peace, or transition out of terrorism are all unrealistic based on the lack of a negotiation space built into ISIS’ ideology nor the capability to form a massive territory for a caliphate that will satisfy its followers. This only leaves loss of popular support as the way for ISIS to decline and end. While this is the only feasible way for ISIS to end, it also seems to be the least likely to occur. When cornered, instead of surrendering, ISIS can simply dissolve into the cracks of the internet and spring up in one of their affiliated areas. With ISIS sympathizers comprising of a large network and an abundance of pro-ISIS online content, it is likely more people will be enticed by its

message. ISIS is notorious all over the world and its popularity will help perpetuate its existence as long as people continue to be inspired by it. Essentially, ISIS has given uncertain individuals the gift of identity in the form of an extremist ideology and an exciting narrative. By marketing this narrative well and creating a self-sustaining structure, ISIS has shown itself to be a global threat with or without territory. ISIS’ effectiveness in providing a powerful message and marketing it well enough so it can thrive on its own has disastrous implications for the future of terrorism. For one, any individual with an internet connection can be radicalized. Those individuals who are already radicalized may return from Iraq and Syria to find a lack of deradicalization structure. Countries such as Denmark have found success in deradicalization; however, other countries do not have the resources to deradicalize their returning foreign fighters. In addition, there are still other terrorist groups across the globe linked with ISIS that have already been captivated by its ideology. Terrorism is a response to the failure of conventional methods to induce change. ISIS’ form of terrorism can be seen as a response to the previous failures of other terrorist movements. By incorporating an effective recruiting approach and becoming entrenched in the online world, the only hope for ending ISIS would be to contain the group and figure out how to counter its message. With sympathizers spread throughout the world and a weak counter narrative, it is unlikely for ISIS to disappear soon.

The International Relations Review

Yemen’s Civil War and Ongoing Humanitarian Crisis By Michelle Ramiz CAS ‘19 Yemen, the second-largest country in the Arabian peninsula, has had a turbulent history which has, in recent years, been defined entirely by its civil war. Yemen has a two thousand mile coastline and includes over two hundred islands, and historically was very prosperous until the era of colonialism, and since 1990 when it became a single united Yemeni state, Yemen has been known as the poorest in the Middle East and ranked 164 out of 182 countries surveyed on the 2009 International Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International. Saudi Arabia has had a large role not only in the civil war, but also in setting up the mechanism that led to its

“Shortages and deficiencies at every level of Yemeni society have created a highly complex and multilevel crisis. ” development, seeing as power in the country was held largely by a small circle of politicians that included lobbyists from Saudi Arabia that acted as power brokers in Yemen and helped exact Saudi influence. Political turmoil since 2011 caused by protests of the widespread corruption brought about at first in an initially relatively smooth

handoff in power that eventually led to a takeover by the Shia Houthi group of the capital city of Sana’a and eventually the government. Since then, Yemen has been thrust into a civil war to which there seems to be no end, and a humanitarian crisis which is taking many lives daily is underway. Historically, Yemen has been divided between Shia and Sunni Muslims, with the split being 65% and 35% of the two groups, respectively. This is very important to the events that define the Yemen Civil War, as protection of those populations is one of the main ways multiple outside governments such as Saudi Arabia and Iran have justified their involvement in, and destruction of, the state. The political situation in Yemen prior to the Civil War has been largely monopolized by Ali Abdullah Saleh since 1978, who has been repeatedly “elected.” The president of Yemen since 1978 until 2012 was Ali Abdullah Saleh. He was killed in a grenade attack near the captured capital of Sana’a by the Houthi rebels. Protests sparked by the Arab Spring in 2011 touched Yemen as well, and in March President Saleh first announced that a parliamentary system would be created in Yemen, then in April that he was going to leave office as part of a deal with other Gulf nations. Saleh went back on his word and did not leave office until the presidential palace was struck by missiles. The attack resulted in him officially

handing power over to his vicepresident Abdu Rabu Mansur Hadi in February of 2012. The transfer of power of Saleh to Hadi was through “referendumlike” election in which Hadi was the only candidate, after which Saleh escaped to Aden. At this time, Saudi Arabia started its air strikes on Sana’a against the Houthis, Al Qaeda, and Saleh loyalists. The United States originally supported the Yemeni government in the fight against Al Qaeda, which Saleh has been accused of letting run rampant in Yemen during his time as president, but pulled out once Saudi Arabia stepped in. Now, they support the Saudi effort instead. Hadi tried to face-off the system of antiquated bureaucracy and corruption in Yemen, but to no avail because his reforms were not sufficient, as well as the state of civil war and almost constant foreign involvement in Yemen only contributed to the issues at hand. Foreign involvement in Yemen has played a large role in the Houthi rebels taking over the capital city, inaction against Al-Qaeda, and government-led forces wreaking ever more damage upon civilians. Iran, as the only Shia majority country not in the middle of a bloody civil war is protecting its interests by supporting the Shia Houthi rebels. The theological movement gained a foothold in 2014 as people protested in the capital of Sana’a for the Hadi government to step down, with the leader of the group Abdumalek al-

Spring 2018 Houthi saying, “This government is a puppet in the hands of influential forces, which are indifferent to the rightful and sincere demands of these people,” and according to many, he was referring to the United States as the indifferent influential force. The United States was supporting the change in government, which resulted in the snubbing of fuel subsidies and an ongoing lack of a representative government, it was seen as an enemy. The US supported its interests and the candidate that would please Saudi Arabia, which was Hadi, without much consideration for the effects that would have domestically, or his ability to handle the issues rampant in Yemen. Although a peace deal was brokered in which the armed Houthi group agreed to withdraw from Sana’a, the rebels did not comply and pushed into more provinces and cities. The final straw for the rebels was Hadi naming Yemen’s US envoy Khaled Bahah as the new prime minister alongside

