The traditional balance of power of the entire region is shifting. Saudi Arabia’s authority is based solely on its robust oil exports to the US, and thus its power is beginning to wane in face of America’s shale oil revolution and Iran's rapidly-increasing oil exports

Columbia Students, from libertarians to socialists, debate the Citizens United ruling and campaign finance more generally.

"Afghanistan has been in a state of war since 1979. Outside powers have inflicted great chaos in an already lawless territory. Tribes have exploited gains with both anti-Taliban and Taliban forces. But I am fully assured that Afghanistan’s future has to rest with the Afghani people themselves."

The minimum wage is a tricky subject. As with so many debates involving economics, seemingly-sound, yet antithetical, arguments abound, at times making it nearly impossible to distinguish between right or wrong, good or bad.

But nowhere in Columbia's proxy voting guidelines does Columbia bother itself with the actual abstention from investments in fossil fuels, despite it simultaneous recognition of the moral irresponsibility of climate change. The hypocrisy!

There remains, however, a single and constant truth in the conflict; the West—in particular, the United States—has suffered one of the most dire strategic losses in its foreign policy over the past thirty years.

The Brazilian system is nearly-notorious for its arcane system of rules with many loopholes for defendants—as American University Professor Matthew Taylor puts it “the system is set up to leave things unresolved.”

The national government is not the only body at fault in this situation, however: American anti-gay groups and gay advocacy groups in Uganda have encouraged continued debate on homosexuality, carrying their proxy battle into the legislature and affecting the life of Uganda’s gay population.

“Seaport City can provide… protection, while also expanding opportunities for new economic development.”

We have already seen Al-Shabaab pull itself from the ashes once before, and it will continue to launch mass casualty events like the Westgate operation, especially after its recent ideological “return”, so to speak, to internationalist jihad...And without AMISOM, the current Somali government will very likely collapse, paving the way for Al-Shabaab’s resurgence.

Essentially, Bloomberg could have been able to ‘buy’ votes by utilizing funding resources unavailable to other city employees or mayoral candidates.

These powerful developments emanating from the Middle East demonstrate a region constantly disturbed by sectional interests and polarizing ideologies. Is there a solution?

As the new Myanmar government—now with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi involved—pursues its reforms and hopes to improve its relationship with the West, a larger problem remains: the new Myanmar is still racked with its old Burma problems, so to speak.

The face of Walid al- Moallem, Syria’s foreign minister, appears on television: “Syria always keeps its promises,” he says to Ban Ki-moon. The scene cuts out, and immediately cuts back into an image of Syrian warplanes raining hellfire down upon the Syria landscape. Explosions, smoke, and misery ensue.