Image credits: Nico Lavaud, University of South Florida By Briggs Collins Murray Introduction On a warm, sunny day in early March 2026, the sun beamed down on the alabaster facade of the National Assembly of Senegal. Outside, Atlantic seagulls squawked as they circled overhead, eyes scanning for prey. Inside, elected deputies cawed as they debated in a hemicycle, setting their sights on a prey of their own: the domestic LGBT community. “I speak to international opinion: h

By Brett Rau, writing from the University of Georgia. (This article was originally printed in the Spring 2026 edition of our print magazine. To see the entire magazine, click here.) “Get up, get up, son of mine, and see if people are at the door; for I am hungry and would eat meat.” The voice was that of a man, seated in front of some red-hot cinders in the middle of the hut. The little boy ran to the door, and, upon seeing two girls standing there, implored them to run away

By Sara Alkelani, a Clemson University student and Fulbright ETA Finalist for Morocco (2026-27). (This article was originally printed in the Spring 2026 edition of our print magazine. To see the entire magazine, click here.) For more than a decade, Syria existed in the global imagination as a country suspended in destruction. Images of airstrikes, collapsed neighborhoods, and mass displacement flattened Syria into a singular narrative of war. In the process, its long history,

Blake Arias A sudden chill shot down my back as I quickly hung up the phone. It was not until that moment that I fully understood the silence —an unordinary silence. The interviewee’s abrupt refusal to continue the conversation when I said “women in Iran” was what struck me the most, revealing a culture of fear so deep that even speaking safely felt impossible. That instant mirrored what many Iranians feel daily: that even a single word can come at a cost. What was meant t

Mark Adams In Mali, protestors burn Western flags while brandishing signs proclaiming a love for Russia, as traditional chiefs perform rituals that synthesize tradition with political claims, demanding an end to neo-colonial interference in their country. This is not a scene from the Cold War; although the actors may seem reminiscent, the context is quite different. Across Africa, since 2020, throughout the southern band of the Saharan desert known as the Sahel region, a s

Image credits: Wikimedia Commons Tulsi Patel In the sweltering heat under a waxy white tent in the Ambelia refugee camp, hundreds of injured individuals wait. They wait while the arid dust around them billows and their children cry with naiveté. They wait with a variety of ailments- paralysis, malnutrition, gun wounds - for which some have been waiting on treatment for over a year. Beginning in April 2023, millions of Sudanese people sought refuge in neighboring North and S

Matthew Ployhart During a presidential address on April 14, 2021, American President Joe Biden announced his intention to withdraw...

Jackson Hufman In 1892, Cecil Rhodes stretched his arms over Africa. From his hands hung phone lines connecting the continent’s two most...

Briggs Murray Beneath the arid, subtropical, scattered townships of the Sahel, above the overbearingly humid jungles of the Congo River...

Matthew Ployhart Image credits: Wikimedia Commons, under Creative Commons 4.0 usage Russia’s presence in Africa has long-term historical...

Matthew M. Ployhart It was a chaotic scene in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, on February 14th, 1961. A reader of the American New York Times that...

Jenna Maunsell Poverty is a persistent problem in Africa. An estimated 490 million people in Africa live below the poverty line. Poverty...

Gavin Hunt On November 20 of this year, the FIFA World Cup opened to fireworks and fanfare in Qatar’s Al Bayt Stadium, beginning a 29 day...

Matthew M. Ployhart There are many instances in history in which a more advanced power has influenced the development of another nation...

Mary Grace Nimmer Following recent years of stagnation in the decades-long fight against malaria, the World Health Organization (WHO) has...

Ian Stewart Patricia Ogbonnaya shows the height oil rose to during an oil spill. Photograph: Maggie Andresen/The Guardian Shell, one of...

Jade Killion As the world watches the horrific events in Afghanistan, the hearts of the international community break for those who are...

Hannah Roebuck In March of 2020, COVID-19 was tearing through Jerusalem. Case numbers were growing exponentially, hospitals were...

Ian Stewart Last week, hundreds of militant members of Al Shabaab, an Islamic group based in northern Mozambique (unrelated to the Somali...

Nate Matzko On February 4th, 2021, the International Criminal Court (ICC) convened in The Hague, Netherlands, to deliver a verdict on the...