Waiting, Sitting, Wishing
On December 6 this past year, I was anxious to get to Goma, a city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), to witness the nation’s presidential election.
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Cover Story
Diplomacy on Ice
Antarctica is home to more than emperor penguins and a few dozen humans with science citizenship barricaded in small hermetic bases. It is also host to an estimated 200 billion barrels of hydrocarbons, alongside large quantities of gold, silver, uranium, and many other rare metals underneath a pristine ice cap still virgin of commercial exploitation. Securing a territory with such a rich underground, in whole or in part, would bless any country with durable energy security and, thereby, increased political independence in the international arena.
Current Issue
Arab Springs To No Avail
In the past year, revolutions have swept through Northern Africa and the Middle East in what has been dubbed the Arab Spring. How has this wave of reformative spirit affected the condition of countries around the Middle East, either in terms of internal or diplomatic change? What do you foresee as potential reconciliation for the instability and popular dissatisfaction that persists?
Domestic
Obambiguous
The problem with the firmly partisan prism of the media through which most of American politics is dissected is that we lose the many nuances of our political realities. Complexities become distorted and disfigured as they are forcefully shoved into the binary classifications of party politics. Perhaps the most extreme example is the way foreign policy has almost disappeared in today’s political consciousness, not in the least because the Obama administration’s policies defy easy political branding. However, despite the media’s predisposition to ignore what happens outside of Wall Street and Main Street this election season, President Obama’s first term has been rather eventful on the foreign policy front.
World
The Chile Winter
Some of the snapshots from Chile’s ongoing student movement depict a lighthearted mobilization. Led by the charismatic Camila Vallejo, the students have used Twitter and Facebook to stage kiss-a-thons and superhero-themed costume protests. But other images have been more violent.
Interview
American Politics Illuminated
Ron Suskind, critically acclaimed author of narrative nonfiction, has been a leading voice in addressing and explaining critical issues impacting Americans on the national stage. A Pulitzer-Prize winner, Suskind was the senior national affairs writer for the Wall Street Journal from 1993 to 2000. Suskind’s past best-selling books include: A Hope in the Unseen, The Way of the World, The One Percent Doctrine, and The Price of Loyalty. Ron Suskind’s most recent book, Confidence Men, brings the hidden history of Wall Street and the Obama White House to light. Columbia Political Review sat down with Suskind to discuss the state of journalism, the inner workings of the Obama administration, and the accountability of the financial sector.
Culture
Media, Gender Imbalances, and Opinion: A Woman’s Opinion
The following is a letter from Columbia Political Review Senior Editor Shane Ferro to The New Republic’s Jonathan Chait. Mr. Chait recently weighed in on the issue of gender imbalances in magazines/journalism, arguing that women grow up less likely to pursue opinion writing, taking blame for the imbalance at least partially out of his magazine’s hands. For more on Mr. [...]
Other News
Citizens United, Columbians Divided
In 2010, the Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission held that corporations and unions could not be prohibited from broadcasting electioneering communications (ads that mention a candidate) within 60 days of a general election or 30 days of a primary, which had previously been the restriction of the McCain-Feingold Act since 2002. What does this mean for the [...]
Didactic Deceit
In April 2009, Columbia University’s Task Force on Undergraduate Education released “An Agenda for the Future,” a cheery strategic document, which, translated into two words, read: excelsior, Columbia! On pages 16 and 17, the report rejoices in and urges forward the internationalization of Columbia – not just the establishment of foreign outposts vis-à-vis Global Centers and the development of the [...]
Silicon Implant
Protestors, slogans, police – Wall Street has not seen this kind of exuberance in a long time. The city’s past and present financial powers now meet on Wall Street in the shadow of the World Trade Center memorial – what is a symbol of American strength and unity in the face of mortal terror is now home to discontent and [...]
I Am News (And So Can You!)
It was during the spring of last year that, through a series of fortunate events, I was able to secure an invitation to dinner with famed journalist Bob Woodward. Awaiting Woodward’s arrival, I sat with the five other students, two alumni, and one events coordinator in attendance, the lot of us anxiously preparing questions for his arrival. Woodward graciously received [...]
#hacktivism
We have learned by now to expect and to fear the masked army of the internet: Anonymous.
That Sinking Feeling
While public concern about global warming has waned in recent years, ever-more scientific evidence shows that climate change is a grave and growing nightmare. Among problematic signs are the melting of glaciers and polar ice caps at an increasing rate, and the corresponding rise in sea levels. While perhaps a distant concern both geographically and temporally for much of the [...]
A New Era for Radio
Jad Abumrad, a Lebanese-American radio host and producer, was awarded the 2011 MacArthur Fellowship, nicknamed the Genius Award, for “showing exceptional merit and promise for continued and enhanced creative work.” He is the co-founder of the widely acclaimed Radiolab, a radio show and podcast that weaves stories and science into sound and music-rich documentaries. His 2004 Radiolab special, “The Ring [...]
Acknowledging the Americas
In 2008, President Barack Obama had a clear idea for Latin American foreign policy. The Bush administration, distracted by events in the Middle East, had pursued a harmful hemispheric policy of blustering unilateralism and neglect; Obama, conversely, would pursue a “new partnership” with the Americas, one marked by cooperation and mutual interests. His subsequent election was heralded throughout Latin America as [...]
This is Your Life
Right now you are probably worrying about how to find an internship. Or after finding one you are stressing over how to make ends meet on a sub-minimum wage salary (or no salary at all). Getting caught up in the angst of it all, it is difficult to step back and ask, “Why is the internship process so miserable? And what does it all mean?”
A War on Women
While some monetary sacrifices for governmental agencies are inevitable, the latest push to deprive Planned Parenthood of all federal funding is not solely motivated by the desire for fiscal conservatism. Instead, the burgeoning campaign against funding for Planned Parenthood is overtly purported to be a means of rectifying an existing ethical dilemma: forcing Americans to finance abortion services through their tax contributions.
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