Project MUSE®: Georgetown Journal of International Affairs - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Georgetown Journal of International Affairs.daily12026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 17 (2016) through current issueLatest Articles: Georgetown Journal of International AffairsTWOProject MUSE®Georgetown Journal of International Affairs2471-88311526-0054Latest articles in Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Global Gaps: Bridging Differences, Disparities, and Disconnections
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965770
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If our last issue, Limits Reimagined, examines global inflection points amid rapid transformations across realms, the 26th edition of the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs turns to the fractures that persist despite—and because of—ambitious visions of change. GJIA presents the current issue, centered around "Global Gaps," to highlight the structural mismatches and disconnects amid ongoing social, economic, technological, and geopolitical changes—transformations that have yet to come together into cohesive global frameworks. These "gaps" are not merely spatial or material. They also manifest themselves in epistemology, norms, and governing institutions, a neglect of which can impede fundamental, collective
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallGlobal Gaps: Bridging Differences, Disparities, and Disconnections2025-07-22text/htmlen-USGlobal Gaps: Bridging Differences, Disparities, and Disconnections2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®54912026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Mind the Gap! Globalization and Deglobalization in Today's Inter-Epoch
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965771
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We are living through times of epochal change, reflected in the multiple global crises of the last two decades. A key indicator of this shift is the ongoing debate over the international order. Scholars largely agree that the old epoch has ended but disagree on what the new one might look like. They contest whether the new epoch will be characterized by a weaker form of U.S. preponderance, multipolarity, or even multiplexity in which regional powers assert themselves strongly.1 Zooming in on the substance of order, they debate whether the liberal world order will be able to reinvent itself or come to an end.2 As the old and the new epochs collide, the transition between them is proving to be a period of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallMind the Gap! Globalization and Deglobalization in Today's Inter-Epoch2025-07-22text/htmlen-USMind the Gap! Globalization and Deglobalization in Today's Inter-Epoch2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®614472026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22The Gap Between Women's Lived Experiences in Gaza and the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda in US Foreign Policy
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965772
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Since October 2023, the world has witnessed images of destroyed neighborhoods, burnt and disfigured bodies, and complete deprivation in Gaza. Only six months after the onset of Israel's war in Gaza, the United Nations (UN) reported that approximately 9,000 women had been killed.1 The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has since confirmed that women and children made up seventy percent of those killed between November 2023 to April 2024, and a UN Special Committee has since concluded that Israel's military tactics in Gaza are "consistent with characteristics of genocide."2 Now, over a year later, Oxfam reported that more women and children have been killed in a single year than any other recent
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallThe Gap Between Women's Lived Experiences in Gaza and the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda in US Foreign Policy2025-07-22text/htmlen-USThe Gap Between Women's Lived Experiences in Gaza and the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda in US Foreign Policy2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®920432026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State R. Clarke Cooper on the Role of the United States in Global Security
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965773
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Focusing on the future of the Abraham Accords and presuming that the resolutions of the conflict in the Middle East will occur, what could the next phase of the Abraham Accords entail, and how might this influence regional economic integration, security cooperation, and peacemaking efforts?Let us go back a few years. Across the region, there has been a persistent shared interest in reciprocities that already existed—some quietly or less overt level. We are talking about trade reciprocity, travel reciprocity, and investment reciprocity. These are all non-security factors and some of the bigger drivers for what eventually happened with the Abraham Accords. It just happened a little quicker than some anticipated.For
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallFormer U.S. Assistant Secretary of State R. Clarke Cooper on the Role of the United States in Global Security2025-07-22text/htmlen-USFormer U.S. Assistant Secretary of State R. Clarke Cooper on the Role of the United States in Global Security2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®292772026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22The Role Assigned to Artificial Intelligence in Global Sustainability Governance
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965774
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Sustainable development is now a shared agenda of the international community.1 With economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental protection as its main pillars, the term has taken center stage in many international policy-making processes.2 In 2015, the 193 member states of the United Nations (UN) collectively adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with 169 targets to be achieved by 2030.3 The SDGs call on all countries to act for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future, recognizing the urgency of ending poverty, improving health and education, reducing inequality, and mitigating climate change and
