Blog – Page 69 – Northeastern University Political Review

Middle East April 14, 2011

Rereading The Eastern Mediterranean and the Making of Global Radicalism, 1860-1914: The Mobilization of Radical Ideologies in the Arab World

by Sarah Sheffer, International Affairs '11

Northeastern University’s own Ilham Khuri Makdisi published the groundbreaking work The Eastern Mediterranean and the Making of Global Radicalism, 1860-1914 last April, less than a year before the international community rested its gaze on the rapid ideological revolution and protest movement that has swept the region in the last few months. Rereading Khuri-Makdisi’s work in […]

Opinion April 14, 2011

The Right to Connect: Universal Internet Access

by Rupal Desai, International Affairs '11

In the United States, one often sends so many text messages, accepts (or rejects) so many Facebook “friend requests,” and reads so many tweets that social media can feel banal. Whether at home, in class, at work, or in transit, North Americans are constantly connected. However, the boundaries of the Internet and communication are no […]

Cartoons April 1, 2011

International Twister

by Andonis Marden, International Affairs & Political Science, '13

Global March 9, 2011

The Winter Uprisings: An Awakening for All

by Sarah Sheffer, International Affairs '11

The cascade of pro-democracy protest across the Middle East presumably should not have caught the West off guard, but it did. The United States spends billions of dollars each year supporting Arab governments and on a vast intelligence service dedicated to better informing officials about on goings in the region. Regardless of the United States’ […]

Global March 9, 2011

The Tunisian Spark: Triggering the Fourth Wave of Democratization

by Christina Petrucci, Journalism & Political Science '11

Mohamed Bouazizi was a college graduate and yet at twenty-six years old he found himself selling fruit on the side of the street to support his mother, uncle and five siblings in their hometown of Sidi Bouzid. According to a report by the New York Times,[i] a municipal inspector, Faida Hamdy, seized Bouazizi’s goods because […]

Global March 9, 2011

The Struggle for Kirkuk: Oil, People and Power

by Daniel O'Brien, International Affairs '12

As the violence in Iraq slips from western headlines and the coalition mission appears accomplished, there is a false sense of calm in this troubled country. An unanswered question of who controls the Northern city of Kirkuk has threatened to throw the most promising region of the country into war. To ethnic Kurds, the most […]

Global March 9, 2011

The Syrian ‘Day of Rage’: A Revolution That Wasn’t

by Omar Duwaji, Business '11

In a recent exclusive interview with the Wall Street Journal, President Bashar Al-Assad of Syria stated, “When there is divergence between your policy and the people’s beliefs and interests, you will have this vacuum that creates disturbance.” He also said that despite the similarities between Syria, Egypt, and Tunisia, Syrians were different because they had […]

National March 9, 2011

Cricket: An Innovative Approach to Combat Terrorism

by Andrew McConnell, International Affairs '11

The comparison between sports and violence is far from a novel association. For hundreds of years under the Roman Empire violence was sport and sport was violence. Further, George Orwell wrote in a 1945 essay that sport is little more than “war minus the shooting.”[i] These comparisons can yield modern-day benefits for law enforcement and […]

National March 9, 2011

Creative Commons: The GNU, and You

by Paul Hanley, Political Science '12

Over the centuries content producers have searched for ways of protecting their wares. From engraving names on sculpture, to scribing them on art, to the 21st-century development of Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology, these methods have only gotten more complex. The overarching idea behind all of the aforementioned methods, however, is a legal term known […]

National March 9, 2011

How Will America Remember Joe Lieberman: Connecticut’s Independent Senator

by Nick Martin, International Affairs ‘11

With his entire extended family behind him and a crowd of several hundred supporters in front of him, Connecticut senator Joseph Lieberman took the podium at a hotel in Stamford, Connecticut on January 19 to announce he would not seek reelection in 2012.[i] Lieberman, 68, has had a tumultuous career in the Senate over the […]