Category Civil Society

Civil Society, Policy & Politics

The Role of Soft Power in the Digital Age

March 7, 2025

Social media and technological advances have drastically changed international communication, which has an impact on how countries exercise influence. The phrase “soft power,” which was coined by Joseph Nye[1], describes a nation’s capacity to influence international events via seduction as…

Civil Society, Europe

Culture in Flux: The Role of Culture in Strengthening Georgia’s National Identity

November 7, 2024

Rustaveli Avenue, Tibilisi, is where Georgia’s culture and politics converge, lined by institutions including the National Museum and the Georgian Parliament. This May, the slogan “Yes to Europe, No to Russian Law” resounded through the avenue as Georgians protested the…

Civil Society, Governance & Law, North America

To Defeat Populism, Bring Back the Fireside Chats

October 11, 2024

The world is facing a new generation of challenges that are of a different kind, degree, and dimension than those of the past. Many are borderless, including some that present existential risks to humanity. Many are interrelated, multiplying and magnifying…

Africa, Civil Society, Security & Conflict

Assessing Twenty-Five Years of Democracy in Nigeria

September 3, 2024

Twenty-five years ago, the Federal Republic of Nigeria transitioned from military rule to a democratic system. During a colorful event in Abuja attended by leaders worldwide on May 29, 1999, the military transferred power to Olusegun Obasanjo, the democratically elected…

Civil Society, Middle East, Photo Essays

Freefalling Afghanistan: A Pictorial Journey Through Two-and-a-Half Years of Taliban Rule

April 28, 2024

February 2020 Doha Accord holds the secret of the Taliban’s freedom and rule in Afghanistan. This picture was taken when the Taliban fighters were cruising through Kabul’s streets, triumphing over the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) and celebrating…

Civil Society, Middle East, Security & Conflict

Sifting Facts from Fiction: The Underpinnings of the Taliban’s ‘Islamic Emirate’

February 15, 2024

Even after the Taliban have assumed power in Afghanistan twice, their ideology remains poorly understood, evident from the misconceptions surrounding it. Some believe this ideology is reflective of Islam while others attempt to find its basis in the Pashtun culture.…

Africa, Civil Society, Security & Conflict

Limits to Inclusion: Explaining the Inclusion-Effectiveness Dilemma with the 2020 Libyan Political Dialogue Forum

January 26, 2024

In most conflict-afflicted countries, the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic aggravated civil war, political divisions, economic collapse, and humanitarian suffering. Most people predicted that Libya would suffer the same fate as conflict escalated in and around Tripoli in early 2020 and the…

Civil Society, Energy & Environment, Middle East, Policy & Politics

A Proposal to Manage Human Migration

November 16, 2023

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) last fall focused the world’s attention on the many climate-related crises to come, including floods and droughts; inhospitable heat; saltwater intrusion and inundation; the loss of biodiversity; the loss of agricultural regions; and more violent storms.…

Asia Pacific, Civil Society, Regional, Security & Conflict, Topical

The Palestinianization of the Rohingya Crisis: No Money, No Love

September 4, 2023

Evidently, for quite a long time, the protracted Palestinian refugee crisis has not only condemned millions of Palestinians to a life of indescribable suffering but also kept the Middle East destabilized and much more volatile than any other region across…

Africa, Civil Society, Economics, Policy & Politics, Regional, Security & Conflict, Topical

The Gendered Impact of Displacement in East African Refugee Camps

March 8, 2023

Kyilah Terry is a Princeton in Africa Fellow in Nairobi, Kenya. She previously worked as a Policy Fellow with the Office of the Vice President. Kyilah holds a B.A. from UCLA, a M.A. from Georgetown University, and is matriculating into…

Asia Pacific, Civil Society, Economics, Europe, Middle East, North America, Policy & Politics, Regional, Security & Conflict, Topical

Johns Hopkins SAIS Faculty and Fellow Reflections: The War in Ukraine at One Year

February 24, 2023

One year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) faculty and SAIS Foreign Policy Institute fellows explain the current state of the war, the varying international responses to it, and…

Africa, Civil Society, Policy & Politics, Regional, Security & Conflict, Topical

Reunification monument in Yaounde, Cameroon

Global Responses to Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis: The Inadequate International Efforts to End the World’s Most Neglected Conflict

November 8, 2022

Jude Mutah is a program officer for Africa at the National Endowment for Democracy. Background The conflict in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon is a civil war that started in 2017 between Cameroonian security forces and non-state armed separatist groups…