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallThe Role Assigned to Artificial Intelligence in Global Sustainability Governance2025-07-22text/htmlen-USThe Role Assigned to Artificial Intelligence in Global Sustainability Governance2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®756142026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22The Case for a UN Convention on Consumer Rights in Cloud Computing
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965775
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Cloud computing is a subscription-based method of providing customers with computing services, including data servers, data storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence, over the Internet.1 Cloud providers operate their cross-border services by requiring customers to sign access contracts and pay a subscription fee to access the software. With an access contract, customers do not download or install software directly onto their computer systems. Instead, they pay for access to software and other services. In cloud computing, the provider "maintains the software on its own infrastructure, updates the software itself, and guarantees the availability of its software" through a web
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallThe Case for a UN Convention on Consumer Rights in Cloud Computing2025-07-22text/htmlen-USThe Case for a UN Convention on Consumer Rights in Cloud Computing2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®917642026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Post-Liberal Humanitarianisms: Facing Famines in the Twenty-First Century
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965776
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Liberal humanitarianism refers to actions that provide assistance and protection to stricken people in accordance with universal principles. Expanding upon the four Red Cross principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence, liberal humanitarians have contributed to the historic decline in the incidence and lethality of famines, to the point that the end of famine is within reach.1 Over half a century, a set of specialized institutions and associated professional fields have developed technologies and modes of action that have saved millions of lives and prevented tens of millions from descending into destitution.2 Global famine deaths dropped from an average of over 13 million per decade in the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallPost-Liberal Humanitarianisms: Facing Famines in the Twenty-First Century2025-07-22text/htmlen-USPost-Liberal Humanitarianisms: Facing Famines in the Twenty-First Century2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®644062026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Modernization and Africa's Development
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965777
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Modernization has occupied a dominant position in the discourse and strategies for Africa's development since the 1950s, when the process of decolonization began for most African colonies. In the context of the Cold War and efforts to limit the influence and appeal of communism, colonial powers promoted a development path centered on Westernization in their colonies. The modernization paradigm interpreted and promoted development as replicating Western institutions in Africa, a Eurocentric depiction of development that promotes Western societies as the permanent center from which cultural changes and innovations diffuse to non-Western societies.1 African countries have been expected to go through an evolutionary
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallModernization and Africa's Development2025-07-22text/htmlen-USModernization and Africa's Development2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®998062026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Reassessing Human Rights Protection: Territorial Non-State Entities and the Need for a Result-Oriented Approach
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965778
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Territorial non-state entities (TNSEs) are widespread in Eastern Europe. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, four breakaway entities emerged within the internationally recognized borders of the newly created states supported by Russia through political, military, economic, and financial means. Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Georgia, Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan, and Transnistria from the Republic of Moldova.1 After years of regional stability, separatist movements resurfaced in 2014 with Crimea's secession from Ukraine and its annexation by Russia, followed by the secession of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics and their subsequent annexation to Russia in February 2022.2Previously
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallReassessing Human Rights Protection: Territorial Non-State Entities and the Need for a Result-Oriented Approach2025-07-22text/htmlen-USReassessing Human Rights Protection: Territorial Non-State Entities and the Need for a Result-Oriented Approach2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®575432026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Diasporas and Global Grand Challenges: Reflecting Viewpoints on Diaspora Role and Positionality
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965779
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Global and transboundary challenges—from geopolitical tensions and armed conflicts to the escalating impacts of climate change—have become central concerns for states and international organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union. These issues not only affect economies and the environment but also expose deepening inequalities that shape lives across the globe. Despite the far-reaching nature of these challenges, discussions remain predominantly focused on traditional actors such as nation-states, international organizations, and political entities, often overlooking or narrowly instrumentalizing the role of diasporas—migrants and their descendants who maintain connections to their country of
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallDiasporas and Global Grand Challenges: Reflecting Viewpoints on Diaspora Role and Positionality2025-07-22text/htmlen-USDiasporas and Global Grand Challenges: Reflecting Viewpoints on Diaspora Role and Positionality2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®496312026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22MENA at the Crossroads of the Energy Transition: Doomsday or a Historical Opportunity?