52 the announcement of a new constitution drafted by a specialized panel planned to divide Yemen into six regions. Hadi was placed under house arrest by the rebels after he refused to concede, and eventually he fled to Aden, another Yemeni city, and then sought refuge in Saudi Arabia. Hadi resigned in 2015 after “Prime Minister Khaled Bahah had offered his government’s resignation, saying it did not want to be dragged into ‘an unconstructive political maze,’” writes Reuters. Thus, the Houthis effectively took over the Yemeni government, but Al Qaeda forces active in the country were displeased by this and they began attacks on various Houthi targets. Air strikes by Saudi Arabia began soon after because of the animosity expressed by the Houthi rebels who now had control of the government, and have resulted in the destruction of not only people’s lives, but many cultural heritage sites and the overall societal infrastructure of the

country as well. The Houthi group is now more united than ever in terms of leadership, and has control of most of Sana’a. All of this fighting on behalf of Houthi and government forces, Saudi airstrikes, and rampant terrorism has resulted in one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern history. The scale of this crisis orchestrated by outside forces has affected every aspect of Yemeni society, and this is where the international community needs to take responsibility and step in to help the country they aided in disintegrating. According to UNICEF, a child dies every ten minutes in Yemen, and some 400,000 children are at risk of starvation with another 2.2 million in need of urgent care. Most of the casualties thus far have been the result of Saudi-led air bombardment alongside their blockade of food and humanitarian aid. The International Red Cross has so far attempted to keep the hospital in the capital city Photo by Dera Silvestre

53 of Sana’a, but the distribution of humanitarian aid over the entire country has simply not been enough, with 75% of Yemen’s population in need of aid. 11.3 million of these are children. Sixteen million people do not have water and proper sanitation and 60% of Yemenis do not have enough food to eat. UN agencies have reported that despite severely limited access to the desperate civilian communities, there has been “some progress” and they they have “reached nearly 6 million people with clean water, distributed 3.7 million liters of fuel to public schools, treated more than 167, 000 children for severe acute malnutrition, delivered more than 2, 700 metric tons of medicines and medical supplies and vaccinated 4.8 million children against polio, and delivered food assistance to around 7 million people a month.” The shortages of clean water, destruction of mass systems of sanitation, and decreased food supply have all contributed to a public health crisis that has taken the form of a massive cholera and diphtheria breakout in the country as well. The World Health Organization has reported more than 2,000 deaths and 815,000 cases of cholera in Yemen, according to The Guardian, with 4,000 suspected cases reported daily, and children under the age of five accounting for 25% of all cases. The Guardian also reports that although Haiti had also 815,000 cases of cholera, it was over the course of six years between 2010 and 2017, meanwhile in Yemen those numbers were reached in just six months. “Save the Children” is predicting that soon, 60% of all those infected will be children, Photo by Michelle Ramiz

The International Relations Review and that “there is no doubt this is a man-made crisis. Cholera only rears its head when there’s a complete and total breakdown in sanitation. All parties to the conflict must take responsibility for the health emergency that we find ourselves in.” Not only is military action to blame for the largescale public health crisis, but also for the breakdown of Yemeni infrastructure. This has most recently taken the form of sanitation workers going on strike after months of their work going unpaid, which has only exacerbated the sanitation problem as garbage left in the streets has washed into the already unclean water supply. Yemeni public health organizations have not been functional since 2016 when the government stopped funding them, so most healthcare is coming from international organizations. Although all organizations involved understand the need to shift to a less dependent model of aid that will allow Yemen to sustain itself, the roadblocks are extensive. As quoted by the Guardian, “Aldogani [Save the Children’s health adviser] said: ‘All the NGOs are trying to increase the knowledge of how to prevent the disease, because it’s preventable, you have to boil the water. But if you don’t have money to buy gas, and you have to walk a long way to get the wood, how can you boil the water?’” Shortages and deficiencies at every level of Yemeni society have created a highly complex and multilevel crisis. Saudi-led airstrikes and a blockade of Yemen’s borders indicate that there is little hope to be had for the crisis in Yemen

to be dying down. Cholera and diphtheria usually appear only in places that are past the point of no return in terms of the deterioration of their infrastructure. Due to the progression of the civil war indicating no improvement in the near future of the organization of the government, there is little hope that any infrastructure will be restored to any semblance of function in Sana’a or other major cities. Yemen was in the past a very prosperous country that has been plunged into disrepair and corruption, and is now yet another spot of the proxy war of powers of east and west that has been breaking out all over the world. Perhaps in some time as the powers at play divert their attention from Yemen towards other conflicts, the country will get a chance to heal and recuperate, but in the meantime, the situation is only going to worsen, at the cost of countless more human lives. Although international organizations are present in the country and are putting in a lot of effort to provide aid to civilian victims of a political crisis, it is crucial not to overlook that nations such as the United States that provide aid have also contributed largely to the current situation. Many factors contributed to the current state of Yemeni infrastructure, political turmoil, and the public health crisis, and it is almost impossible for Yemen alone to face and fix every factor individually. The crux of the solution lies in whether or not other players that have been responsible for Yemen’s issues will step in to help solve them, but history disproves any optimism on this matter and only time will tell exactly what lies ahead for Yemen and its people.

