Explaining Israel’s Protest to Iran Nuclear Negotiations
In 2015, The United States, China, France, Russia, Britain, and the EU signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and agreed to lift sanctions on Iran. In exchange, Iran agreed to halt its nuclear program. Under the JCPOA, Iran was prohibited from enriching uranium with a concentration of over 3.67%…
Understanding Queen Elizabeth II’s Reign and What Comes Next
Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-serving monarch, died at Balmoral Castle on Sept. 8, 2022, at age 96, after ruling for seventy years. Following her death, thousands worldwide paid tribute in an elaborate ten-day mourning sequence called Operation London Bridge. King Charles III now inherits a pandemic-torn nation fraught with inflation. What…
Deadly Floods in Pakistan
Beginning mid-June and ending late August, the monsoonal rainfall poured ceaselessly over Pakistan, submerging one-third of the country, particularly the southern provinces of Sindh and Balochistan. It was the wettest August has been since 1961 with almost 15 inches of rain a day, displacing over 33 million people, killing around 1,700…
Disappearing Islands: What is Happening in the South Pacific
By Julia Mendes Queiroz The climate crisis has created numerous environmental emergencies in all corners of the globe. Perhaps none are more urgent than the situation unfolding in the islands of the South Pacific, where three territories have disappeared under rising tides in just one year. As temperatures climb higher and…
Boris Johnson’s Latest Controversy
Over the past few weeks, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his office were exposed for breaking COVID-19 protocols. What was exposed? From May 2020 to April 2021, 14 social gatherings were held in and around 10 Downing Street, the prime minister’s main office and residence. Pictures and email invitations to…
The Growth of Israel-UAE Relations
By Lucas Holloway Once long-standing adversaries, Israel and the United Arab Emirates have come to establish a growing partnership in recent years, brought about by the historic signing of the Abraham Accords in August 2020. Here’s everything you need to know about this diplomatic normalization and its potential reverberations across the…
The Prospect of a New Iran Nuclear Deal
By Nick Meeker The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed in 2015, is an arms control agreement between the U.N. Security Council’s Permanent Five (the U.S., China, Russia, France, and the U.K.), Germany, and Iran regarding Iran’s ability to acquire nuclear weapons. Under the agreement, Iran took steps to limit…
South Korea’s 2022 Presidential Candidates
By Jina Lim On March 9th, South Koreans will vote for their next president. There are four major candidates that are vying to succeed the term-limited President Moon Jae-in. These four major candidates hail from the parties that occupy at least one seat in the National Assembly. The presidential campaign, however,…
“A Perfect Storm”: A Massive Energy Crisis Rocks Europe
By Liz Peron Europeans don’t need to look further than their energy bills to feel the effects of the massive energy crisis gripping the continent. According to the Bank of America, Europeans can expect their household energy bills to rise by a striking 50% this winter. Many experts attribute these price…
El Salvador’s Bitcoin Experiment: What Now?
By Julia Queiroz Playa de El Zonte, El Salvador: a town of 3,000 inhabitants boasting incredible surf, great food, and the pioneering adoption of bitcoin as a main form of payment. Beach vendors, aiming to increase their sales to tourists who frequented El Zonte, decided to start accepting bitcoin as a…
Crisis In the Northern Triangle
Anusha Rao A wave of migrants coming from a region of Central America, known as the Northern Triangle, has showcased how the culmination of poverty, violence, and instability in the area is forcing residents away. The Northern Triangle, comprising three countries- El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, have suffered from these chronic…
The Future of NATO
Established in 1949 as a military alliance to protect against Soviet encroachment into Western Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has worked towards “uniting efforts for collective defense and the preservation of peace and security”, a goal that has remained unchanged over the years. However, in the face of shifting interests…
Polexit? Implications of Poland’s Landmark Supreme Court ruling
On Thursday Oct. 7, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal ruled that Poland’s national laws take supremacy over European Union (EU) laws, This marks the end of a cumulative battle between thePoland’s right-wing government and the EU. Since assuming his position in December 2017, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki implemented several changes to the…
Explaining the Pandora Papers
Just a few years after the Panama and the Paradise Papers of 2016 and 2017, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published the Pandora Papers beginning Oct. 3, 2021. It is, by the volume of information uncovered, the biggest investigative piece by ICIJ yet, exposing many offshore accounts and shell…