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965780
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Over the last two decades, the world has begun to dramatically restructure its energy mix, increasing the consumption of clean, green, and renewable energy sources to the detriment of fossil fuels. The share of non-fossil fuels in the total energy supply reached 20.7 percent in 2022, the highest since 1990. Moreover, the growth rate of this share has accelerated significantly after 2015.1The fast pace of this conversion to clean energies has been led by solar photovoltaics (PV), wind turbines, and electric vehicles (EVs). According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), approximately 40 percent of the increase in the capacity of solar energy production after the Paris Agreement—adopted in 2015—occurred in the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallMENA at the Crossroads of the Energy Transition: Doomsday or a Historical Opportunity?2025-07-22text/htmlen-USMENA at the Crossroads of the Energy Transition: Doomsday or a Historical Opportunity?2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®745092026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22The Fading Heartbeat of the Mekong River Basin: Environmental Security and Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965781
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The Mekong River flows more than four thousand kilometers through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. About 86 percent of Cambodia's territory falls into the Mekong River Basin. Cambodia is connected to the Mekong River through both the key 3S River tributary system, where the Sesan, Srepok, and Sekong rivers flow from Laos and Vietnam into Cambodia, and to the Mekong Delta system, which crosses into Vietnam.Known as the beating heart of Cambodia, the Tonle Sap Lake (TSL) is the "largest body of freshwater in Southeast Asia and a key part of the Mekong hydrological system."1 The TSL is connected to the Mekong River through the Tonle Sap River, both of which converge at the capital of Cambodia
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallThe Fading Heartbeat of the Mekong River Basin: Environmental Security and Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake2025-07-22text/htmlen-USThe Fading Heartbeat of the Mekong River Basin: Environmental Security and Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®809212026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Adjusting for "Rogue States": Policy Solutions for International Organizations
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965782
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Policy makers and international actors frequently use the term "rogue state" to describe nations they perceive as threats to global stability, whether due to nuclear proliferation, military aggression, or support for terrorism. However, this label often reflects the priorities of those applying it rather than the actions of the states themselves.1 Largely shaped by U.S. foreign policy, the definition of rogue states has evolved over time, from regimes characterized by internal repression to those defying international norms.2 Yet, its inconsistent application—condemning North Korea's nuclear ambitions while overlooking similar actions by allies like Israel, India, and Pakistan—reveals its deeply politicized
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallAdjusting for "Rogue States": Policy Solutions for International Organizations2025-07-22text/htmlen-USAdjusting for "Rogue States": Policy Solutions for International Organizations2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®644912026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Targeted Across Borders: Digital Transnational Repression, Gender Dimensions, and the Role of Host States
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965783
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On October 2, 2018, the brutal killing of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by Saudi authorities sent shock waves around the world. A day before he was killed, researchers at the Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto confirmed the Pegasus spyware infection on the mobile phone of Omar Abdulaziz, a Montreal-based Saudi activist.1 The spyware, linked to an operator backed by Saudi Arabia, provided Saudi authorities with full access to Abdulaziz's phone, including his conversations with Khashoggi in the weeks before the killing. The severity of the situation was exacerbated by other threats that Abdulaziz received in Canada, including a visit in the spring of 2018 from two Saudi emissaries who tried
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallTargeted Across Borders: Digital Transnational Repression, Gender Dimensions, and the Role of Host States2025-07-22text/htmlen-USTargeted Across Borders: Digital Transnational Repression, Gender Dimensions, and the Role of Host States2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®749452026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22When Cultural Exchanges Go Awry: Korea-Japan Relations and Popular Culture
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965784
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As Japan prepared to celebrate New Year's Eve in 2011, Japanese Internet users decried a perceived Korean injustice to Japan. This time, the indignation was not about territorial disputes or North Korean missiles. Instead, these nationalists panicked about South Korean idol groups appearing on Japanese TV.The announcement that three Korean idol groups would perform on Kōhaku Uta Gassen (Red and White Song Festival), a New Year's Eve extravaganza broadcast by national broadcaster NHK, should have promoted Japan-Korea relations. This festival featured girl groups KARA and SNSD (Girls Generation), as well as the male duo DBSK. Unfortunately, a vocal minority of netto uyoku (Japanese right-wing internet users) flooded
