Editor’s Note: Partnership for Progress
Not a few people today seem convinced that the global era of peace and advancement is drawing to a close. Their anxiety is understandable, arising a series of troubling events — from rise of extremism and terrorism to climate change to escalating inequality, among others.
Yet, a good many other developments suggest otherwise. Across the globe, people are coming together to make the world more fair and just. For instance, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, first introduced in August 2014, has raised some $220 million worldwide to more than 150 research projects. Already, the discovery of three new genes points to promising new therapies.
Last year, the government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) signed a peace deal after nearly five decades of conflict that killed more than 220,000 people.
The Paris Climate Deal was likewise signed last year by 125 states. This unprecedented deal aims to hold the rise in the global average temperature to well between 1.5 Degree Celsius and 2 Degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels. While this deal may not completely abate the risks of climate change, it is has the potential to limit the consequences.
The number of internet users has increased from 738 million in 2000 to 3.2 billion in 2015. This seven-fold increase just in 15 years brought internet penetration from 7 percent to 43 percent of the global population. This has largely been the case because of technological progress that has raised the affordability of such services. Now, more people have access to information that was strictly limited to few people.
The proportion of people living on less than $1.25 per day has fallen from 47 percent in 1990 to 22 percent in 2010, cutting extreme poverty almost in half. This significant achievement has inspired many to completely eradicate extreme poverty in all its form everywhere — one of the United Nation’s sustainable development goals.
These examples are more than exceptions. We believe they are part of a real trend towards partnership and progress. It may be easy at times to feel daunted by the task before us. Nevertheless, as students who are the architects of the future, it is vital that we forge partnerships for study and research and thereby promote progress.
The purpose of this journal is to recognize the genuine advances where they are occurring and to kindle a new generation of good ideas for global change. To this end, the journal shall serve as a platform to empower students across all disciplines to publish innovative work and ideas of broad relevance by publishing research papers and essays from all disciplines and interdisciplinary perspectives.