Spring 2018

Mexico’s Dirty War The Enactment of “The General Law on Enforced Disappearances” By Julia Mullert, CGS ‘21 In October of 2017, Mexico finally passed the hotly contested General Law on Forced Disappearances, the product of two years of debate in Congress. The bill, which addresses the thousands of people that have been recorded as missing in the past few decades, is the nation’s first step towards improving its poor record on human rights. The government officially enacted the bill on January 16, 2018 after facing great pressure from both its citizens and the international community. However,

the nation’s unsuccessful history in enforcing widespread reform and the corruption that still runs rampant in the Mexican government casts an ominous shadow over the otherwise idealistic bill. According to international human rights law, a forced disappearance occurs when “a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization… of a state or political organization, followed

by a refusal to acknowledge the person’s fate and whereabouts, with the intent of placing the victim outside the protection of the law.” Many times, these victims are taken to indiscriminate locations to be tortured, only to eventually have their bodies dumped in mass graves and forgotten about. Forced disappearances have existed since Mexico’s origins as a state, but the abduction of citizens first reached a fever pitch in the 1960s and 70s

Photo by Raina Kadavil

55 during the Mexican front of the Cold War. Like many countries at the time, Mexico was engaged in an internal conflict between the authoritarian, PRI-ruled government that was backed by the U.S. left-wing student and guerrilla groups. During this period thousands of citizens, predominantly women under the age of eighteen, went missingabducted by the government in the middle of the night and never seen again. There is still very little known about the victims and their children, or where their bodies were buried. While many nations with their own Dirty Wars, such as Argentina, have pushed to uncover the atrocities committed and serve justice for the victims, Mexico has taken no such steps. Instead, there has been an unacknowledged shift from political disappearances to criminal ones. Criminal disappearances, unlike political ones, are conducted primarily conducted by organized crime rings seeking to control the drug trade. While the government is often complicit in these disappearances, they are more erratic and less obviously connected than those of the 60s and 70s. Those who go missing are typically young people who witnessed something they shouldn’t have, or members of rival gangs. Thus so far, attempts to crack down on these incidents have proven unsuccessful. After the Mexican government attempted to enact legislation on organized crime in 2006, the rate of disappearances rose even higher. The most notable incident occurred in 2014, when 43 male students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College were forcibly taken, then disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico. They were travelling to

The International Relations Review Mexico City to participate in a memorial of the 1968 Tlatelolco Massacre, which took place when a group of students and civilians were slaughtered by the government. The details of exactly what happened to the college students remain unclear to this day, though there are many theories and conspiracies that exist. All that is known for certain is that the police created a roadblock and seized the men as they drove through Iguala. It is presumed that they were then taken into custody, and then handed over to the local Guerreros Unidos crime syndicate and murdered. The incident drew

“a person is secretly abducted or imprisoned by a state or political organization or by a third party with the authorization…” international backlash, including onsite visits, reports, letters of condemnation from NGOs and from international bodies. However, the government still has yet to account for the crime. As of 2018, the Mexican government officially recognizes 33,000 missing people, per a study conducted by National Human Rights Commission. The vast majority of these victims are women and children. However, there is no national registry of the missing, and the state frequently runs out of money to conduct DNA testing on the exhumed bodies. Jorge Winckler, the nation’s Attorney-General, commented once once commented that “the entire state is a mass grave.” Forced disappearances,

particularly of those under eighteen, leave families in a suspended sort of limbo, unable to accept that their child is gone forever. While they accept that their loved one is most likely dead, they are unable to fully come to terms with the circumstances. There is no case without a body, and convictions are served in less than 2% of cases. Thus, many take the quest for justice into their own hands, not trusting local authorities, or seeing them as being complicit in the abductions. These people travel in groups, seeking out information about their missing family members, digging for mass graves themselves, and even raising funds to buy their own DNA tests. It is highly dangerous work, and more often than not goes unfruitful. The General Law on Forced Disappearances is one that has been a long time coming, after undergoing years of debate and mass media attention. The law, which was unanimously voted on with 361 votes in its favor, includes the creation of a national search commission, a citizen’s council and a national registry of disappeared people, all major steps for the country. It also enacts definitive punishments for those who have been involved in criminal-level disappearances. Penalties of 40 to 60 years in prison will be given for the crime of forced disappearance of persons by a public official as well as a private individual in complicity with an official who commits abduction and/or concealment of information. The sentences increase if there was a child involved, or if the victim belonged to an ethnic minority. Officially enacted on January 16th, 2018, it is too soon to see definitive results from the bill.

Spring 2018 However, despite the positive step forward in improving Mexicoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s human rights record, the Law on Enforced Disappearances poses several major concerns that seem predestined to hinder its success, most notably the corruption that still pervades within the government. Mexico is ranked 123rd among 176 countries in the 2016 Corruption Perception Index, and on a scale of zero (very corrupt) to one hundred (very clean), Mexico ranked at thirtieth. In his novel La economia presidences, the author Gabriel Zaid wrote â&#x20AC;&#x153;Corruption is not a disagreeable aspect of the Mexican political system: it is the system.â&#x20AC;? This holds especially true

56 when it comes to organized crime, which creates a vicious cycle of bribery and impunity, often at the expense of human rights. While the past five years have seen a new push for anticorruption legislation, the bills that have been passed have all dealt with the symptoms of corruption rather than the heart of the issue, thereby maintaining the status quo. And while activists have fought long and hard to hold the government accountable, systemic corruption cannot be eradicated through the enactment of legislative instruments by the legal bodies that are themselves corrupt. It is for this reason that the

Law on Enforced Disappearances, while precise and highly effective on paper, has very little hope of inciting real change. Without the proper system to enact and maintain the measures laid out in the bill, and the end to government collusion with powerful criminal rings, Mexican citizens will continue to go missing, and their deaths will continue to go unanswered for. Rather than a sign of progress, the international community should view the Law on Enforced Disappearances as a sign of the change that needs to come, and a symbol of hope for future generations.