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallWhen Cultural Exchanges Go Awry: Korea-Japan Relations and Popular Culture2025-07-22text/htmlen-USWhen Cultural Exchanges Go Awry: Korea-Japan Relations and Popular Culture2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®487772026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Water Diplomacy between Türkiye and Iraq: Pathways, Challenges, and Future Prospects
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965785
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Transboundary water interactions in the Middle East often reflect political confrontations and rivalries, with the region's geopolitics and conflicts exacerbating issues related to water usage across major river basins. Earlier literature anticipated interstate "water wars" in major transboundary river basins, such as the Euphrates-Tigris (ET), Jordan, and Nile.1 Despite political tensions and power asymmetries among riparian states in these pivotal basins, riparian states prefer resolving water disputes through diplomacy, not conflict.2In the same manner, systematic analysis of ET basin water relations demonstrates a prevailing inclination among major riparian states—specifically Türkiye, Syria, and Iraq—to favor
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallWater Diplomacy between Türkiye and Iraq: Pathways, Challenges, and Future Prospects2025-07-22text/htmlen-USWater Diplomacy between Türkiye and Iraq: Pathways, Challenges, and Future Prospects2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®477052026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Desalination's Impacts on Interstate Cooperation and Competition in the Middle East
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965786
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In the last few decades, desalination—the process of making salty water usable for consumption—has become increasingly economically feasible. The number of countries adopting desalination technology has risen due to increased water demand for domestic and industrial uses. Nowadays, more than 16,000 desalination plants exist across 177 countries.1 Desalination has also become more economically feasible due to declining costs, enabled particularly by the deployment of reverse osmosis (RO) technology and the construction of more large-scale desalination plants.2 Some of the largest desalination plants exist in the Arab Gulf countries, namely the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)—the United Arab Emirates
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallDesalination's Impacts on Interstate Cooperation and Competition in the Middle East2025-07-22text/htmlen-USDesalination's Impacts on Interstate Cooperation and Competition in the Middle East2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®629382026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Indigeneity and Bolsonarismo Beyond Bolsonaro: On the Urgency of Countering the Timeframe Thesis
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965787
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On December 14, 2023, the Brazilian Congress voted overwhelmingly to overturn President Lula da Silva's October 22, 2023, veto of Bill 2.903 (PL 2.903), a long-debated piece of legislation to regulate Indigenous lands and curtail Indigenous rights.1 This paper's analysis focuses on the law's "timeframe thesis," or marco temporal, which has attracted vehement opposition from the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (FUNAI), the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, and the broader Indigenous movement among civil society.2 In brief, the marco temporal places strict temporal restrictions on Indigenous territories, limiting demarcation to areas that were inhabited by Indigenous peoples or subject to a litigious process
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallIndigeneity and Bolsonarismo Beyond Bolsonaro: On the Urgency of Countering the Timeframe Thesis2025-07-22text/htmlen-USIndigeneity and Bolsonarismo Beyond Bolsonaro: On the Urgency of Countering the Timeframe Thesis2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®1033262026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Foreword: For/From The People
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965788
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Despite longstanding debates over its core features and conceptual boundaries, scholars and pundits alike agree that populism has become a defining feature of contemporary political life worldwide. Although not inherently antidemocratic, populism stands in stark tension with liberal democracy, frequently challenging its foundational norms and institutions such as pluralism, minority rights, institutional autonomy, and the separation of powers. These tensions, coupled with populism's widespread, enduring appeal, demand sustained and rigorous inquiry into its varied manifestations, trajectories, and sources, as well as their (un)democratic consequences.By interrogating the concrete ways in which populism is
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallForeword: For/From The People2025-07-22text/htmlen-USForeword: For/From The People2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®51652026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22A Populist Wave in the Making? The Radical Right's Attack on "Gender Ideology" in Latin America
