Global Politics
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Bangladesh’s constitutionally pragmatic response to COVID-19
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Bangladesh’s official response to the coronavirus pandemic started on 22 January by putting the airport authorities on alert and initiating screening processes at Dhaka and Chittagong Airport. This took place long before the confirmation of the first case of COVID-19 on 8 March. Full lockdown measures were then put in place on 26 March to suspend all water, rail, and…
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How Nationalist Russia Navigates the Global Market
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Russia is a post-apocalyptic state, enduring mass metanarrative collapse and total industrial failure in the aftermath of the USSR’s dissolution. In less than three decades, the Federation returned as a major world power. Russia’s continuing revitalization has been fueled, rather than hindered, by its many crises. The Federation’s antifragile tax, currency, and trade policies, the…
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Locked down in Uganda
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Irene, a 56-year-old Ugandan, sat on the side of the road in a colourful dress, attempting to sell fruits, biscuits and candies to the empty street in Kampala. In efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19, most people in the Ugandan capital have been confined to their houses for the past weeks, rendering streets deserted…
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A Western Delusion: Narratives Surrounding Neocolonialism in Africa
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Ever since Chinese President Xi Jinping’s announcement of the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ in 2013 raised disapproving (or perhaps jealous?) eyebrows in the west, an insidious trend has emerged in relation to reporting on China within western media circles. Scaremongering articles, complete with ominous headlines such as ‘What China is really up to in Africa’, have rushed…
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The Chloroquine Conundrum and Herd Immunity in Pakistan
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Pakistan has had a questionable engagement with the COVID–19 pandemic with analysts terming the state’s response as complacent, supplemented by a refusal to follow social–distancing guidance by congregating for prayers and living in densely populated regions with shared communal spaces. With the lack of sufficient healthcare infrastructure, Pakistan should be teetering on the edge of…
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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…