Nauru is the smallest republic in the world, yet its significance towards Australia, New Zealand, and the broader South Pacific region is paramount. The re-opening of the Nauru Regional Processing Centre for refugees in 2016 has proven to be a rather problematic sticking point, offering challenges to local diplomatic relations as well as stimulating international discussion over fundamental questions of human rights. What would happen to Nauru next?

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was a milestone of Barack Obama’s legacy and the history of US-Iran relations, but was recently overturned by the Trump administration in November. The move to re-impose sanctions will not only prove ineffective to bring about the outcomes his administration purportedly supports, but it will also reduce the US’s ability to engage with Iran and other countries and negotiate successfully in the long-term.

In July 2018, the Modi government released a draft of the National Register of Citizens as part of the 2016 Citizenship Amendment Bill, which seeks to remove Indian citizenship from individuals who arrived in the country after 2014. The new law effectively stripped four million Assamese residents of Indian citizenship, a targeted move of exclusion and marginalization that should outrage the global community. A broad front is necessary to stop this exclusionary agenda in its tracks, and this will require organizing within India as well as concerted uproar by the global community.

The past two decades have seen unprecedented growth in online usage and dependency within nations around the globe. The internet has facilitated communication, international trade, and even the spread and development of democracy, but has also generated a host of security concerns involving the information and safety of nations and their citizens. Due to the constant growth of this threat, the next major international conflict very well may be fought not on soil but over cyberspace

In October 2018, the United States Senate passed the Better Utilization of Investments Leading to Development (BUILD) Act, a $60 billion dollar foreign aid project directed towards developing countries. Despite the Trump Administration’s earlier rhetoric to decrease foreign aid, the new Act re-instills the importance of economic soft power in maintaining its international image and checking influence from competitors, particularly China in the Asia-Pacific region.

China has achieved an industrial revolution within twenty years that took many Western countries an entire century; yet, this accomplishment has also compacted a century of environmental pollution issues into a mere two decades. An important question to ask is how China — as the world’s next emerging superpower — will balance its sustainability efforts and economic growth.

The legacy of Ambassador Nikki Haley continues to be divided and her departure from the United Nations has left numerous challenges for the new United States ambassador to reform the organization in this increasingly globalized world. But just because the U.N. will need to address these challenges and criticisms, that should not be a reason to abandon our efforts all together.

Ukraine has a lengthy history of partnership with NATO dating back to the 1990’s, but there remains much to be done before the country can obtain membership status.

The African diaspora population has been consistently increasing in America, reaching a population of 2.1 million and making up 4.8% of the United States’ total immigrant population in 2015. Given the increasing presence of the African diaspora in the U.S., a central question remains, when will America began to educate itself about Africa and its people?

As publicly shared information begins to circulate across the globe, so does privately shared information. As the investigation on Cambridge Analytica continues, we must consider the possibility that with the arrival of the internet the line separates the public and private has become significantly blurred.

On January 12th, United States President Donald Trump decided to waive sanctions on Iran in accordance to the Iran Nuclear deal instituted by former President Barack Obama, but reiterated his disdain for the deal and his plans to pull out if the deal is not renegotiated. If Trump does go through and withdraws from the Nuclear deal, it will have multiple devastating impacts that will damage U.S. interests in the Middle East and across the globe.