Journal on World Affairs, UCLA
The imbalance between how much democracy young Africans want and how much they have is altering political dynamics. Almost 60% of Africa’s population were born in the 21st century, detached from the ideological motives that ground the repressive & corrupt nature of the old guard.
Known as the most violent dictator in South American history, Pinochet’s military orders were responsible for the deaths of more than three thousand Chileans (many of whom were college students), the disappearance of eleven hundred people, and sending over two hundred thousand Chileans into exile (2% of the Chilean population at the time).
Brexit, however, put the peace between these nations at jeopardy. This is because Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, but it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland, which is still an EU member state. This led to many concerns that Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland would now need to introduce a hard border, restarting their tensions.
Though America’s nuclear arsenal and second strike capabilities are arguably the most powerful in the world, recent actions by China have left Washington worried. The Pentagon’s report on China’s growing military power, which now surpasses the United States in the fields of ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles, is a somber reminder that the world has entered into a second nuclear age.
On August 9, 2020, Alexander Lukashenko’s seventh presidential victory was announced to the people of Belarus. The news sparked outrage and protests erupted throughout the country’s capital of Minsk with hundreds of thousands of demonstrators flooding the streets claiming that the reelection of the Belarusian dictator was “neither free nor fair.”
Perhaps that tilt towards deeper and broader hostilities has arrived: it is reported that India recently deployed a warship in the highly contested South China Sea – a rare move for the South Asian nation. The decision highlights a widening battleground between India and China beyond their Himilayan border as the United States and regional actors grow increasingly wary of China’s rise.
After the dismantlement of the Soviet Union in 1991, the newly-formed state of Ukraine was “born nuclear” by inheriting about 4,000 of Moscow’s nuclear weapons, granting it the third largest arsenal in the world. Yet, in 1994, Ukraine committed to full disarmament.
On January 28th 2020, President Trump presented his “Peace To Prosperity Plan” which he hoped would provide a solution to the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Trump claimed that his vision would help facilitate a two-state solution where both parties practice their own sovereignty under equal civil rights.
In Doha, Qatar on February 29, 2020, the United States and the Taliban agreed to a peace deal in an attempt to “officially” end America’s longest war. However, its effectiveness has faltered due to a lack of true diplomatic initiative and cooperation
On December 31st, the government in Wuhan confirmed they had been treating dozens of cases of an unknown virus. By January 20th, other cases of this pathogen appeared in the United States, South Korea, and Thailand. A full seventy-two hours later, President Xi Jinping closed off Wuhan when 570 more cases had been confirmed.
Journal on World Affairs, UCLA