By Eugenia Valais and Ricardo Pereira Teixeira On Sunday 6 October, U.S President Donald J. Trump went against the recommendations of top officials in the Pentagon and the State Department by endorsing, via a phone call with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a Turkish-led military operation in northern Syria.Continue Reading

Editorial In a crowded room, a mixed bunch of students were eagerly awaiting the panel discussion on Kashmir. The event, highly relevant due to the recent revoking of Article 370 of the Indian constitution, was the first academic event of the year for CIROS. Indian-administered Jammu-Kashmir, a contested area betweenContinue Reading

By Nick Psomas Democracy is dead, and we have killed it. Paraphrasing the 19th century philosopher Friedich Nietzsche, the current state of democratic institutions resembles the political ‘Death of God’. Radical polarisation, surge in national and populist sentiment, a twisted bewitchment of the public by demagoguery and hostility to the political “Other”, areContinue Reading

By Lea Schiller North Korea’s shrinking island in Japan For these young kids, being accompanied by guards on their way to school is normal. Their uniforms are safely tucked away in their backpacks to be worn later, when they are in the safety of the school building, away from pryingContinue Reading

By Lara Kaptein Things have been a little bit quiet lately in the politics of the Netherlands. An article of the NOS (the Dutch news organization) stated that the Second Chamber is on a holiday right now, so nothing much is happening. Parties and party leaders are still recovering fromContinue Reading

By Sasha Zinchenco At the end of 1960, commonly referred to as the year of Africa, Ethiopia stood as the symbolical centre for Pan-Africanism. This country, after being one of the only territories not colonised during the Scramble for Africa, led the push for African unity and the end ofContinue Reading

A journalist dying in a pool of blood, 200 princes in jail in one month, thousands of children dying of hunger in Yemen. This is the legacy of the first year of the recently appointed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. After initial enthusiasm about his widely anticipated reforms, the tablesContinue Reading