Battle against censorship: Fire-Proof edition of “Handmaid’s Tale” released to fight GOP book-banning
Proceeds from an auction of an unusual edition of Margaret Atwood’s classic dystopian novel The “Handmaid’s Tale” will go to the free expression advocacy group PEN America, as the group stands up to right-wing attempts to ban books in the...
Poorer and less secure: Putin’s bloody assault of Ukraine is badly dividing other post-Soviet countries
By Nicole Jackson, Associate Professor of International Studies, Simon Fraser University The war in Ukraine is dividing the former Soviet region, making it poorer and less secure. Russia will take advantage of this. As a student three decades ago, I watched the Soviet...
Prelude to Annexation: Russian policy seeks to further weaponize citizenship in occupied Ukrainian territories
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin recently signed a decree to simplify the procedure for Russian citizenship, specifically for residents of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts in occupied Ukraine. The action further proves that Putin had every intention to annex...
Hybrid Warfare: How Ukraine is winning the hearts and minds of Americans to offset Russia’s propaganda
By Michael Butler, Associate Professor of Political Science, Clark University Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has dominated headlines since late February 2022. The war struck a nerve among Western audiences, evoking a high degree of support for Ukraine. The reasons for...
Can’t handle the truth: Why people prefer ghosting when they lack ability to have honest conversations
By Royette T. Dubar, Professor of Psychology, Wesleyan University Check your phone. Are there any unanswered texts, snaps, or direct messages that you are ignoring? Should you reply? Or should you ghost the person who sent them? Ghosting happens when someone cuts off...
Slavery by another name: When Juneteenth celebrated resilience amid the failure of full Emancipation
By Kris Manjapra, Professor of History, Tufts University The actual day was June 19, 1865, and it was the Black dockworkers in Galveston, Texas, who first heard the word that freedom for the enslaved had come. There were speeches, sermons and shared meals, mostly held...
Ukraine Fatigue: How the international community’s selfish distractions could hand Putin a victory
“It’s becoming harder to sell stories about Ukraine,” said one of my colleagues from an international TV crew, as we drove past bombed-out apartment blocks in the town of Borodianka, just north of Kyiv. “People are tired of this war.” I understand. I am Ukrainian....
An inhuman scheme: When Russia’s goal for war is to depopulate Ukraine and render it uninhabitable
By David Roger Marples, Distinguished University Professor of Russian and East European History, University of Alberta The Russian war on Ukraine has lasted well over 100 days. It has exacerbated a critical demographic situation in Ukraine, one that saw its population...
Why Putin’s genocide in Ukraine is rooted in a long tradition of dehumanizing former Soviet cultures
By Kseniya Oksamytna, Lecturer in International Politics, City, University of London Former war crimes prosecutor Sir Howard Morrison recently highlighted the dangers posed by the negative, often insulting and dehumanizing, statements made by some Russian politicians...
Volunteers in Kyiv endure burdens of exhuming bodies to help investigate war crimes by Russian troops
Oleksandr Bugeruk covers his mouth in horror as five men lift his mother’s body from a grave using two straps of taught cloth. The men then stumble over the wet, uneven ground as they carry the body away from the grave. One of them begins to retch from the smell as...
Army of Thieves: Putin’s military weakness follows a long history of corrupt Russian regimes
By Tony Ward, Fellow in Historical Studies, The University of Melbourne In explaining the reasons for Russia’s unexpected military weakness in Ukraine, few have expressed it better than “The Economist.” The magazine noted “the incurable inadequacy of...
The sum of Putin’s fears: Why Ukrainian national identity drifted West even in Russian-friendly regions
By Lowell Barrington, Associate Professor of Political Science , Marquette University Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine in February 2022 has, thus far, produced the opposite of what he expected. Rather than deepening political fissures in...
