Mass pro-democracy protests broke out in Hong Kong in late September, which sparked when university and secondary students boycotted classes. Protesters are demanding the right to democratically elect their next Chief Executive, Hong Kong’s highest elected position, in response to China’s announcement that they will vet all candidates. This, say pro-democracy activists, is not the universal suffrage promised by Beijing in a 2007 white paper. Law professor Michael Davis teaches at the University of Hong Kong, has lived in Hong Kong for 30 years and has been involved in other pro-democracy political…
Long before a Tunisian fruit vendor sparked the Arab Spring, student protesters in Paris led a revolt in 1968 that spread to the labor unions and touched off similar protests in London, Berlin, Mexico City, and Rome. The protests took on the pertinent social issues of each city, and it was a turbulent year around the world. Decades later, in the midst of another tumultuous period, university students continue to be a force that sparks and sustains protest culture around the world. The Journal of International Affairs spoke with university students in Ukraine, Turkey, and Venezuela who joined the…
On September 2012, a Congolese doctor stood before the world's leaders at the United Nations General Assembly and denounced the mass rapes of women and girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and the impunity enjoyed by those responsible. Dr. Mukwege said he was ashamed of the international community's failure to stop these atrocities. A month later, he was attacked in his residence in Bakavu, DRC, and was forced into exile. Dr. Mukwege, who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012 and in 2013, returned to the Congo earlier this year in January to resume his work at the Panzi…
The vision of an academic-turned-politician has brought a stream of creativity to local public administration in Colombia. It is said that disruptive innovation occurs at the edge of disciplines.[i] And Sergio Fajardo, mathematician and former journalist, has managed to leverage such cross-discipline dialogues and energize communities to engage with public planning objectives. As mayor of Medellín in Colombia from 2004 to 2007, he “introduced transparency fairs, broke clientelistic political networks, raised tax receipts, improved public services, established civic pacts and restored citizens’…
Vanda Felbab-Brown, an expert on illicit economies and international and internal conflict management, analyzes the unprecedented pace at which the illicit drug trade is expanding. Her perspective identifies common mistakes in antidrug-designed policies and stresses the need for governments to reprioritize their objectives. She debunks established myths around the commonality of drug trade and its impact on society. Often, policies are not successful because public officials do not effectively identify the central issues surrounding drug violence or the consequences of implementing antidrug trade…