Delving Deeper Into the Surface of the World

With the current coverage of the recent atrocity committed by a man enabled by racist and nationalistic redirect, a few things have begun to appear. The first is the way in which media platforms have enabled the spread of terrifying ideals and information. Media, more specifically social media, allows information and false information to bear the same weight. It allows for the empowerment of people with the same supremacist ideals as that of the New Zealand terrorist. Due to this unfiltered nature, an inherent part of social media platforms, certain ideas, misinformation, and content can be spread with little to no consequence at all. One expert believes that streaming acts like the one committed just days ago, can act as a way of actively recruiting more members to a said cause. This is incredibly scary in what it presents for the future. Something often seen as a tool can falsely glorify a very brutal and real thing. However beyond this shortcoming of media lies the way in which acts...

Over the past couple of weeks in many of my classes, the events unfolding in Venezuela have been a hot topic of discussion. This led me to dig a little deeper into the situation at hand, after which I was shocked beyond words. Essentially President Maduro who has served one full term was re-elected to a second term. After being elected to a second term many Venezuala citizens and members of the National Assembly deemed the election to be illegitimate, which enables the President of the Assembly to take charge as interim president until fair elections are held. In this case, the president of the Assembly happens to be Juan Guaido. This has created a split in Venezuela in which the majority of citizens believe the election to be un-democratic and are in favor of a Guaido presidency, however, Maduro holds the support of the military creating a very tense environment. Protests have strewn the streets for weeks on end. This issue is one however that involves the international community ...

Ian's event which hosted Professor English was one of the most informative GIP events I have attended. Through his expertise, Professor English articulated many of the nuances which often go unnoticed when discussing foreign policy regarding Russia. He started off the night by helping the crowd gain a better understanding of Russia's recent history, and how that can affect the average Russian's outlook on life, but more concretely how President Putin may have been affected by Russia's tough history. After giving a brief synopsis of that history, he touched upon the domestic politics of Russia and Putin's rule. After which he analyzed many of Russia's foreign policy decisions from an American and Russian perspective, providing a better understanding of the reasons behind each decision. However what was amazing about this event was not the knowledge professor English brought with him, but rather the way he presented it. Throughout the night he was re-affirming a...