Photo by Raina Kadavil

Libya’s Slave Trade

The International Relations Review

An Overlooked Catastrophe By Kaylin Ikeda, CAS ‘20 For over 40 years, Libya was under the dictatorship of Muammar Gaddafi, whose assassination in 2011 created a power vacuum and a violent struggle for control. The National Transitional Council liberated Libya and placed the General National Congress in power; however, the people chose a Council of Representatives to head Libya, leaving Tobruk and the capital, Tripoli, in the hands of various opposing militias. The Islamic State took advantage of this disorder to control Libya’s main cities: Derna and Sirte. When the United Nations intervened and placed Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj in power, the two conflicting groups within Tripoli and Tobruk did not recognize Sarraj. Libya’s fragile state of fragmented rule leaves it

Staggering statistics reveal migrants’ desperate desire to flee the country in search for a better life. Over 15 thousand migrants and refugees risked their lives to flee from Libya to Europe, with approximately three thousand people drowning in in the Mediterranean Sea during this process. In addition, tens of thousands of refugees pour into Libya with hopes of emigrating across the Mediterranean; however, stricter Libyan coastguard regulations leave smugglers with a surplus of refugees. While the UN backs Libya’s government, its fractured rule of law creates a platform for corruption and unregulated trades, such as human trafficking, through which refugees fleeing the country are sold into slavery by smugglers for profit. In attempting to escape the corruption and violence within their home countries, these refugees end up being trapped into a system of slavery and trafficking that operates out of Libya. Glimmers of hope slowly dwindle. Smugglers have various means of extracting payment from their victims. They may trap migrants, for example, by demanding additional fees after the initial payment has already been vulnerable to various forms of made. They may also place migrants corruption, with the smuggling of in dilapidated jails and force them refugees and migrants being only to call family members and beg for one example. funds in order to attain freedom. If

“Another migrant... told BBC about his experience being wrapped in barbed wire and beaten with an iron rod.”

Photo by Lily Dahlin

their families fail to gather enough money within a certain amount of time, migrants are thrown into even worse holding cells and are eventually murdered, unless disease or malnutrition reach them first. When ransoms could not be met, many female refugees were “forced into prostitution and sexual exploitation” in order to pay their captors. Victory, one of many migrants who fell victim to smugglers, told CNN about this horrifying experience during an interview. In an effort to escape Nigeria’s corruption, Victory gathered his life savings and tried to reach Europe. Once Victory made it to Libya, he recalled being held “in grim living conditions, deprived of food, abused and mistreated by captors.” He also noted that most of the migrants were beaten and mutilated. Soon, Victory “ran out of funds and was sold as a day laborer by his smugglers” who told him that whatever profit they made by trading him would “reduce his debt.” To his dismay, Victory worked week after week only to discover that his smugglers demanded more money and he was “re-sold several more times.” His smugglers also demanded a ransom from his family. After paying his smugglers over a million Nigerian naira, Victory still awaits his return to Nigeria, where

Spring 2018

he will be left with nothing. Jackson Uwumarogie and Felix Efe were taken from the coast of Libya to Gharyan where they were blindfolded while they heard a prison guard negotiating prices for them and eighteen other men. Their worth was determined to be one thousand dinars. This group of migrants was then transported to a farm where they harvested onions and fed cattle while being “guarded day and night by men with guns.” They lived in a constant state of starvation, and were given “food every few days, and sometimes given sea water to drink.” Six months later, Uwumarogie and five others were dumped in the desert before they were rescued by a man who took them to the International Organization for Migration. Another migrant, Mac Agheyere, told BBC about his experience being wrapped in barbed wire and beaten with an iron rod. Agheyere believed he was going to Nigeria, but was delayed an extra seven months in Gharaya, where he witnessed the deaths of twenty people. In October of last year, an exclusive CNN report with hidden camera footage captured live auctions in Libya. This footage showed at least nine locations of slavery rings in Libya, but it is assumed there are several others. The news went viral for a short period of time, but was soon cast in the shadow of other international affairs. In November of last year, the International Organization for Migration received Libya’s investigation, but warned that smuggling rings are getting smarter, and that the challenges migrants

face may not be met with distinct answers. Other prominent figures such as Alpha Conde, president of the African Union, as well as United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres made statements to combat this crime against humanity; however, it is a complex catastrophe that has yet to be resolved. Many believe the responsibility falls on the world’s shoulders, and while this is an issue that needs to be tackled in a timely manner, not much can be done unless key international players provide assistance. For example, once the European Union eases on their immigration policy, more immigrants will be able to flee from Libya into Europe; however the issue of European immigration is an intricate one as there are already a lot of immigrants. Italy is a prime example, because the Italian government paid “warlords controlling Libya’s coast to curb the flow of migrants” which led to a decline in migration by “85 percent.” It seems that this restriction produced an accumulation of people for Libya’s smugglers, amplifying the slave trade. Everyone needs to cooperate on a global scale and come together in order to combat slavery. It is important to note that this problem is bigger than one country--it affects numerous countries and demands worldwide attention. While there is an investigation into Libya backed by the United Nations, the UN has rejecting assuming full control of this situation, because it “exceeds the national capacities,” or is beyond the control of just a few states. Working toward Libya’s unification

and weeding out corrupt officials and militia is a necessary first step in combating the growing networks of smugglers in the country. Thus far, European and African leaders met at an Ivory Coast summit in order to formulate a strategy to evacuate approximately 15 thousand people from Libya. The summit also included discussions about plans to target traffickers. And while the United Nations Security Council is amping up its work, the United Nations Refugee Agency stated its problem is “dramatic funding gaps” particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Rwanda has provided asylum to Sub-Saharan Africans trapped in Libya which has relieved thousands. Officials are reacting, but support should not end there. Trafficking is an issue all too common to failed states, and needs to be recognized and discussed more often. With up to one million migrants detained in Libya, humanitarian action is necessary now more than ever. Libya’s slavery is a brutal example of history repeating itself, “reminiscent of one of the darkest chapters in human history” when millions were enslaved and trafficked during the African slave trade. Unfortunately, the international attention Libya’s slave trade has received is not comparable to the harm it cause caused. The issue only made news in 2017 because undercover CNN workers stumbled upon it, even though it has been going on for much longer. This was one example of many that can set the stage for “a 21st century abolitionist movement,” bringing an end to this oppression. No life should equal a price tag.

