Op-Eds
Can democracy survive in the information age?
Since the 1970-s, the contemporary world has been experiencing the Digital Revolution, the change from mechanical and electronic technologies to high tech, digital technologies. States have always…
Big Four Breakup
After much speculation, the Big Four Accounting firms - Deloitte, KPMG, Ernst and Young, and Pricewaterhouse Coopers – are finally being investigated for anti-competitive practices. Despite ardent…
Escalating Waste Generation Requires Drastic Action
Global waste generation is expected to double by 2050 given the current system in many regions. As the damaging effects of waste become more apparent, many countries and communities are taking active…
Using the Internet to stop Tsunamis
Background: Tsunami’s are unpredictable, travel faster than commercial jets and can carry 20 tonne rocks as far as 180 metres inland. According to the National Geophysical Data Centre, the first…
Tickets to Space: On sale now
Background: Humans have dreamed about spaceflight since antiquity. The Chinese used rockets for ceremonial and military purposes centuries ago, but only in the latter half of the 20th century were…
Is there a proxy war today?
Background: A proxy war is an armed conflict between two parties, either countries or factions, which is taking place on behalf of parties not directly involved. Generally there will be a long term…
Genocide Today
Background: The destruction of Carthage at the end of the Third Punic War (149–146 BCE) has been labeled as "The First Genocide". However, it was not the last and definitely not the worst. The Nazis…
Money Laundering: How and Why
Background: The exact origins of the practise are unknown, but many place it in gang culture of early 20th Century USA, the term ‘money laundering’ itself was first officially used in the 1980s1 . By…
Capacity Building and Counterterrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Background: Afghanistan: A Story of Statelessness- With Persia to its west and the Indian subcontinent to its east, the area that comprises modern Afghanistan has always stood between great empires.…
Digital Amnesia
Background: The Internet, sometimes called simply "the Net," is a worldwide system of computer networks - a network of networks in which users at any one computer can, if they have permission, get…
Labour Rights in South East Asia
Background: The garment industry has notoriously poor, even dangerous, working conditions. Factory owners, competing in the global marketplace for contracts, do everything possible to cut costs.…
Northern Aerospace
Background: The first instance of UK-China trade was in the 1620s, English ships sailed to Macau which was leased by China to Portugal. In 1637, Four heavily armed ships arrived at Macao in an…
Decreasing Global Dependance on Middle Eastern Oil
Background: Following the First World War and the downfall of the Ottoman Empire, Great Britain took control a large part of the Middle Eastern region, including military rule over Palestine, which…
Dyslexia. A Step closer to its end
Background Dyslexia is a lifelong condition that makes it difficult for people to read. It’s the most common learning issue, although it’s not clear what percentage of kids have it. Some experts…
Microsoft goes Underwater
Background: A data center is a facility composed of networked computers and storage that businesses or other organizations use to organize, process, store and disseminate large amounts of data. A…
Big Brother is watching
Background: Various states and regimes, at different times and places, established bodies which could be described as a secret service or secret police – for example, the Agentes in rebus of the late…
Trauma begets Trauma: The personal life of dictators
Background The Holocaust was the murder of six million Jews by Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany during World War 2. It took the Germans and their accomplices four and a half years to murder 6,000,000…
2 Minutes to Midnight
Background: The Doomsday Clock was created by the board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1947 as a response to nuclear threats. The concept is simple – the closer the minute hand is to…
Aadhaar and its History with contempt of court
Background: In 1998 after the Kargil war, the Kargil Review Committee, headed by security analyst K. Subrahmanyam made the proposal that citizens in villages in border regions be issued identity…
UN and The Kashmir Dilemma
The United Nations released the first ever report on human rights violations in Kashmir, asserting that the Indian armed forces have used excessive force in Kashmir with many civilians killed and…