Following the end of the Cold War, academia saw a devaluation of regional studies in favor of broader disciplines such as security studies, development studies, technology policy, and international political economy. However, the peace dividends that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union did not erase conflict, but shifted the focus to rogue states, criminal organizations, and terrorist groups. Nonetheless, both policymakers and academics the world over would benefit from a reassessment of their priors, many of which emerged during the Cold War and remain anchored in its particular assumptions,…
In 2009, the United Nations General Assembly formalized the 19th of August as World Humanitarian Day (WHD), in memory of the 19 August 2003 bomb attack on the Canal Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, which killed 22 humanitarian workers, including the UN's chief humanitarian in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. On WHD, the world commemorates humanitarian workers killed and injured in the course of their work, and all aid and health workers who continue, despite the odds, to provide life-saving support and protection to people most in need. In commemoration of this year's WHD, the Journal of International Affairs…
