Global Politics
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The dangers of masculinity contests in a time of pandemic
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Sharmila Parmanand is a PhD candidate in Gender Studies at the University of Cambridge and a Gates Scholar. Pandemics are political. Decisions around framing the problem, prioritising solutions, and increasing state powers need scrutiny. I contribute to the conversation on the politics of public health emergencies by using a feminist lens to examine the performance…
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Afghan Peace Deal: Bracing for an Uncertain Future
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Almost 18 years after launching the “War on Terror”, the United States finally negotiated a peace deal with the Taliban in February 2020 to end the conflict; the key highlights being the withdrawal of foreign forces within fourteen months and the recognition of the Taliban as a legitimate stakeholder in Afghanistan with a rightful share…
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Can you put a price on saving a life from coronavirus?
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The novel Coronavirus pandemic has stopped the world in its tracks. In particular, the onslaught of cases and community spread in the United States has sent the Federal Government into a full-blown panic. After poo-pooing the virus for weeks as something less dangerous than the common Flu, the government has begun to roll out plans…
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Beyond the GDP: How the African Development Bank could grow Africans
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OXFORD, England – While tracking the trajectory of African economies, the African Development Bank (AfDB) must be wary of overlooking the most essential constituent of Africa’s economic potential, a healthy African. It is cliché that the youthful African population promises a brighter future for the continental economy. But it must be remembered that it is…
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Book Review: Genealogies of Capitalist Realism
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Eugene McCarraher (2019), The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity. Harvard University Press.Thomas Piketty (2020), Capital and Ideology. Harvard University Press. ‘It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism’. Such was the strange malaise of our times as captured by the late Mark Fisher’s notion…
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The Guests of Nero
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In his poignant film Nero’s Guests,1 historian P. Sainath describes Tacitus’ account of the burning of Rome in 64 A.D. As Rome was engulfed in civil unrest, Emperor Nero opened his gardens to throw the grandest party the ancient world had seen, as a distraction for those who wielded both power and influence. There was…
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The Success Condition for Protests
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One type of argument for the justification of protest activities has appealed to pragmatic considerations.1 Guided by the principle ‘the means should prefigure the end,’ defenders of what I call ‘the success condition for protests’ have argued that protests—and particular forms of it—are permissible only by virtue of their success2 in bringing forth practical results…
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The Final Barriers of Colonialism
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In 1947, the Crown in the Jewel of the British Empire finally broke free to shine on its own, as the Indian Subcontinent won its independence from British rule and the current geopolitical map of the region was created. 73 years on, while the days of foreign occupation and unwanted flags fluttering in Indian lands…
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Has the rule of law been replaced by the rule of politics?
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Introduction There are few doctrines more sacrosanct to the sphere of international human rights law than that of the rule of law. Its fundamentality is demonstrated by its inclusion in an array of mission statements and supranational bodies, ranging from the United Nations (which associates the principle with its basic functions,)[1] to the African Union…
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Student Politics and the Birth and Death of Bangladesh
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Abrar Fahad was a second-year student of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), the prime engineering university in Bangladesh. He was tortured inside his own residential hall and killed by leaders of the Chhatra League—the student-wing of the ruling party of Bangladesh, the Awami League—on October 7, 2019, for allegedly being critical on…