Every week, GPII Interns and Fellows scour the global news to write about what is happening in a specific issue area or region. Each post includes multiple sources and gives a brief recount of a timely event. Check back regularly to see what GPII Interns and Fellows have written.
On March 7th, our very own, Dr. Ted Reynolds presented at the Learning Institute for Elders at the University of Central Florida event. His presentation, titled “When the Lights Go Out: The Evolving Threat to the U.S. Power Grid” served as a way to educate participants on the impact of a potential grid collapse, and […]
Posted April 11, 2023
The Chinese government recently issued official statements that its population is shrinking. With a reported birth rate of 9.56 million and a death rate of 10.41 in 2022 (CNBC), the country’s population fell for the first time since the 1960s (Statista 1). The dependency ratio in 2021, which indicates the growing population that must be […]
Posted March 20, 2023
In the last several decades, pornography has gone from being a shameful, taboo topic to one that is widely accepted as a viable career path. While porn can be financially beneficial to those involved (Glassdoor), if unchecked, it can also have negative effects on the lives of its subjects and “stars”. Many people who begin […]
Posted March 1, 2023
The Sultanate of Oman is a politically stable nation, especially when compared to many of its neighbors. Since the conclusion of the Dhofar Rebellion in 1978, after all, it has not experienced widespread internal strife and has generally refrained from involving itself it armed conflicts abroad. The Dhofar conflict solidified Oman’s relations with a diverse […]
Posted February 28, 2023
After two decades out of power, The Taliban has reinstated its control over Afghanistan, creating a motif of their past tyrannical policies implemented to marginalize religious minorities, women and girls. Around its initial inception, the Taliban is one of the biggest Sunni Islamist national movements in modern history (National Counterterrorism Center). They established the Islamic […]
Posted February 28, 2023
With the culmination of the 2022 FIFA World Cup and events such as the 2023 World Baseball Classic and the 2024 Summer Olympics on the horizon, the use of sports as more than a game is becoming continuously more important. Soft Power, as defined by Joseph Nye, can be defined as “a nation’s ability to […]
Posted February 28, 2023
On January 18th this year, the Tokyo High Court upheld the acquittal of three former Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) executives. Tepco Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, alongside former vice presidents Ichiro Takekuro and Sakae Muto were found not guilty of manslaughter or negligence as it relates to Japan’s “Triple Disaster” of 2011 (ABC). The Triple Disaster […]
Posted February 13, 2023
Eight years after the initial onslaught, the Bundestag, Germany’s federal parliament, recognized the 2014 massacres against northern Iraq’s Yezidi community by the Islamic State, also known as Da’esh, as a genocide. Hosting the largest Yezidi diaspora outside of Iraq (150,000), Germany joins the 18 governments and international bodies that officially recognize the scale of the […]
Posted February 13, 2023
Yesterday, southern Türkiye (Turkey) and northern Syria experienced one of the most significant earthquakes ever recorded in their respective histories. According to the US Geological Survey, the first tremor occurred at 04:17 a.m. local time near Gaziantep at a depth of 17.9 kilometers and measured 7.8 on the Richter scale (BBC). Around 1:24 p.m., twelve […]
Posted February 6, 2023
Sweden and Finland have applied for accession to NATO and are expected to become members by 2023. However, a major challenge they will have to overcome first is Turkey, who has stated that both nations, especially Sweden, need to meet a series of criteria before they accept their admission, becoming the only member of the […]
Posted January 4, 2023