Editors' Foreword

The Journal of International Affairs celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2022. Unfortunately, there is little else to celebrate. The world is confronted with a host of crises threatening the very foundations of modern societies. The deadliest pandemic in over 100 years. The largest land war in Europe since World War II. The most widespread inflation in forty years. The greatest number of displaced people in modern history. The hottest planet since measurement began. Records have been shattered—and not the good kind. In short, we’re struggling.

Yet how did we get here? How did we arrive at a moment when the systems of politics and economy and society that have arisen to coordinate and amplify human productivity and ingenuity are straining so obviously to rise to the challenges of the times? A lack of answers to these pressing questions fueled early discussion around conceptualizing this issue, eventually settling on the vague concept of “insecure systems and international affairs.” Insecure systems: the intricate networks of institutions, policies, norms— and, importantly, the people that make everything function. However, it is not only the systems themselves which are showing age or inertia, but the individual components as well, in addition to more abstract feelings and senses—in contemporary parlance, “vibes.”

We asked ourselves: to what extent are multilateral responses still fit for purpose? Are existing coordinating mechanisms still capable of marshalling resources for specific causes? Can climate change, vaccine development and distribution, sanctions against Russia and support for Ukraine—can any be achieved through existing means? And if not, is there a willingness to found new institutions, cultivate new norms, strive for better? An alliterative triumvirate of crisis—climate, COVID, and conflict—have exposed weaknesses and stressed these systems to the brink, threatening our very security.

Consequently, amidst these challenges, the Journal arrived at an issue focused not on a topic or a state or a movement, but an idea. The idea of insecurity.

But not just one—many insecurities, for the insecurity a mother feels protecting and caring for her children in displacement is not the same as a great power recoiling at the rise of another. At the individual level, the United Nations Development Programme published in 2022 a report^[1] suggesting that the vast majority of people on earth feel insecure, many for the reasons cited above: the seemingly-unprecedented onslaught of concurrent crises defining daily existence for so many. At the national and international levels, seemingly everyone feels insecure as well. The U.S. feels insecure against a rising China. China feels insecure against a constraining U.S. Russia feels insecure in its post-Cold War borders. The UK feels insecure in its post-Brexit reality. France feels insecure as its ambitions of grandeur confront reality. Island nations feel insecure as sea levels rise around them. Journalists and activists feel insecure as authoritarian actors continue to punish their efforts. All while millions of people feel insecure as prices rise, crops suffer, and temperatures increase.

“Insecurity” connotes both a lack of security, in the literal sense, but also feelings of inadequacy and deficiency. And who wouldn’t feel this way after the last few years, in which millions died and the response has descended into political mudslinging and bureaucratic infighting? As the U.S. approached its first 100,000 deaths from COVID, the New York Times described the milestone as “an incalculable loss”—and later acknowledged surpassing one million deaths as “a nation’s immeasurable grief.”

COVID-19 also presented humanity with a challenge of singular importance: vaccine development, licensing, manufacturing, distribution, and uptake was the test of global cooperation. The cover of this issue presents a team distributing shots to rural populations in Türkiye. Yet as with most endeavors, humanity’s record on this account is mixed.

The COVID disruption did only impact individuals and communities: it radically upended business-as-usual within institutions. The Journal of International Affairs is no exception. As the first edition of the Journal was published in Spring 1947, it is marking 75 years of publication in 2022. This current issue, the 75th anniversary edition, is now available online and in print—in 2023. In this way, the Journal joins the likes of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo (2021) and the Dubai Expo 2020 (2021-2022), one among several naming inconsistencies amidst a generational tragedy.

Harrison Parker, our first Editor-in-Chief, set down the Journal’s mandate and scope in the very first issue, published in Spring 1947. With a new publication, at a new school, in a new era, the times were very much ripe for experimentation and innovation. Yet even then, Parker acknowledged the challenges of a student-run periodical dedicated to the work of scholars and practitioners far more advanced and experienced then their editors. It is worth quoting here his “Editorial” from 1.1, “Higher Education in International Affairs,” at length:

From the beginning, the Journal set out to be different, and in this way be useful. However, questions around the use-value of a publication such as this one are top of mind these days. One consequence of COVID-19 was a reassessment, among many, of what’s important and worth dedicating time and energy to. This includes scholarly endeavors that in a previous era would be viewed as productive but now feel frivolous or unworthy of effort. This also includes the Journal itself, with students questioning the use-value of (unpaid) editing and production to bring scholarship to our audience. Moreover, a year of remote instruction at Columbia SIPA, our academic home, eroded institutional knowledge and severed social and professional ties. In full transparency, the Journal nearly did not survive.

In many respects, our 150th issue is both a destination and a departure. It owes its reputation and pedigree to the legacy of past editors and contributors, while it has been produced as our first post-pandemic issue—emerging into a world nowhere near as devasted as that of the post-war era, but a changed world nonetheless, in ways that remain to be seen and fully felt. It concludes the first 75 years of publication and ushers in the next.

Contributions

The 150th issue of the Journal of International Affairs brings together academics, policy professionals, and practitioners to reflect upon our insecurities. As this is an issue borne of an idea, it is, primarily, an issue of ideas as well. The pieces in this edition do not so much advance their focus areas onward as take stock of where they are and how they got here. There is some forward-looking analysis, yet much of it is retrospective in nature, a tendency toward introspection evident as well in the ways these thinkers and doers are assessing the state of the world: how the institutions and norms of the last 75 years, designed to prevent war and eradicate poverty and advance human flourishing, have fallen on hard times.

