Diverse Dialogues: Perspectives on Microfinance in Latin America

  This past May, Northeastern’s Social Enterprise Institute (SEI) led its fifth Dialogue of Civilizations program to the Dominican Republic. As part of the College of Business Administration, SEI is a driving force behind many Northeastern initiatives to channel enterprise-based solutions toward advancing the developing world. Unlike a majority of other Dialogues, this month abroad […]

Unintended Consequences: Why France’s Impossible Expectations Will Shake Its Future

On Sunday, May 6th, François Hollande of the French Socialist Party defeated his opponent, Nicholas Sarkozy, with 51.6% of the popular vote. Tough economic times and recent “terrorist” attacks in Toulouse were the foremost discussions during the 2012 electoral campaign. François Hollande, the first Socialist president in the nearly two decades since François Mitterrand, benefited […]

Run For Your Life: Theories of International Politics and Zombies

Something is aloof in international affairs, or so thinks Tufts University Professor Daniel Drezner. Every day scholars and policy-makers meticulously hammer away at the ins and outs of pressing national security threats (Al-Qaeda, China, Iran, Wall Street, Occupy Wall Street). Drezner, however, believes that these political observers have wholly failed to recognize and address what […]

An Un-United Nations: How the International Body Is Failing the Syrian People

The deterioration of the human condition through violence mars history. Crimes such as slavery, forced deportation, and genocide have extinguished and defined populations. Unfortunately, crimes against humanity are not exclusive to ancestral pasts; humanity continuously faces grave challenges. During the first ten days of December 2011, one thousand Syrians lost their lives to political persecution. […]

Shining Light on Hypocrisy: The Dharun Ravi Case

When an individual In the United States faces criminal charges, the burden of proof falls upon the prosecution, not the defense. It seems odd then that former Rutgers student, Dharun Ravi, was accused and convicted of bias intimidation though the prosecution failed to produce one witness or one single shred of evidence. Ravi was brought […]

Symptoms of Cold Warfare Between Saudi Arabia and Iran: Part 3 of 3

This is the final installment in a three-part series that examines the historical foundations, current dynamics, and future prospects of the relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Parts I and II provided historical and contemporary accounts of the two countries’ often turbulent relationship since 632 and 1979, respectively; part III is an analysis of the […]

Interview With Vali Nasr: Analyzing the Iranian Nuclear Threat

On March 6, 2012, the NUPR’s International Editor Dominic Contreras sat down with Tufts University Professor Vali Nasr, one of the world’s foremost experts on Iran and the Muslim world, to discuss the Iranian nuclear program and possible responses to it. Below is an excerpt of that interview. Q: Over the past year we’ve heard […]

An Incident NOT Blown Out of Proportion: A Response to Marines Urinating on Taliban

The media response to the Marines-peeing-on-dead-Afghans incident was, in my opinion, not harsh enough. In his “Incident Blown Out of Proportion,” piece, Michael Fox argues that Americans should not waste their time feeling moral outrage for dead terrorists. It is clear that the soldiers in question wanted to humiliate the deceased, even into death. The […]

Arbitration: How Corporations Get Around the Legal System

Have you ever waived your right to a trial before a judge and jury by signing a contract?  Of course not, right?  Wrong. In fact, if you have ever signed a cell phone agreement with AT&T, Verizon, or any other cell phone provider, you have done just that, and signed your way into something called […]

Romney vs. Obama: History Favors Romney

In my last article, I outlined the reasons why I believe Mitt Romney still has the best chance of the remaining GOP candidates to win his party’s nomination. While it may be far too early to predict the results of the election, the intrigue of this hypothetical matchup begs for more in-depth analysis. Assuming that […]