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965789
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The elections and administrations of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil (2019–22) and Javier Milei in Argentina (2023), as well as the strong electoral performances of José Antonio Katz in Chile and Rodolfo Hernández in Colombia, suggest that Latin America may be experiencing a wave of radical right populism. While this new wave shares a commitment to law and order, neoliberalism and even libertarianism, its key innovation is the project to protect the traditional, heterosexual, and patriarchal family, viewed as the moral core of society, from what they perceive as "gender ideology." Their defense of tradition includes an undemocratic backlash against social and cultural rights, particularly the recognition of LGTBQ+ rights
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallA Populist Wave in the Making? The Radical Right's Attack on "Gender Ideology" in Latin America2025-07-22text/htmlen-USA Populist Wave in the Making? The Radical Right's Attack on "Gender Ideology" in Latin America2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®375972026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22State Capture and Strategically Divisive Narratives
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965790
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The first few weeks of the second Trump administration were mayhem. The newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) used threats and intimidation to gut key state agencies. The Trump administration purged so-called enemies across the bureaucracy and replaced them with Trump allies. It also removed several checks on executive power by firing 17 inspectors general and the director of the Office of Government Ethics. Such behavior is typical of the three-pillar playbook of state capture: change the institutions of the state, use patronage power to control how state resources are allocated, and disable the institutions that are supposed to hold the executive to account. The rapidity and depth of the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallState Capture and Strategically Divisive Narratives2025-07-22text/htmlen-USState Capture and Strategically Divisive Narratives2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®432112026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Good Times for the People, Bad Times for the Environment: AMLO's Populism and the Legacy for Future Generations
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965791
<p></p>
Populism has become a buzzword in Mexico, and it is common to hear it used in everyday conversations about Mexican national politics.1 Populism is especially associated with the political ideology of Mexico's previous president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, colloquially referred to as AMLO, who served in office from 2018 to 2024. During his presidential campaigns in 2006, 2012, and 2018, AMLO gradually strengthened his party, the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA), converting it into the main political force in the country.2 After winning in 2018, AMLO mobilized the Fourth Transformation, a wide-reaching series of infrastructure, governance, and economic reforms intended to remedy deep-seated social
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallGood Times for the People, Bad Times for the Environment: AMLO's Populism and the Legacy for Future Generations2025-07-22text/htmlen-USGood Times for the People, Bad Times for the Environment: AMLO's Populism and the Legacy for Future Generations2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®755822026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22The Subversive Subaltern: Viktor Orbán's Anti-Colonial Populism
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965792
<p></p>
In 1988, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak famously inquired about the subaltern's ability to speak.1 In posing this question, the grande dame of postcolonial studies did not set her empirical sight on the relationship between the region of Central and Eastern Europe and the European Union (EU). Yet, as she clarified at a special forum entitled "Are We Postcolonial? Post-Soviet Space," the labels of "colonizer" and "the colonized" apply wherever one party rules by "impressing its own laws and systems" on another.2 This raises the important question of how a postcolonial perspective may apply to European integration, and Viktor Orbán's Hungary provides a unique opportunity for examining this query.Indeed, Spivak made her
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallThe Subversive Subaltern: Viktor Orbán's Anti-Colonial Populism2025-07-22text/htmlen-USThe Subversive Subaltern: Viktor Orbán's Anti-Colonial Populism2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®538152026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22George Melashvili on the State of Georgian Democracy
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965793
<p></p>
Right now, Georgia finds itself in a constitutional crisis. Over the last few months, there have been widespread demonstrations and subsequent crackdowns. Can you articulate what is at stake for Georgian civil society and the future of the nation at large?Georgia is indeed in a constitutional crisis—also amidst the biggest political challenge Georgia has seen for a long time.Georgia is indeed in a constitutional crisis—also amidst the biggest political challenge Georgia has seen for a long time. These crises are deeply tied to Georgia's post-Soviet journey. After regaining independence in 1991 amidst civil war and Russian invasions in Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region, Georgia struggled to transition from a