Austria’s Leadership Shakeup:
For the second time in a little over three years, Austrian Chancellor and People’s Party (ÖVP) leader Sebastian Kurz finds himself out of the nation’s highest office, forced to step down on Oct. 9 amid allegations of corruption against his chancellorship. Here’s everything you need to know about this scandal and…
Explaining Upcoming Changes to Australia’s COVID-19 Policies
On Oct. 1, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared plans to lift some of its COVID-19 restrictions for the first time since March 2020. What was Australia’s COVID-19 strategy? During the pandemic, Australian leaders pursued a “covid zero” strategy. Australians and foreigners were not able to enter Australia, state borders were…
The Taliban’s Future in the International Community
On Aug. 30, the final U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan, ending a two-decade long conflict. As American forces left, Taliban fighters swarmed into major Afghan cities and provinces, quickly occupying the country and installing a new Taliban government in Kabul. As the Taliban attempt to integrate themselves into the international community…
Explaining the Iron Dome
You have seen the videos of rockets exploding in the night sky like fireworks: they have gone viral and are played on news channels, along with talks of the Iron Dome. But what is this Iron Dome and why is it important? What exactly is it? The Iron Dome is Israel’s…
Explaining the Gantz-Abbas Meeting
On Aug. 29, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with Palestinian Authority (P.A.) President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. This meeting marked the first time in seven years that major Israeli and P.A. officials have met in person. Why did they meet? The purpose of the meeting was not discuss Israeli-Palestinian relations,…
Southeast Asian International Trade: CPTPP
Southeast Asia has become an increasingly important region of global trade in recent years. This trend is due in part to increasing political-economic tension between surrounding states and trade partners (for example the United States and China), but also due to the continual economic growth of the region over the past…
The End of an Era: Looking Back on Rodrigo Duterte’s Presidency, His Legacy, and What Kind of Vaccum He leaves Behind
“We’re the ninth-safest city in the world. How do you think I did it? How did I reach that title as mayor among the world’s safest cities? Kill them all [criminals].” President Rodrigo Duterte, May 15, 2021. In a surprising move, Filipino President, Rodrigo Duterte announced on October 2, 2021 that…
Reshaping China: Xi’s recent Ideological Crackdown
President Xi Jinping has implemented a range of regulatory overhauls and cultural crackdown in China to re-centralise the Party-state’s society-wide control. These began late last year, but over the last month have significantly ramped up. Many centered around the idea of “common prosperity.” Characterized by a rapid rollback of economic liberalization…
Election Watch 2022: Five Elections to Observe Next Year
POFA’s Election Watch is a new series that aims to bring you the latest news on up-coming foreign elections and the issues at the forefront of them, as well as helping decipher the latest polling information and predictions. France: Can flailing Macron keep his hold on power? At the core of…
5 Major Takeaways from the UNGA 2021 Speeches
The annual 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) returned to New York City this year from Tuesday, Sept. 21 to Sunday, Sept. 27 after a virtual 2020 UNGA summit. Here are five major takeaways from the session. Compare & Contrast: Approaches to the COVID-19 Pandemic COVID-19 was unsurprisingly…
Politics of the Arctic, Explained
Once dismissed as a desolate wasteland, the northernmost region of Earth known as the Arctic has garnered increased attention over the past century. Within three decades, the effects of global warming have shrunken the mass of the Arctic Ocean’s summer ice by half. The melting of the Arctic undeniably presents environmental…
Recap on the 2021 German Elections
The Election System in Germany The Bundestag, or the Federal Parliament of Germany, held elections on Sept. 26, 2021. German citizens cast two votes. They each voted for a direct representative, with the majority winning the seat. Additionally, each citizen voted for a political party, with the number of votes per…
The Current State of COVAX
With the large-scale production of COVID-19 vaccines, countries around the world have been vying to get their share. However, not all countries could spend the money necessary to secure vaccines, leaving a large gap of vaccination rates between wealthy and poor countries. COVAX was created in April 2020 to bring equity…
The Canada-China Prisoner Swap explained
This past week, Canada and the U.S. saw through a high-profile prisoner swap with China that allowed Huawei CFO and heir apparent Meng Wanzhou to fly back home at the same time two Canadian citizens were independently released from Chinese custody. Here is everything you need to know about what went…
Hopkins Podcast on Foreign Affairs 