By Beatrice Guzzardi, Skye Redman, Valentina Cipriani, and Alessia Manzoni On March 4, Italy held parliamentary elections. In an unexpected turn of events the two main parties that ruled Italy for decades have collapsed, leaving space for the populist Five Star Movement (M5S) and the nationalist and xenophobic League— formerly known as the Northern League.… Read More Chaos In Italy’s Elections
While the rest of us are at home watching the details roll out about Nikolas Cruz, the shooter in the tragedy in Parkland, FL, and the Mueller investigation’s flipping of Rick Gates, Ivanka Trump was dispatched to South Korea on behalf of the White House for the Olympic closing ceremonies. According to the White House,… Read More Ivanka in Seoul: A Diplomatic or Pleasure Visit?
When President Trump signed Executive Order (EO) 13780, section 11 of the document tasked the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security to draft a report that would assess the foreign national terror-related threats to the United States. If you aren’t familiar with EO 13780 by number, perhaps you know it better by the… Read More The First Section 11 Report
By all accounts 2017 has been a year to remember — or forget, depending on your levels of optimism.… Read More Geopolitical Events: 2017 in Review
by Natasha Hunt Politicians, as we are all aware, are skilled at manipulating policy and promise to appeal to national interest as well as serve their own success. This is nothing new. Trump, however, is not a politician and has neither deftly nor adeptly concealed his utter recklessness in his latest blunder: breaking all precedent… Read More Death of a Mediator
by Stephanie Stockwell and Matthew Kriner The Trump administration recently outlined their decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In the wake of this announcement we have seen a rush of questions regarding the details, timeline, and importance of this decision. In response, we at Geopolitalk have put together this structured… Read More The Jerusalem Decision Q&A
If you had fallen asleep in 1975 and woke up today, you’d probably think the US and the USSR were still deadlocked in a Cold War. Why? Well, there’s a lot of noise these days regarding Russian activities that threaten NATO and American interests. Here’s a short list: Russia hosts the Zapad war games, Russia left troops in Belarussia… Read More Not Your Daddy’s Cold War
“Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe.” – Theodore Roosevelt In January of 2016, I decided to go back to school for my Master’s degree. So for the last year this blog has run silent while I’ve studied the effects of extremism within the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in a land that’s no stranger to political divisiveness… Read More Extremism in America
Over the past few years, the nature of terrorism has altered noticeably. As the military campaign against ISIS continues to gain steam by rolling back ISIS-controlled territory, it is ever more likely that the world will continue to see low-cost, high yield attacks like the ones in Nice and Orlando. In stark contrast to the large scale… Read More The New Terror Normal
By capitalizing on civil strife and fractured societies, ISIS’ expansion into Libya, Yemen, and Afghanistan, leaves little doubt that the prospects for the group’s long-term viability have increased. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has now established enclaves in Libya, Yemen, and Afghanistan, and the expansions seem permanent. ISIS’ appearance as a viable contender… Read More Why the Islamic State’s expansion matters
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