In The News

Foreign Affairs: The Failures of Capitalism

Robin Varghese July 26, 2018
Wages for the poorer half of the population in Europe and the United States have had sluggish growth over the last 50 years, while corporate profits have soared. Karl Marx, philosopher and economist, had predicted that the nature of capitalism would lead to inequality, unemployment, stagnant wages and oligopolistic firms. While communist revolutions did occur in countries like Russia and China,...

The Washington Post: Jewish or Democratic?

Ruth Eglash July 23, 2018
The Israeli parliament's approval of a legislation on the nation's identiy is sparking controversy “over the foundations of democracy in the country and what it means to be Israeli, with critics saying it will deny equal rights to non-Jewish citizens.” Proposed by members of the ruling right-wing Likud party, the bill identifies Israel as the “national home for the Jewish people.” The...

Reuters: What the G7 Can Offer the World

Peter Apps June 8, 2018
Amid trade tensions triggered by the United States and debt troubles for Italy, leaders of the world’s top industrialized democracies gather in Canada. The Group of 7, or G7, has the potential to apply democratic values and restore faith in democratic institutions, maintains Peter Apps for Reuters. In turn, this will contribute to resolving global challenges from climate change to conflicts over...

Los Angeles Times: US Tested by Sadr’s Victory in Iraqi

Tracy Wilkinson and David S. Cloud May 16, 2018
Democracy ensures that one nation may not appreciate election results of another nation, and a longtime opponent of the United States took the lead in Iraq’s parliamentary elections. “For years during the long U.S. occupation of Iraq, Muqtada Sadr was an intractable foe, blamed by the Pentagon for hundreds of deaths of American service members, as well as atrocities against Iraqi civilians,”...

Atlantic Council: Win for Democracy in Malaysia

Huihui Ooi May 11, 2018
Opposition leader Tun Mahathir Mohamad, 92, is Malaysia’s new prime minister after defeating the incumbent’s Barisan Nasional coalition. “This is the first time since Malaysia’s independence in 1957 that an election has brought about a transfer of power and an end to BN rule in the Muslim-majority nation,” notes Huihui Ooi of the Atlantic Council, adding that the surprise outcome defies an...

The New Yorker: Egypt's Farcical Election

Lauren Bohn April 4, 2018
US President Donald Trump has broken with American diplomatic tradition by welcoming with open arms the current Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, a former general with a spotty human rights record. El-Sisi captured 97 percent of the vote in this year’s election, where only one opponent remained in the race long enough for voters to see his name on the ballot. That lone opponent, Mousa...

NBC: Old Law May Stall Trump Bid to Undo Obama Regulations

Suzy Khimm March 6, 2018
US courts are providing checks, balances and brakes on the Trump administration’s agenda to reverse policies of previous presidents. “In recent weeks, federal judges have blocked the administration's attempts to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), postpone a rule giving low-income families broader access to housing in wealthier neighborhoods, and delay an...