The War for the World

The International Relations Review

How Climate Change May Come to Pose the World’s Greatest Security Threat By Raina Kadavil, CAS ‘19 After two World Wars, a global Cold War, and a series of genocides, violent conflict is generally accepted as a part of human history and human practice. All throughout history and even today, the ignition of these conflict is generally credited to human action: rivalries, alliances, assassinations. Yet, the world today faces a new killer: climate change. Fortunately, unlike humans, climate change is predictable, and in many cases, reversible. Unfortunately, it is commonly trivialized and deprioritized, facilitating its potential to cause destruction. As long as governments remain

ignorant to the role that climate change has to play in many modern conflicts, more conflicts will continue to arise and threaten global and national security in the future. Climate change is altering our planet at a faster rate than ever before in history, and the impacts often take the form of violent conflict. The impacts can be seen across the globe in every continent and geographic zone, from SubSaharan Africa to the Arctic to the South Pacific. Changing climate disrupts human activity and alters geographic niches that humans have inhabited and built

civilizations within for thousands of years. Droughts, floods, famines, agricultural devastation, and loss of coastal land are all significant results that commonly lead to conflict, especially in parts of the world with weakly structured governments, which is ironically where these issues often manifest most heavily. Former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the conflict in Darfur as the world’s first climate change conflict. A series of droughts have swept across Sudan and South, deteriorating drinking water, evaporating water holes,

Photo by Claire Martin

“Sample pull quote. Minion Pro. 24 pt. No hyphens.”

Spring 2018

60 Photo by Michael Yang

and decimating farmers’ pastures, exacerbating tensions between the two nations. Today, the southern Nuba tribe has already warned that they could “restart the war” that was ended by a fragile peace accord in 2005 because Arab nomads from Sudan have been pushing south due to drought and deforesting in order to feed their camels. The conflict in Sudan is just the first of many hotspots across Africa that will face disruption due to climate change. Neighboring Chad has already faced conflict due to droughts and floods that ravage the nation. Already, rainfall is down by 30% and the Sahara Desert is advancing by over a mile each year. The UN Environment Program estimates that there could be up to a 70% drop in crop yields in the Sahel, one of the most economically fragile regions of Africa. In South Africa, the major city of Cape Town is already set to be totally devoid of water by July 2018. While conflict in Africa has historically often taken the form of resource struggles, damage caused by climate change has the potential to rise drastically

in the future as climate change depletes resources in alreadyvulnerable areas. Simple issues like failed harvests or lost homelands can easily aggravate tensions between adjacent ethnic groups, leading to violent civil wars, two thirds of which have occurred along ethnic lines since 1946. Extreme weather like cyclones, floods, and even an exacerbated El Niño are said to have aggravated the conflicts not only in Sudan and South Sudan, but in other major hotspots like Syria, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen, as well. Research by Marshall Burke suggests that a one percent increase in temperature in Africa leads to a 4.5 percent increase in civil war in the same year, based on an analysis of past internal conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa. If this model continues to reign true, the world can expect a 54% increase in armed conflict in a region that is already one of the most conflictstricken in the world. Instability due to climate change is nowhere more concerning than in South Asia and East Asia,

where three nuclear powers with gargantuan populations struggle with historic disputes. Food insecurity and water stress were identified as major factors that raised the threshold of violence in Syria due to decreased crop yields, and they are being estimated to have the potential to wreak havoc on India, Pakistan, and China, too. Nestled in the Tibetan Plateau, five major rivers (Indus, Ganges, Yangtze, Mekong, and Brahmaputra) provide water to 40% of the world’s population. Landslides, flash floods, erratic rainfall, and the melting of the Siachin Glacier threaten the dynamics between the three nations, particularly over Kashmir, where the many of Pakistan’s key water resources originate. The decline of over 10,000 glaciers in the Tianshan range also have the potential to cause conflict in Central Asian nations including Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan, all

“issues like failed harvests or lost homelands can easily aggravate tensions between adjacent ethnic groups, leading to violent civil wars,” of which depend on its seasonal snowmelts for water. The Arctic is a region that has the potential to spur violent conflict among the Arctic nations, or the northernmost countries of Europe and North America. As glaciers and ice sheets melt, new shipping lanes open up, providing avenues of passage that Russians, Americans,

