What Is Vladimir Putin’s Endgame?
After a series of horrific events, I am sat wearing four layers of clothing while penning this piece. Other than at the time I was writing the article, “Is Moscow Turning Off the Gas Tap?” — when the heating was...
Insight
The State of Press Freedom in Finland
A decision to prosecute three journalists at Finland’s largest newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, has called into question its status as one of the world’s leading countries for press freedom. Investigative journalists Laura Halminen and Tuomo Pietilainen, along with their supervisor, Kalle Silfverberg, are accused of disclosing and attempting to disclose state secrets. All three deny the charges. The case concerns a series of investigative articles about a military intelligence research center operated...
The Risk Posed by Global Inflation
Since the reopening of national economies after COVID-19 lockdowns, inflation has been rising around the world. This change in the macroeconomic environment caught policymakers off guard in terms of adapting inflation forecasting models and assessing the causes of this evolution. As a result, old debates have resurfaced about the risks and opportunities of inflation and how best to restore price stability. Despite the rapid surge, inflation was not totally unexpected...
A Russian-American Game of Mirrors
Most of the propaganda Western media is now mass-producing focuses on the very real belligerence and lies of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Print and broadcast media have thrown themselves into a propaganda game serving to cast them in the noble role of prosecutors of an evildoer and defenders of victimized Ukrainians. Some academic-style publications have begun to join the fray, in an attempt to refine the propagandizing strategies. One good...
Afghanistan’s Public Intellectuals Fail to Denounce the Taliban
Unlike most societies, political alignment in Afghanistan is not divided along the right and the left axis. Most of the policy debates in the last two decades of the so-called republic were shaped by the right — either Afghan/Pashtun ethnonationalism or political Islam. At times, both these political strands were amalgamated with naive populism. Currently, political fragmentation and polarization under the Taliban have become an existential conflict over culture and...
A Fictional Debate Between a General and a Journalist
Washington Post reporter Brandon Dyson emerges from the shadows in a street near Foggy Bottom after he recognizes General Edwin Moran leaving the State Department building and walking toward his car. Brandishing a microphone, Dyson rushes up to intercept him. FADE IN: EXT. Georgetown Street — Late Afternoon DYSON: General, if you could spare a minute, I’d like to get your take on how the Ukraine war’s going. Are you...
German Far-Right Conspiracy Theorists Step Up Attempts to Undermine Schools
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, independent schools in Germany, particularly the Waldorf (also known as Steiner) schools attracted far-right conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers. Over the past two years, reported incidents of COVID-19 skepticism coupled with far-right conspiracy theories at Waldorf schools appear to be on the increase. Some COVID-19 deniers even attempted to establish their own schools in order to withdraw their children from government influence. Which far-right groups have...
Fellow White Women, It’s Time to Talk About Feminism
In March, as part of Women’s History Month, we rightfully celebrate women’s achievements and the strides toward equity we have made collectively. Yet we need to be honest about how we got here and how far we still have to go. Women’s History Month should have an intersectional lens and be a celebration of all women and their lived experiences, but it is often the voices of white women that...