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallGeorge Melashvili on the State of Georgian Democracy2025-07-22text/htmlen-USGeorge Melashvili on the State of Georgian Democracy2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®196312026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Reducing U.S. Dependency on China While Promoting Global Trade
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965794
<p></p>
The world has entered a new era in global trade. The benefits of trade expansion over the last three decades are being subsumed by geopolitical rivalries centered on the economic competition between the United States and China and the imbalances exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the United States has historically set the tone and terms for the rest of the world through its policies and actions, China is now offering a competing model that prioritizes economic growth and infrastructural development over political reforms and institutional development. This has created strong pressure to change the patterns of global trade. Yet, complete decoupling from China will be very difficult for many countries
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallReducing U.S. Dependency on China While Promoting Global Trade2025-07-22text/htmlen-USReducing U.S. Dependency on China While Promoting Global Trade2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®791552026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Saudi Arabia's Nuclear Ambitions
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965795
<p></p>
In 2012, the Iranian nuclear challenge dominated the international security agenda. Tehran was stockpiling low-enriched uranium that could be further enriched to weapons grade with relatively little effort, and the prospect of an Iranian nuclear bomb was a real concern. This, in turn, prompted fears of a proliferation cascade in the Middle East. If Iran went nuclear, the logic went, others in the region would follow suit.At the time, we felt the argument of a proliferation "chain reaction" was reductive and failed to account for political, strategic, and technical drivers of restraint. It seemed to us that a proliferation cascade was not at all inevitable, nor even likely in some cases. We set these arguments out
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallSaudi Arabia's Nuclear Ambitions2025-07-22text/htmlen-USSaudi Arabia's Nuclear Ambitions2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®535242026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Beneath the Waves: Regional Strategic Implications of India's Nuclear Submarines
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965796
<p></p>
In August 2024, India commissioned its second nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN)—INS Arighaat—and took a significant step forward in strengthening its strategic deterrence capabilities against the perceived two-front threat of China and Pakistan. India possesses land-based nuclear capabilities anchored by its indigenously developed Agni missiles, including the Agni-V ICBM, as well as air-based capabilities enabled by platforms such as the French Mirage-2000 and Russian Su-30 MKI fighter jets, capable of carrying nuclear payloads.1 The induction of INS Arighaat thus completes New Delhi's nuclear triad, defined by a state's ability to deliver nuclear weapons via land-based intercontinental ballistic
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallBeneath the Waves: Regional Strategic Implications of India's Nuclear Submarines2025-07-22text/htmlen-USBeneath the Waves: Regional Strategic Implications of India's Nuclear Submarines2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®730922026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Mongolia's Critical Minerals and Shifting Geopolitical Alliances
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965797
<p></p>
The transition to newer, reliable energy sources offers a critical pathway to arrest climate change. However, the transition remains deeply contested due to its increasing reliance on a secure and steady supply of mineral resources. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), mineral demand for the energy transition will likely triple by the end of this decade and quadruple by 2040.1 Overall, in the long term, raw material demand for various uses—including renewable energy development, military application, and industrial activity—is set to grow between a factor of six and forty.2Mongolia offers incredible promise to be at the forefront of minerals supply for the energy transition. Situated between China
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallMongolia's Critical Minerals and Shifting Geopolitical Alliances2025-07-22text/htmlen-USMongolia's Critical Minerals and Shifting Geopolitical Alliances2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®746472026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Power, Perception, and Pragmatism: China's Global Strategy in the Era of Geopolitical Realignment
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965798
<p></p>
What are China's primary geopolitical objectives right now? Is Beijing prioritizing economic growth, security concerns, or reshaping global governance structures?Beijing wants to ensure that it has room for its domestic political system to thrive, grounding many of its goals in the domestic political economy and the legitimacy of the Communist Party, one-party rule, and the party-state system. Beijing is seeking a more multi-polar world where different governance systems are not considered as more or less legitimate or illegitimate than others. To this end, it sees value in working with political systems that look more like itself, especially those in firm control of civil society and interest groups in other
