Categories
Global

What Will and Will Not Change in Japan: Part 2

A developed but unequal country On Feb. 3, 2021, Tokyo Olympics Chief and former Prime Minister, Yoshiro Mori, stated at the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee meeting that women talk too much and board meetings with a lot of women take too much time. Mori made this statement while the committee was discussing the matter of […]

Categories
Global Global Policy Studies & International Security

What Will and Will Not Change in Japan: Part 1

Hope is high, but so is anxiety.  On Sep. 16, 2020, Yoshihide Suga succeeded Shinzo Abe and became the 99th Prime Minister of Japan, after previously acting as Abe’s Chief Cabinet Secretary. Suga announced in his Cabinet decisions that his first priority is tackling the spread of COVID-19. As for his other policies, he claims […]

Categories
Global

China’s Secret Genocide

“Never again” came sooner than expected. Kidnapped by their oppressive government, religious minorities are carted from their homes and held inside political prisons, where they are indoctrinated, tortured, raped, and experimented on. This is not Nazi Germany. This is Communist China, where up to 2 million Muslims currently reside inside concentration camps, the largest mass […]

Categories
Global Global Policy Studies & International Security LBJ School Politics and Governance University of Texas at Austin

A Conversation With the ODNI’s Andrew Hallman

While pursuing a master’s degree at American University, Andrew Hallman took a class taught by a professor on sabbatical from the CIA. As he learned of the pivotal role intelligence plays in policy and security, Hallman wasn’t satisfied. He wanted to know more. Three years after earning his degree and many background checks later, he […]

Categories
Global Global Policy Studies & International Security LBJ School

The Gulf rift two years later: Qatar’s Islamist ties

June 5 marked the second anniversary of the Gulf rift. In 2017, the Saudi-led quartet (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt) imposed a blockade on Qatar, citing Qatar’s relations with Iran and terrorist organizations. To date, Qatar refuses to acknowledge the quartet’s 13 demands — issued in the early weeks of the rift — which […]

Categories
Global Global Policy Studies & International Security

Rearming A Forbidden Military: Japan’s Self-Defense Force & Constitutional Revisions

With a record $47bn defense budget, a total order of 150 F-35s coupled with the first aircraft carriers since 1945, and a House of Counsillors election in July, 2019 will be a busy year for Prime Minister Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). These enhancements to the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (SDF), a military organization […]

Categories
Global Global Policy Studies & International Security

Khashoggi Killing Adds New Dimension to Yemen War — and New Opportunity for United States

Seventy years ago today, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human rights that enshrined the idea that every person has fundamental rights regardless of who they are or where they live. Yet since 2016, a civil war in Yemen has escalated into the largest manmade humanitarian crisis in modern memory. The world should […]

Categories
Global

Iran Sanctions and the Public Opinion Battleground

Following its withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – commonly referred to as the Iran Deal – the Trump administration introduced a new wave of sanctions on Iran last Monday. The first wave of sanctions implemented this year targeted financial transactions with U.S. dollars, Iran’s automotive sector, and the purchase of commercial airplanes, […]

Categories
Global Global Policy Studies & International Security

A Conversation with Former CIA Director John Brennan

In his time since leaving Langley, John Brennan has continued to be a fixture in the news. He has not gone gently into the night, trading barbs with President Trump and finding himself on the receiving end of more than a few Twitter tirades. Brennan has cast the President as dishonest and unfit for office, […]

Categories
Global Global Policy Studies & International Security LBJ School

Young, Scrappy, Hungry, and Waiting: The Case for Reforming Security Clearances

Last December, I was offered my dream internship — working with the U.S. Department of State — after a two-month application and interview process. As a master’s student in global policy studies, the opportunity to work for a summer at the U.S. Mission to the UN in Geneva would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It would […]

Social Widgets powered by AB-WebLog.com.