The issue begins with a collection of arguments. Julian G. Waller distinguishes between authoritarianism and illiberalism and calls for greater conceptual integrity around scholarly and lay use of these terms. With a focus on the Amazon, Guilherme Casarões and Déborah Barros Leal Farias trace the historical legacy of this vitally-important region, caught between national ambition and global preservation. Rajesh Basrur takes aim at traditional realist thought around nuclear states and finds it lacking, demonstrating through the case of India and its neighbors China and Pakistan that new thinking is needed to understand their contemporary foreign relations. Forward-looking Daniel Naujoks envisions a better planet for people on the move and presents evidence for how current institutions can be better fit for purpose around migration and displacement.

Farzaneh Badiei calls for the global Internet to be used as a tool for, not as a weapon against, global security. Damilola Ogunbiyi makes the case for an equitable energy transition that supports lower-income countries, drawing on a wealth of multilateral knowledge to sketch out what is still needed. Recognizing the increase in cross-border retribution by authoritarian regimes, Heather Marie Vitale presents the cases of China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia and argues for greater response, from both domestic and international actors, to curtail this transnational repression. Ambika Vishwanath and Aditi Mukund review the current state of feminist foreign policies and demonstrate the way forward for more gender-inclusive multilateralism. Hugh Harsono reveals the centralizing tendencies of the Chinese Communist Party around digital currencies and shows how the democratizing spirit of Web3 technologies is slowly being eroded by Beijing.

The war in Ukraine is transforming global systems, but Ivan Levy takes aim at one institution in particular: the UN Security Council, which he argues must be reformed in an era of great power expansionism. Jesse Young, from a vantage point within the U.S. government, argues forcefully for a new engagement with the public on climate change, one premised on better communication, rigorous evidence, and shared self-interest. Srijan Shukla believes states are weakening vis-à-vis multinational corporations in the global economy and draws on a case study of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, to prove it. Daniella Foster proposes a quick fix to the nation’s healthcare challenges that will make people healthier and health systems stronger.

To reflect growing student interest in publishing, the issue includes a special Student Focus section highlighting the scholarly work of current Columbia University students—the next generation of leaders in their respective fields. James Maker Atem explores the complex dynamics surrounding the Jonglei Canal project in South Sudan and presents findings demonstrating just how difficult circumstances are for a peaceful resolution. Zara Tayebjee analyzes previous attempts at debt forgiveness on the African continent and concludes that an additional post-COVID round is not in states’ best interest. Jenny Li presents her analysis of the rule of Xi Jinping in the People’s Republic of China and argues against several current narratives around the regime.

As is customary, the Journal is publishing several interviews with leading scholars and practitioners. We first spoke with political scientist Paul Poast on the war in Ukraine, institutional resilience, and the challenges of maintaining support. Next, Caroline D’Angelo shares the importance of sustainability for U.S. diplomatic efforts and lauds the people who make it possible. Gabriel Swiney, at NASA, explores the leading edge of space law and public policy, describing how the law is made in real time and looking ahead to future manned missions to the moon. Dinara Auyelbekova, founder of Girls Power Fund in Kazakhstan, shares what it is like to steer an organization devoted to getting girls into STEM and navigating the world of nonprofits and donors. Economist Mark Blyth addresses the global economy and comes away unimpressed by the lack of reform and by public acquiescence to bad actors and bad policy. Lilian Nakigozi, founder of Women Smiles Uganda, tells us about her upbringing in the slums of Kampala and the vertical farming and women’s empowerment organization she founded to bring economic stability and food security to the women and children of her youth. Finally, Olivier Bois von Kursk takes us inside COP27 in Egypt and explains why fossil fuels are such a contentious issue within negotiations over the energy transition and a zero-carbon future. To conclude, the Journal holds a brief conversation with ChatGPT, the technology du jour that will transform the way humanity creates and communicates.

Lastly, this year’s winner of the Andrew Wellington Cordier student essay contest, Aparajita Suresh Rao, shares her own findings from COP27 and the much-heralded creation of a loss and damage fund to justly compensate low-emissions countries for climate costs—the article reads as a natural follow-up and companion piece to the Journal’s most recent issue, “Microstates and Small Island States in International Affairs” (vol. 74, no. 2), which raised the issue of island states in particular seeking redress for the impacts of climate change.

If current events have any predictive power, there will be plenty more to write and say in the future. For now, our 150th issue will strive to keep our readers thinking. For more, turn to our digital presence on the website, as well as ABROADcast, our podcast. There are many reasons to feel insecure about the state of the world—the disappearance of the Journal is not one of them. We’ll still be here, publishing rigorous and challenging scholarship long into the future. Here’s to 75 years of the Journal of International Affairs.

—The Editors

[1] United Nations Development Programme, “2022 Special Report on Human Security: New threats to human security in the anthropocene: Demanding greater solidarity,” February 8, 2022, https://hdr.undp.org/content/2022-special-report-human-security?_gl=1%2A1xd51ua%2A_ga%2AMjQ5MzI1MDAzLjE2Nzg5MDg1MDI.%2A_ga_3W7LPK0WP1%2AMTY3ODkwODUwMi4xLjEuMTY3ODkwO%20DYyMC42MC4wLjA.