Author: TheConversation

By Ora Szekely, Associate Professor of Political Science, Clark University After a pair of devastating earthquakes struck southern Türkiye and northwestern Syria, the number of confirmed deaths continues to rise, surpassing 52,000 as of March 23. The United Nations estimates that millions of people on both sides of the border have been affected, including 9 million in Syria alone. Many across northwest Syria are enduring winter conditions without adequate shelter or access to food, drinking water, electricity, or heating fuel. Indian economist Amartya Sen famously argued that famines must be understood as problems with human origins rather than merely...

By Kimberly Howe, University of Virginia Humanitarian Collaborative Practitioner Fellow; Assistant Research Professor of International Relations, Tufts University Three weeks after the February 2023 earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria, I stood amid the rubble in Jindires, a devastated Syrian village. An estimated 50,000 people had lost their lives in the two countries by that point, with the number of casualties still climbing. Around me, heaps of concrete and twisted metal mixed with bursts of color — fragments of furniture, children’s toys, clothing — that served as reminders of the lives that crumbled when homes crumbled, trapping people inside and...

By Jessica Maddox, Assistant Professor of Journalism and Creative Media, University of Alabama When it comes to sharing content of children on social media, particularly via sponsored posts and brand deals, what is legal is not always what is ethical. Influencer Brittany Dawn, who initially gained a following for her fitness workouts before pivoting to religious content, recently came under fire for monetizing her foster child on social media. While Dawn has blurred out her child’s image in photos shared – a stipulation decreed by the U.S. Children’s Bureau for foster parents in their social media rules – she...

By Brian Urlacher, Department Chair and Professor, Political Science & Public Administration, University of North Dakota President George W. Bush and his administration put forward a variety of reasons to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In the months before the U.S. invasion, Bush said the looming conflict was about eradicating terrorism and seizing weapons of mass destruction – but also because of a “freedom deficit” in the Middle East, a reference to the perceived lag in participatory government in the region. Many of these arguments would emerge as poorly grounded, given later events. In 2004, then Secretary of...