The true ownership of the wilderness belongs in the highest to those who love it most. John Muir (1912)

John Muir is known as one of the great protectors of the American wilderness. Foundational to conceptions of American identity, wilderness was the land on which the country was established when the first settlers escaped persecution to a new and unexplored world. The idea persisted throughout the American story as Manifest Destiny and stretched across the entire continent; the wilderness was gradually tamed. John Muir saw the threat of this growth to the natural environment and devoted his career towards protecting…

Flint, MI and its water contamination disaster put environmental racism on the map. Put simply, environmental racism is policy-making and economic-planning that disproportionately and significantly targets communities of color as locations for industry, its waste, and other adverse environmental factors. Examples of environmental racism abound in today’s world, from the location of oil drilling in certain communities in the Niger Delta to excess pollutants in inner cities across the U.S.

Los Angeles is a prime example of structural environmental racism. L.A.’s …

It’s a graduate student’s dream: 5 days, over 40 events, experts from every discipline, all within walking distance of your research institution.

This year’s Geneva Peace Week explored the question: how might we build peace in a turbulent world?

And a turbulent world it is. The rise of non-state actors and atypical violent conflict. The growing uncertainty about the future of the international rules-based order. And what feels like an ever-increasing pace, propelled by globalization and technology.

We’re moving at a high speed, running against the clock on climate change. We’re moving closer together, literally, with an expected 60% of…

Part of the aim of a good foreign policy would be to reduce the level of violent conflict, right?

In the Middle East, for example, we see violence in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq. People die daily as a result of civil war, aerial strikes, suicide bombings, and targeted killings. Surely, any rational foreign policy would seek to limit this death and suffering. Surely, any rational foreign policy would seek peace. Right?

Probably. But not every scholar of war or country-development thinks this way. I’m going to walk us through an academic argument on the necessity of conflict.

Let’s use Yemen…

Hey white people. I am also white. And I think it’s a good time for us to have a conversation about how to be better allies to our non-white colleagues in the national security community.

I’m a research assistant at Ploughshares Fund, a nuclear nonproliferation foundation based in Washington, DC. Recently, I was asked to conduct a literature review in nonproliferation, so I cast an incredibly wide net across the national security field. As it turned out, a vast majority of the books and resources I found were written by white people. …

June 9 was a big day for President Donald Trump. He insulted and criticized America’s long-time ally, Justin Trudeau of Canada, while en route to meet and eventually praise America’s traditional adversary, Kim Jong Un of North Korea.

In July, he did it again. A couple of days after a contentious and controversial NATO summit with scores of American allies, Trump flew to meet and (again) praise the figure suspected of meddling in American democracy: Vladimir Putin of Russia.

What is happening in American foreign policy?

Is Trump distancing us from other democracies and cozying up to dictators? What does…

I didn’t really know anything about nuclear security.

I studied international affairs in college, but found myself drawn to more popular topics like peace in the Middle East and development in sub-Saharan Africa. I have a vague recollection of memorizing the nine known countries that possess nuclear weapons for an introductory-level course, but can’t call to mind another time in my undergraduate career when nuclear weapons were mentioned.

Now that I’ve spent a few months interning in nuclear nonproliferation, I find that mind-boggling.

Nuclear is relevant to everything in international relations, and, yes, affects everyone in the world. …

Welcome back to the Layperson’s Guide to the American Security Sector. This article is part 4 of 4. Previously, I discussed the role of Congress in United States national defense, the far-reaching powers of the president, and the convoluted web that is the U.S. federal agencies and departments. Today we’ll be talking about the non-governmental side: the military-industrial complex, think tanks, foundations, and non-governmental organizations.

Much of American security policy is dreamt up, decided, and implemented by the U.S. government, as you’ve read the in the previous three parts of this series. …