Author: TheConversation

Owning bits of the Metaverse: Why riding a blockchain between virtual worlds will require a crypto wallet

By Rabindra Ratan, Associate Professor of Media and Information, Michigan State University; and Dar Meshi, Assistant Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences, Michigan State University For people who comprehend what the metaverse is, they think it will be a bunch of interconnected virtual spaces, the world wide web but accessed through virtual reality. This is largely correct, but there is also a fundamental and slightly more cryptic side to the metaverse that will set it apart from today’s internet: the blockchain. In the beginning, Web 1.0 was the information superhighway of connected computers and servers that you could search,...

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From Soviet chaos to Russian ruin: Local industries transformed Ukraine into a vital global economy

By Yuriy Gorodnichenko, Quantedge Presidential Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley Ukraine’s economy continues to operate despite the battering the country is getting from the Russian military. Many factories and businesses still function. Other industries like those in information technology have barely missed a beat, with workers continuing to work from areas out of the direct line of fire. But Ukraine has been largely transformed into a war economy. For example, a women’s shoe maker is using Italian leather to craft military boots, a construction company’s dump trucks were converted into antiaircraft launchers, and a steel and mining...

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Mercenaries and Massacres: Post-Soviet wars demonstrate Russia’s brutality in Ukraine invasion

By Nicole Jackson, Associate Professor of International Studies, Simon Fraser University In the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is worth examining the evolution of Russia’s official rhetoric and military actions in former Soviet states since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. In the 1990s, soon after the Soviet Union’s collapse, Russia’s military became involved in the first generation of separatist wars in Georgia (Abkhazia and South Ossetia) and Moldova (Transdniestria) in former Soviet territory. My research showed the initial involvement in those separatist wars was taken independently by the Russian military. Later, Russia became...

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If Americans are unwilling to abandon Trump then we should not expect the Russians to give up on Putin

By Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager, Associate Professor of Critical Cultural & International Studies, Colorado State University; and Evgeniya Pyatovskaya, Ph.D. Candidate in Communication, University of South Florida While Russia is leading a merciless war in Ukraine that has resulted in millions of Ukrainian refugees’ fleeing to neighboring countries, Western brands are on the exodus from Russia. The closure of over 800 McDonald’s restaurants particularly stands out: McDonald’s was the first American restaurant to open in Russia, in 1990. Its arrival symbolized Russia’s new pro-Western era. That era is rapidly ending, giving way to a quickly spreading revival of Russian nationalism. Such...

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An Age of Impunity: How Putin’s crimes against humanity puts international justice on trial

By Shelley Inglis, Executive Director, University of Dayton Human Rights Center, University of Dayton Images of pregnant women fleeing a bombed maternity ward in Mariupol, Ukraine, raised again the question of how far the Russian military will be willing to go to conquer the country, and to what extent war crimes were being committed. In just over two weeks of the invasion, the World Health Organization has verified 39 attacks by Russians on health care facilities. Ukraine claims more civilians than Ukrainian soldiers have already been killed. International humanitarian law, constituting agreements between countries on the laws of conduct...

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Putin’s Other War: When historical revisionism is used like a weapon for domestic repression

By Lynne Viola, Professor, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto Vladimir Putin’s military aims, whether based on an attempt to restore the imperial grandeur of Russia or traditional Russian territorial paranoia, have resulted in the human tragedy of war unfolding before the world in Ukraine. Putin’s desires to reclaim what he sees as lost Russian territory have also extended to the realm of history, most recently with the most absurd and inaccurate claims about Ukraine’s history and statehood. Although Putin’s historical revisionism has been most intense around issues surrounding the Second World War and the supposed historical...

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