The International Relations Review

61 and Canadians in particular have coveted since the Age of Exploration. Canada has already claimed absolute sovereignty over the “Northwest Passage,” a claim which the United States vehemently disputes. Russia, meanwhile, has begun to expand on its Arctic military and civilian infrastructure, which the United States is quick to label as “Russian aggression.” Even China, which is far from being an Arctic nation, released a white paper called “China’s Arctic Policy” earlier this year, proposing Chinese infrastructure along Arctic routes as part of its new Belt and Road Initiative. Melting has also made it easier to drill huge new fields of oil and natural gas which would, ironically, further contribute to climate change: it is estimated that up to 25% of the world’s undiscovered fossil fuel reserves remain hidden under ice and sea north of the Arctic Circle. It is possible that the world’s next major security threat will bloom in the Arctic, inspired by melting ice. Meanwhile, indigenous populations such as those in Greenland, Iceland, and Alaska face major repercussions as their delicate environments deteriorate around them and their livelihoods disappear. Island nations in the South Pacific including Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa, and the Solomon Islands, face a very different conflict in the face of climate change: the may cease to exist altogether. Over the last several years, the eleven Pacific island nations have been devastated by cyclones, storm surges, irregular rainfall, and rapidly rising sea levels, all of which have contributed to coral bleaching, coastal erosion, salt-contaminated drinking water, destruction of staple crops, and major infrastructural damage. Two of the strongest cyclones in recorded

history have hit the South Pacific since 2015 alone. Some communities have attempted to delay the impacts of climate change on their lifestyles, like Tokelau in northern Samoa, who enclosed their islet in five-meterhigh concrete walls. However, this may not be enough if (or when) sea levels rise high enough to swallow the island whole. Currently, sea levels are rising at a rate of five millimeters per year globally, but twelve millimeters per year in the Southwestern Pacific. Already, eight islands in the South Pacific have been swallowed by the sea since 2016. The threat of disappearing land extends beyond the South Pacific

“It is estimated that up to 25% of the world’s undiscovered fossil fuel reserves remain hidden under ice and sea north of the Arctic Circle.” to island nations and coastal cities all over the world. The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Japan, Bangladesh, and Vietnam are some of the most vulnerable as a result of rising sea levels. Major cities in every part of the world, habitually built along coasts due to strategic advantage historically, are also at risk. Among these are New York City, Miami, Lagos, Shanghai, Osaka, Rio de Janeiro, Alexandria, Venice, Durban, and New Orleans, and many of them are feeling the effects already. This means that while the biggest security threat in the world today is

often considered to be the refugee crisis and not climate change, climate change has the potential to cause an even bigger refugee crisis that is not contained to just one region. The flooding of major cities by rising sea levels and melting mountain ice will destroy infrastructure and may force enormous populations – 6 million in Rio de Janeiro, 8.5 million in New York, 21 million in Lagos, 24.2 million in Shanghai – out of their cities and in search of new homes, creating a major security threat for nations around the world. As climate change coincides with a rapidly increasing human population, space to live becomes a lifeline resource just like water. Governments have two duties right now in order to prevent impending disaster: to prepare their vulnerable cities for impact, and to do what is possible to deter climate change. As climate change’s impacts continue, the potential for conflict over scarce resources and disappearing living space increases. Meanwhile, the wars that are currently being fought distract both the nations involved and those on the periphery by distracting them from addressing climate change, and further polluting and disrupting the environment and water resources in these nations. The Paris Climate Accords of 2015 were a step in the right direction, but the United States’ withdrawal under the Trump Administration has once again put the world’s commitment to tackling climate change in jeopardy. If the issue is allowed to continue growing at its current pace, we may see the world’s armies either clashing or cooperating to address it in the future. It may come to pass that the third world war is fought over this planet.

Spring 2018

Book Review

The Twisted Truth: Review of the Case Study: “Dangerous Omissions: How the U.S. Media Perpetuate the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict”

By Adia Armstrong CAS ‘20

Photo by Darren Stanizzi Birthright: The land of Israel – the physical, geographic location – is claimed by many on the basis of religion and birthright. The conflict over this territory is much older than Israel’s Independence Day, May 14th, 1948 or Nakba Day, May 15th, 1948. Though nothing about this conflict is black and white, it is generally agreed that there are clearly two sides

– Israel and Palestine. However, the case study, Dangerous Omissions: How the U.S. Media Perpetuate the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, written in 2006 by Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights, introduces a third actor in this conflict: the U.S. Media. The case study examines the portrayal of this multi-layered story in the biggest newspaper in the Pacific

Northwest, The Oregonian, based in Portland, Oregon. This conflict is rooted deep in history, but the media’s portrayal of each side’s story is relatively contemporary. This case study outlines the Israeli narrative, the Palestinian narrative and the “neutral narrative” in an effort to set the landscape for the context by which the battle on the ground -

63 and in print - takes place. The Israeli narrative believes the Jews have a right to the land, including their capital of Jerusalem. In the face of this conflict, Israel views itself as solely defending herself against her aggressors; hence, mechanisms like the wall, given that decision-making entities like the United Nations are decidedly antiIsrael. The Palestinian narrative states that Palestinians have the right to return: the wall is used to ethnically cleanse them and their suffering is due to the Israeli military occupation that defies the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Moreover, though they would be willing to share Jerusalem, Palestinians view the U.S. as a dishonest broker and the Israeli government as untrustworthy. Finally, the “neutral” narrative is said to condemn violence by both sides, favor a two-state solution, and believe that effective leadership is the key to peace in the region, with the United States as a mediator. These are just small snapshots into the narratives that dominate the headlines every time the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is presented. This case study shows the IsraeliPalestinian conflict in the context of the “news” section and the “opinion” section. It focuses on the news of the deaths on both sides of this conflict. The Israeli information control center, B’tselem was used to gather official numbers. In the span of May to October 2004, B’Tselem recorded 57 Israeli deaths and 505 Palestinian deaths. Of the 57 Israeli deaths, 57% were soldiers, 29% were adult civilians, and 14% were children. Even deeper, 88% of Israeli deaths were reported and 111% were highlighted in news headlines

