By: Victoria Barker The recent bombings in Boston have stirred up a surge of nationalistic pride and the recognition of the good in humanity that oftentimes brings people together after a shocking tragedy. This is much akin to the weeks following the Sept. 11 attacks and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. As I watched the news coverage of the [...]
By: Jacqueline Van De Velde The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugee’s most recent statistics on the Syrian refugee response reported 1,230,822 registered refugees in the region. Another 970,318 people are waiting to be registered. Together that is 2,210,140 registered refugees and asylum-seekers, the equivalent of the combined populations of Rhode Island and Delaware. Escalating violence in the region has only [...]
By: Alex Sileo Since the end of the Cold War, third-party interventions and multilateral initiatives have undergone a renaissance on the international stage. The United Nations (UN) was largely blocked from pursuing any international security objectives by a Security Council divided between the United States and the Soviet Union. The only major exception was the Korean War, a result of [...]
By: Michael Ingram Syria has been tearing itself apart from the inside out for over two years, and recently, the greatest fears of many of the world’s observers may have at last been confirmed. At least 25 people, mostly women and children, have been the victims of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the northern town of Khan al-Assal in [...]
By: Emily Kopp The temperature may be pushing 70 degrees in Athens, but in tent cities in northern Iraq and along the southeast border of Turkey, winter has descended with full force. What’s more, in what many have termed the worst storms Lebanon has seen in twenty years, dwellers are coping with freezing flood waters inundating their fragile makeshift homes. Over [...]
By: Alexander Sileo Despite numerous attempts by the international community to resolve the conflict in Syria between rebel groups and President Bashar al-Assad, the civil war continues to ravage the country and take countless lives. The uprising began as a product of the Arab Spring, a series of similar rebellions in countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. However, Syria’s [...]
By: Sami Jarjour What’s taking place in Syria is more complex than what my previous piece on the country, The Syrian Demand, reveals. Since that time, more facts have emerged that provide a more nuanced understanding of the situation. It is important to keep in mind that both sides have interests and motivations, and that “both sides” may not [...]
By: Sami Jarjour President Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian government apparently have no construct of even the slightest degree of human rights. Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa, described recent events (July 31) as the “deadliest assault yet on mainly peaceful protesters calling for reform,” and shows that it is “clear that President [...]
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