Journal on World Affairs, UCLA
Despite not meeting mainstream headlines, the most deadly conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa are often linked back to struggles over resources. The United Nations Environment Programme stated that 40% of all intrastate conflicts are linked to resource disputes.
Putin’s sudden and surprising declaration of greater diplomacy between the U.S. and Russia — two states with soured relations since the Cold War — arrives amidst heightened accusations of interference with U.S. elections by Moscow.
On August 4th, at approximately 6:09 PM, Beirut, a treasured city in the Middle East, was ripped apart by a pair of explosions at the city’s port. Since then, young Lebanese citizens have been risking their lives to help put their country back together again, but many have also wondered if all their work and fervent hope is futile. The question on everyone’s mind is: can Lebanon ever be whole again?
As many as 300,000 people that once lived in the capital are now homeless or injured and are being forced to take shelter in homes of strangers or nearby hospitals, which are barely being held up. Considering the increasing rate of COVID-19 infections, Lebanese first responders worry of the compounding impact of devastation, which is expected to cost around $15 billion in repairs.
Disinformation is something we will have to accept and grapple with for some time. “We will have to be creative in how we handle it for the foreseeable future because what is a strength is also often a vulnerability,” Dr. Hill says
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.
America is considering a defense pivot in Europe, which President Donald Trump claims to be in accordance to Russian threats and Germany’s failures to meet their NATO financial obligations. In January, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said America will begin this shift by withdrawing about twelve thousand of the thirty-six thousand American troops from Germany.
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.
Outer space has been called the “new frontier” since the 1960s, but today is being named the “new arena” for an arms race. With the United States, Russia, and China coming to a head in space weaponry and lacking cooperation on arms control treaties, the destruction of the “new frontier” amidst an arms race is increasingly likely
Journal on World Affairs, UCLA