The International Relations Review (some deaths were reported on more than once, hence the number is over 100%). All 100% of children deaths were reported and 88% headlined. In stark contrast, 505 Palestinians were killed within the same time span; 43% were combatants, 34% adult civilians, and 23% children. Of those, only 63% of Palestinian deaths were reported and 66% headlined. Moreover, 18% of children’s deaths were reported and 3% headlined. As per this study, not only did The Oregonian misrepresent the death toll as being balanced, it also failed to put the numbers in perspective when they reported them by not adding the cumulative totals. As the conclusion of this section of the study states, the “[s]kewed U.S. public opinion and public policy have helped perpetuate the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, violation of human rights, and disregard for international law.” In the opinion pages, the balance of narratives was surprisingly not very different from the news section. The case study evaluated a year’s worth of opinion pieces in The Oregonian comprised of editorials, commentaries, op-eds, cartoons, and letters to the editors. The study classified the different pieces as either representative of the Israeli, Palestinian or neutral narrative. The editorials came to be 83% Israeli narrative, 0% Palestinian narrative and 17% neutral narrative. The commentaries/Op-Eds were 56% Israeli narrative, 4% Palestinian narrative and 40% neutral narrative. The cartoons were not much different, as 62% were representative to the Israeli narrative as opposed to the 38% for Palestine. The only opinion pieces that were skewed to favor the

Palestinian narrative were the letters to the editors with 28% being Israeli, 58% Palestinian, and 14% neutral. This goes to show that the Palestinian narrative is severely underrepresented in The Oregonian which reflects, as this case study puts it, the news outlet’s low “journalistic standards for balance of fairness and accuracy.” It is unrealistic to expect all news coverage to be completely unbiased and neutral. However, when the media’s portrayal of a certain side or story leads to the creation of misconceptions and misinformation in favor of only one party, it is easy to classify as unjust. I had the privilege of visiting Israel and Palestine during the 2017-2018 winter intersession and I had predispositions like the rest of the world due to what I read in the media. I was expecting to witness animosity, division, and an inability of Israel and Palestine to live in relative harmony and I witnessed the opposite. Granted, my time in Israel and Palestine represents only one experience, and there are millions of other stories that may be better or worse than mine. I did witness hints of narrow-mindedness and discrimination. The region definitely has its areas for improvement on all fronts, especially on the front of human rights. However, it is not all smoke and bombs as the media would have us believe. What the media shows us is the truth, in certain contexts, but it is only a sliver of the truth. At the root of this case study is the universal argument that we should all be critical, mindful, and conscious of the media we consume because we never know if the story being presented is the twisted truth.

Spring 2018

Editorial

An Empire Built on Nostalgia: A Modern Look Into Russia By Alexander Pritzen, CAS ‘19 The Russian people surround themselves in a unified vision of Russian identity and former Soviet glory. This movement echoes the 19th century culture war between Slavophiles and Westernizers. The reverence guides the Russian spirit, while President Putin and United Russia are just clouds of the storm. Unlike Russian movements of the past, modern Russia hopes to find itself with the worship of power and resentment of Western civilization. The third volume of Russian history begins in 1991 with the opening of the Soviet Archives. Suddenly, the Russian consciousness collided with contradictions. A new nation, the Russian Federation, was born out of the shadows of loss and confusion. Virtue was transformed into evil overnight. Svetlana Alexievich, 2016 Literature Nobel Prize laureate, explains that the Fall’s chaos manifests itself as the “Red” man being unable “to enter the kingdom of freedom he had dreamed of around his kitchen table. Russia was divvied up without him, and he was left with nothing. Humiliated and robbed. Aggressive and dangerous.” Aleksei Balabanov’s film, Brother (1997), depicts postSoviet emptiness and confusion as the main character Danila who traverses the lawless St. Petersburg. Wealth and gang power define the meaning of life in this realistic depiction of the Former-Leningrad. This confusion is unable to survive for eternity, however, the turn of the century introduces a new ideology for the Russian people to turn to.

The anarchic dystopia of the 1990s was the perfect breeding ground for the convergence of Eurasianism and Postmodernsim, bridged by Alexander Dugin. Also known as “Putin’s Rasputin,” he has incredible influence as the head philosopher to Putin and access to key actors within the Kremlin. Professor Dugin, in his address to the Eurasian International Movement, defines Postmodernism as, “national state vs. Globalism; Traditional family… vs. transgenderism, homosexuality…; Collectivism vs. total individualism; Reality vs. ‘television screen’…”. Dugin’s thesis claims that Eurasianism can only win by embracing games of Power laid out by Postmodernism. Dugin and his nationalist allies articulate the philosophy of the Russian Collective. On December 20th, 2017, Lavada Center polling found that 83% of respondents felt homosexual relations to be “always reprehensible” or “almost always reprehensible”, an increase of 15% from polling in 1998. The same study also found a greater intolerance towards extramarital affairs and abortion. The Levada center found that 60% of Russians viewed the U.S. negatively, and 54% viewed the EU negatively. 68% of Russians do not “feel worried about Western sanctions”, suggesting Russian feelings are not a direct response to sanctions. Furthermore, only 25% of Russians oppose the idea of internet censorship, while 60% find censorship a necessity. President Putin’s approval rating is

Photo by Danielle Wallner 81% . Putin and Dugin are manning the helm of this Russian warship. However, the helm is simply a prop, entirely disconnected from the rudder. The Russian warship is solely driven by a lust for greatness and nostalgia for the empire. Russia is becoming an Imperial Empire built on nostalgia. The Research Council of Norway invested into the NEORUSS study, which focused on surveying Russian views toward nationalism and identity. The study not only found that nationalism has been on the rise since the fall of the USSR, but the majority of Russians view the Russian identity as “a mix of Russian and Asian civilizations.” The significance of nostalgia is emphasized further by pewresearch conducted in June of 2017. Polls found nearly 70% of respondents considered the breakup of the Soviet Union a bad thing, and 58% of respondents viewed Stalin positively. The Russian spirit is fawning over former greatness. Why is Russia still perceived as a global power? Many respondents would suggest their power stems from their nuclear arsenal, natural gas reserves, or Putin himself. While these may be factors, the real threat stems from Russia solidifying a unified spirit and vision for itself. Globalism has created an era of cultural and moral confusion, while Russia is finding itself again as a collective civilization. Putin does not drive Russia forward, and his eventual passing will not signal the death of this Empire of Nostalgia.