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallPower, Perception, and Pragmatism: China's Global Strategy in the Era of Geopolitical Realignment2025-07-22text/htmlen-USPower, Perception, and Pragmatism: China's Global Strategy in the Era of Geopolitical Realignment2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®217322026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Ambassador of the Republic of Cyprus to the United States Evangelos Savva on the First Strategic Dialogue between Cyprus and the United States
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965799
<p></p>
On October 23, 2024, the Republic of Cyprus and the United States agreed to deepen their cooperation in defense and energy security, innovation and technology, trade and investment, people-to-people ties, and more. Could you elaborate on the importance of the Strategic Dialogue?There is no overstating the importance of the Cyprus-US Strategic Dialogue. It demonstrates that our two countries have now reached the level of close allies. Cyprus is now a strategic partner of the United States, like-minded and sharing both values and interests. For us, bringing these different and varied policy areas under one umbrella is a great development. We worked hard to get to this point, to make it abundantly clear here that this
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallAmbassador of the Republic of Cyprus to the United States Evangelos Savva on the First Strategic Dialogue between Cyprus and the United States2025-07-22text/htmlen-USAmbassador of the Republic of Cyprus to the United States Evangelos Savva on the First Strategic Dialogue between Cyprus and the United States2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®133732026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Is Russia Winning the Global South? Unpacking the Struggle for Survival in a Multi-Aligned World
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965800
<p></p>
In 2022, it was expected that the wide-ranging constraints imposed by Western sanctions would critically reduce Russia's capacity for global engagement. Some pundits even foresaw the Soviet-style collapse of the Russian regime itself.1 Defying these initial expectations, Russia somehow appears to have strengthened its ties with many key states in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East since 2022. Notwithstanding its growing security partnership with Washington, Vietnam invited Russian President Vladimir Putin for an official state visit in June 2024 and signed new cooperation agreements.2 In September 2024, Mongolia rolled out the red carpet to welcome President Putin in defiance of the ICC arrest
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallIs Russia Winning the Global South? Unpacking the Struggle for Survival in a Multi-Aligned World2025-07-22text/htmlen-USIs Russia Winning the Global South? Unpacking the Struggle for Survival in a Multi-Aligned World2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®872742026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Transnational Organized Crime and the Venezuelan State
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965801
<p></p>
Transnational organized crime (TOC) in Latin America fuels insecurity, violence, and corruption while posing an existential threat to democratic governance and the rule of law.1 In a 2024 regional survey, Latin American respondents rated organized crime as the region's top political risk, ahead of concerns such as economic growth, the state of democracy, or the environment.2 This reflects the alarming increase in TOC and its effect on citizens' daily lives, especially in places like Ecuador, which previously enjoyed high relative security. Additionally, TOC causes financial losses, undermines legitimate markets, and drains public resources through enforcement and lost tax revenue.3In Latin America, economic
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallTransnational Organized Crime and the Venezuelan State2025-07-22text/htmlen-USTransnational Organized Crime and the Venezuelan State2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®748532026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Reimagining U.S. Foreign Aid and the Post-Pandemic World Order
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965802
<p></p>
Foreign aid is a great power's quintessential tool of diplomacy and global influence.1 Foreign aid from powerful states catalyzes positive transformation in less powerful recipient countries, particularly during global crises. It improves the well-being of vulnerable populations while enhancing the reputation and image of donor countries. Effective and prompt aid amidst crises can foster global solidarity and stability. Essentially, foreign aid is a transfer of material resources (military and economic), knowledge, or support from one country or organization to another, intending to address poverty, promote education, advance health care, foster economic growth, or even expand the military and policing capabilities
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallReimagining U.S. Foreign Aid and the Post-Pandemic World Order2025-07-22text/htmlen-USReimagining U.S. Foreign Aid and the Post-Pandemic World Order2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®854352026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Unity or Division: The Fano Insurgency in Ethiopia
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965803
<p></p>
