International Affairs

[Gurminder K. Bhambra|The Conversation] The refugee crisis currently playing out across the borders of Europe has hardly escaped anyone’s attention. But imagine if the 2,000-plus bodies that suffocated in lorries and washed up on the shores of the Mediterranean were not from the Middle East or Africa. Would the outrage be deeper, more vociferous? Would we be lobbying our governments ...

[By Saïd Amir Arjomand] STONY BROOK – The nuclear deal reached in July by Iran and its international interlocutors marks an obvious turning point in the Islamic Republic’s relations with the outside world, particularly with the United States. But why has it taken so much longer for the US to come to terms with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s revolution in Iran ...

[By Michael Heflin] Growing up in a small town in Michigan, being gay was seen by most as simply wrong. So, like many young LGBTI people, I sought to hide my identity out of shame and fear of harassment or even violence. I could not dream of a day when marriage equality would be achieved for same-sex couples. Even as a ...

[By Brahma Chellaney] NEW DELHI – On the 80th birthday of the 14th Dalai Lama, who has been in exile in India since 1959, Tibet’s future looks more uncertain than ever. During his reign, the current Dalai Lama has seen his homeland – the world’s largest and highest plateau – lose its independence to China. Once he dies, China is ...

Nepal has been struck by a second earthquake, just weeks after the Gorkha Earthquake killed more than 8,000 people and left 18,000 injured. This time, the earthquake reached 7.3 on the Richter scale, and was followed by 6 aftershocks. The Nepalese home ministry is reporting that at least another 900 people have been injured. As aid agencies renew their call ...

John Oliver single-handedly delivered a twelve-minute report on one of the most compelling messages on the unjustness of the lack of paid maternity leave in the United States. It brilliantly drove the point home at the ludicrous situation the country is in when it comes to how new mothers are treated in the workplace. Is this unfair or what? Whoever the next president is, ...

[By Martin Zeller-Jacques|The Conversation] The recent publication of a study measuring the quantity and quality of LGBT representation in mainstream Hollywood cinema has left the industry smarting. But what really got the press going was the fact that only seven of these passed the Russo test, patterned after the well-known Bechdel test for the representation of women. The Russo test ...

[By Jennifer Brass, Indiana University| The Conversation] How can we as academics make sense of the horrific attack Thursday at Garissa University College, a young institute of higher education located in Northeastern Kenya? On one level, such violence against unarmed civilians seeking education to improve their future is as incomprehensible as it is ghastly. Reports claim 147 known fatalities, scores more ...

|By Brahma Chellaney| NEW DELHI – As US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton bluntly told Pakistan in 2011 that “you can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbors.” But her warning (“eventually those snakes are going to turn on” their keeper), like those of other American officials over the years, including presidents and CIA ...

|By Jonathan Roberts|The Conversation| Tragically, the experimental spaceplane SpaceShipTwo crashed in the Mojave desert during a test flight on Friday, killing one pilot and injuring another. It is not clear what went wrong, and the coming investigation will no doubt find the cause, but a question arises: