By Linus Hoeller, Northwestern University The concept of American decline has been around for about as long as America has been a global power. This is not surprising; when you are at the top, it can seem like the only way to go is down. The United States experienced its unipolar moment following the fall…
Category: China
By Linus Hoeller, Northwestern University Few political words raise such intense emotions as “communism” and “socialism.” A common buzzword in elections in the U.S. and around the world alike, they are also really existing and nuanced ideologies. Because of the politicization of the mere terms, some clarity has been lost about where – if anywhere…
Photography by Tianxiao Xu Presentation and writing by Linus Hoeller North Korea is closed off from the outside world like no other country. It consistently ranks at the very bottom of freedom indices – no free press, no free elections, no freedom of movement, assembly, speech. For three generations, the Kim dynasty has ruled the…
Few factors have as much of an influence on an incoming undergraduates’ decision of which university to attend as higher education rankings. For many prospective students, prestige and reputation play some of the biggest roles in their college decision. Applying to all Ivy League schools, or all “top 10” or “top 20” schools has become…
By Linus Hoeller Title Image: Documents taken from www.nytimes.com Over one million Uighurs have been placed in high-security re-education facilities by Chinese authorities, the United Nations estimate. A Muslim minority of around ten million people in western China’s Xinjiang province, the Uighurs are the target of a systematic campaign by the central government to re-shape…
Eastern Europe has caught up with the west in terms of democracy and economy. But central Asia hasn’t, despite both coming out of the same Soviet system. Why is that?
China is in a good position today, without question. Domestically, standards of living have been increasing and the economic growth of around 7% persists, and on a global scale, weak and isolationist United States leave more and more room for Chinese “soft power” – investments of various sorts – to give Beijing increasing leverage,…
The early 21st century has seen a resurgence in dictatorships and authoritarian governments throughout the world, including regions like Europe previously thought to now be stable democracies. However, models like the Soviet-inspired communist state or “traditional” dictatorships are outdated and will not survive through the 21st century. Instead, a new form of authoritarian regime is…
Here’s a topic, for a change, that isn’t really new at all but all the more puzzling – Number Stations. Spy stations, or (admittedly less catchy) number stations, are shortwave radio stations operated by intelligence agencies, embassies and militaries around the world, broadcasting strings of seemingly random numbers, at seemingly random times, on seemingly random…
The fall of the Berlin Wall following the mass demonstrations on November 9th, 1989 was one of the largest geopolitical events in recent history, which ultimately led to the reunification of Germany and the peaceful transition of power of the “communist” regimes in eastern Europe, which ultimately led to the fall of the Soviet Union…