The International Relations Review

Editorial Big Trouble in Little Sri Lanka By Gowtham Asokan CAS’ 19 The demon Ravana possesed ten heads, conquered the three worlds, and terrorized the world- he was said to be the personification of evil. Only to be quashed by the incarnation of the Hindu god Rama, it was the time-old story of good triumphing over evil. Nevertheless, Ravana was also known to have mastered the veena – a South Asian violin like instrument – the Hindu scriptures, and even pleased the Hindu god of destruction, Shiva. The paradox of the conflict between the god Rama and the demon Ravana captures India-Sri Lanka relations to this day. The two countries share an indisputable common cultural and religious heritage rich in cooperation and dispute. When the radical Hindu breakaway sect Buddhism flourished across India, it was Sri Lanka that preserved the tradition tucked away from countless foreign invasions. In the countries’ modern bilateral relations, affairs went south when the biggest minority group in Sri Lanka started demanding a separate state. The Tamil diaspora stretched from southern India to northern Sri Lanka and had a very strong ethnic identity that led to the formation of the separatist movement, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in 1976. The unfolding civil war in Sri

Lanka provoked a strong reaction from the Indian Tamils, combined with Indian strategic interests in Sri Lanka as a major port; the Indian army intervened and trained LTTE soldiers and provided weapons. The Indian government’s covert support for the LTTE creates resentment in Sri Lanka’s majority ethnic group, the Sinhalese. Once viewed as an ally and partner in creating the South Asian security umbrella, India was now seen as a neighbor overstepping it’s limits. One could not be mistaken for making the comparison of the Indian intervention against the Sri Lankan government as that of the god Rama and the demon Ravana, but India would come to regret this hasty conclusion. In 1991, a LTTE member assassinated the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi while he was addressing a group of Tamils in India. India withdrew to become an outside observer thus sinking the LTTE’s chance at achieving their independent Tamil state and tearing down mutual trust between Indian and Sri Lanka. The year is 2017, India is not the only regional power in the area, and Sri Lanka has seen years of peace after the conclusion of the civil war, and has increased reliance on China for infrastructural development. Since 2004, China

has provided over $7 billion to Sri Lanka for infrastructure projects. Sri Lanka has found itself unable to pay back its debt to Chinese stateowned firms; China seized this opportunity to lease out the strategic port of Hambantota. Sri Lanka was the latest addition to China’s One Belt Road initiative to expand its economic influence in the Indian Ocean. India had lost its regional dominance over Sri Lanka and was increasingly becoming encircled by what is called China’s “string of pearls”. The string of pearls are a series of ports surrounding India that China has leased out, thus creating multiple fronts to attack from. Alarmed by the increasing Chinese influence in the area, India has partnered with Japan to develop a port on Sri Lanka’s eastern coastline and invested in an airport near Hambantota. Despite the reactionary effort, India has lost the fight in staking regional dominance in South Asia. Not only has Sri Lanka been swayed towards China, but also Pakistan has strong security and economic ties to China and both Bangladesh and Nepal are warming up to Chinese investments. Rama may have been able to defeat the single enemy in Sri Lanka, but a multilateral enemy is a whole other story.

Photo by Darren Stanizzi

Spring 2018

The IR Review Editorial Board

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Raina Kadavil - Editor in Chief Gowtham Asokan - Editor in Chief

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Michael Yang - Content Consultant Kristen Pantano - Layout Editor Josee Matela - Layout Editor & REACT News Tech Madeleine Ferrill - Layout Coordinator Rebecca Faroro Giovannetti - Layout Editor Natalie Carroll - Photography Editor Cecilia Godoy - Blog Writer Sabine Tessono - Blog Writer Leah Cerilli - Blog Writer Dariy Esenov - Blog Writer Andre Gellerman - Senior Editor Morgan Cope - Senior Editor Victoria Reynolds - Senior Editor Monika Nayak - Editor Maria Clara Bezarra - Editor Sonali Paul - Editor Samantha Dorning - Editor Eliot Usherenko - REACT News Anchor Elisabeth Garfield - REACT News Anchor Maneesha Khalae - REACT News Anchor Jack Tomsicek - REACT News Manager Jia Spiggle- REACT News Tech Specialist Mairin McQueen - REACT News Tech Specialist Samira Jafar - Staff Writer Christopher Brown - Staff Writer Rachel Petherbridge - Staff Writer Yoni Tobin - Staff Writer Alex del Tufo - Staff Writer Alexander Pritzen - Staff Writer Desmond Molloy - Staff Writer Michelle Ramiz - Staff Writer Adia Armstrong - Book Reviews Writer

About the IR Review

The International Relations Review, ISSN 2152-738X, is a subsidiary of the Boston University International Affairs Association. The IR Review is an international relations magazine serving the undergraduate students at Boston University. With a circulation of nearly 1,500 the IR Review is considered Boston Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier academic journal. Since it was founded in 2009, the IR Review has striven to create a forum for students interested in international affairs. The submissions features in the publication cover a myriad of topics and controversies, including but not limited to globalization, international security, human rights, international law and politics and sustainability. A PDF of the current issue, as well as citations and archives can be viewed online at irreviw.org.

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