In August 2023, a new insurgency emerged in Ethiopia's Amhara region, representing one of the most serious challenges to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's regime in the country. Fano, an insurgent group that grew out of the Amhara militias that had fought in the Tigrayan war from 2020 to 2022, is now estimated to control over 80 percent of the Amhara region. However, Fano remains a loose conglomeration of different groups with conflicting ideologies.1Many scholars note that inter-rebel group cooperation significantly influences the outcome of the conflict.2 However, much of the literature suggests that developing cooperation among competing rebel groups is particularly difficult because rebel groups must overcome serious
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallUnity or Division: The Fano Insurgency in Ethiopia2025-07-22text/htmlen-USUnity or Division: The Fano Insurgency in Ethiopia2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®703002026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22The Global AI Dilemma: Balancing Innovation and Safety in the European Union, the United States, and China
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965804
<p></p>
Regulating AI has become a central challenge for policymakers, who must navigate the tension between fostering innovation and implementing safeguards to mitigate risks. This difficult balance between progress and precaution is what I call the AI dilemma.AI presents transformative opportunities for boosting economic growth, advancing science, and shaping geopolitical power. However, it also introduces serious risks, such as bias, misinformation, privacy violations, workforce disruptions, and even long-term existential threats. Governments, companies, and researchers must decide whether to prioritize rapid development or impose safeguards to mitigate potential harms. Some argue that regulation should follow
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallThe Global AI Dilemma: Balancing Innovation and Safety in the European Union, the United States, and China2025-07-22text/htmlen-USThe Global AI Dilemma: Balancing Innovation and Safety in the European Union, the United States, and China2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®863892026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Space Age or Space Race?
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965805
<p></p>
Humanity's commitment to space exploration is on the rise. There is a growing number of space actors, from large-scale entities like governments and private corporations to smaller entities like start-ups and individual scientists, and they are transforming the landscape of human activity in space. Around 90 countries around the world have active and growing space programs, and 13 of them have launch capabilities. Humans will soon walk on the moon again. Detailed plans are in place to build a permanent Lunar Gateway, eventually enabling manned trips to Mars. The number of private space companies, working on a whole range of new technologies, far exceeds the handful of space tourism and rocket design companies that
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallSpace Age or Space Race?2025-07-22text/htmlen-USSpace Age or Space Race?2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®615972026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Soft Power, Popular Culture, and Diplomacy in the South Korean Context
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965806
<p></p>
This article examines how the South Korean (hereafter Korean) government utilizes its popular culture as a political tool to strengthen the country's soft power, reconceptualize national identity, and shape how foreign audiences understand its persistence in instrumentalizing culture. Joseph Nye defines power as the "ability to do things and control others, to get others to do what they otherwise would not."1 He argues that countries seek ways to make other countries follow what they want to legitimize their power, assuming they will face less resistance in achieving their policy objectives rather than relying on displays of military and economic strength.2 In this context, soft power is "the ability to obtain
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallSoft Power, Popular Culture, and Diplomacy in the South Korean Context2025-07-22text/htmlen-USSoft Power, Popular Culture, and Diplomacy in the South Korean Context2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®415482026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22Closing Remarks: The Student Lens in International Affairs
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/965807
<p></p>
Dear Reader,When the Journal's Editorial Board came together last year to select the theme for the 26th edition, I remember telling myself that Global Gaps truly reflects how our world is changing. Over the past three years, our world has witnessed some of the most tumultuous times in history. Geopolitics has returned to the forefront of the international stage, coinciding with the structural shifts in technology and climate change that affect everyone. As the Editorial Board saw it, these volatile developments emerge from widening global gaps, characterized by a vicious loop of differences, disparities, and disconnections that world leaders must address and bridge moving forward. I hope this edition of the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-14T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/681/image/coversmallClosing Remarks: The Student Lens in International Affairs2025-07-22text/htmlen-USClosing Remarks: The Student Lens in International Affairs2025-07-222025TWOProject MUSE®47092026-05-14T00:00:00-05:002025-07-22