On the Brink of Collapse: Fiscal Policy in Post-Revolution Iran

The Iranian Revolution of 1979 was a large-scale nationalist and religious movement. It resulted from various political and economic factors, including the Shah’s questionably close ties to the United States, rampant corruption throughout the Iranian government, and the inequitable distribution of wealth in Iran.[ii] Although the Revolution was widely embraced by a sizable segment of the Iranian population, it caused irreparable economic damage that is still being felt throughout the country to this day.

Read More

In Search of Territoriale Integriteit and the Société Distincte: A Comparative Study of Separatism in Belgium and Canada and Recommendations for the Exportation of Institutions

Geographically incomparable – insomuch that one occupies 30,528 square kilometers and the other constitutes the second largest country in the world by total area – yet politically and culturally analogous to the extent that both contain significant French-speaking minorities, the federal parliamentary constitutional monarchies of Belgium and Canada present ideal cases for comparison.

Read More

Prolongation of Violence and the Realities of Darfur

Beginning in February of 2003, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice of Equality Movement (JEM) joined forces in the Darfur region of western Sudan to lead an armed rebellion against the country’s central government. What resulted was years of violent conflict that has been said to have left hundreds of thousands of people dead, and millions more displaced from their homes.

Read More

Making the World Safe for Democracy: Wilsonianism Revisited

In declaring war on Germany in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson defined the central goal of his vision for American foreign policy by asserting that “the world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty.”[i]Wilson ingrained this philosophy, known as Liberal Internationalism, into the psyche of the American public by advocating for the promotion of democracy, economic openness, well-structured multilateral institutions, and American leadership. 

Read More

Back to Babylonia? A Look at Contemporary Barter

Barter, commonly associated with ancient times and micro-level transactions, summons to the mind images of rustic trade routes spanning across Asia, as merchants from the East and traders from the West journey to exchange exotic spices for commodities and metals. What many fail to realize, however, is that barter is far from a phenomenon isolated to the history books

Read More