Editors’ Note: Freshman Special Issue 2022
(08/31/22 6:55am)
This editors’ note is featured in the 2022 Freshman special issue.
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This editors’ note is featured in the 2022 Freshman special issue.
This editors’ note is featured in the 2022 Winter Carnival special issue.
Months after its catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan, the United States faces another major challenge to its unipolarity: a belligerent Russia.
This article is featured in the 2021 Homecoming special issue.
Last month, an Islamic State sponsored attack on the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan killed dozens of people — among them, 13 American soldiers. As my immigrant mother watched the coverage in horror, she said it brought back painful memories of the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, which she had witnessed first-hand.
Since November of last year, the Ethiopian military has been at odds with insurgent forces in the country’s northernmost state of Tigray. Stirred by an increasing sense of ethnic nationalism, the current fighting has led many to call for the state’s independence. While the state is functionally independent as is, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front has declared its willingness to formally and permanently part with Ethiopia if the violence continues. However, whether the world will accept an independent Tigray is a difficult question to answer. Self-determination has consistently been the subject of controversy in international relations, especially because the United Nations charter does not contain any clear and certain guidance on the topic. In one section, it claims to support the “self-determination of peoples,” and presumably the right of people to become independent — while in another, pouring cold water on any sort of secession, forbidding infringements “against the territorial integrity … of any state.” These respective articles have been used in the past to justify both pro- and anti-independence viewpoints, leaving conflicts with no clear path to peace. The U.N. Charter must be updated to resolve this contradiction once and for all.
Over the past few months, many students have felt disconnected from the Dartmouth administration. Many of us believe that, despite their sincerest intentions, the administration cannot possibly understand how profoundly the COVID-19 pandemic has affected its students. While, of course, the administration has been forced to make difficult decisions as a result of the pandemic, student perspectives have been largely absent during these decision-making processes.
This column is featured in the 2021 Spring special issue.
On April 14, President Joe Biden announced an unprecedented change in American foreign policy toward Afghanistan: instead of a conditional withdrawal of troops, the United States will commit to a concrete timeline for bringing its forces home. While prior administrations have stipulated that the United States would need to ensure the long-term stability of the Kabul government before withdrawing troops, the last two decades have proven that there can be no such military solution in Afghanistan. With a timetable in place for when the U.S. will withdraw its troops, the Biden administration can finally build a sustainable peace without the need for intervention or its more sinister counterpart, occupation. The United States should supplement this decision with a renewed commitment to diplomacy and support the Afghan people in their nation-building efforts without direct military intervention.
YouTube is a “Gutenberg revolution” of sorts. Since its launch in 2005, the site has provided its over two billion users with a platform to communicate their ideas, but unlike its predecessors — books, radio and television — YouTube has no barrier to entry. With just internet access and a camera, anyone from anywhere, with any opinion, can go viral. In recent years, conservative channels have flooded the platform with their political opinions. While these channels are not uniform by any means — they range from promoting libertarianism to shameless white supremacy — they are united in their opposition to a common enemy: the left.
When Aldous Huxley published his novel, “Brave New World,” in 1932, he had no way of knowing that his dystopia — a society in which children were essentially designed in a lab — would eventually become possible. While his readers could take comfort in knowing that the horrors of the “World State” were confined to the realm of fiction, our generation does not have that luxury. In recent years, it has become increasingly clear that commercial genome editing will affect us in one way or another and, if left unregulated, will very likely prove dangerous. Thus far, the advance of genome editing technology has outpaced our ability to produce legislation to regulate its use, so Congress must — without further hesitation — redouble its efforts to keep up.
On Wednesday, the world watched in horror as a mob of right-wing insurrectionists launched a coordinated attack on the Capitol building, forcing the hurried evacuation of elected officials and leaving five dead — among them, a Capitol police officer. Broadcast live for all to see, this embarrassing display of antidemocratic chaos further tarnished the United States’ reputation as a champion of democracy. In its aftermath, some analysts have warned that the nation may face a new era of increasing political violence.
On Jan. 31, 1958, the U.S. launched its first satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit, marking the nation’s entry into the space race — a rivalry with the Soviet Union over the achievements of the two states’ respective space programs. With many firsts — the first satellite, dog and man in orbit and the first man on the moon — this era was one of the most intense bursts of scientific innovation in human history. However, for all its glory, the space race suffered from one key weakness that led to its early and dramatic decline: It was motivated not by a desire to advance mankind, but by fear of the enemy. The U.S. should not make this mistake again; it must work to renew its long-term investments into space exploration.
On Sept. 27, the Caucasus erupted into violence as the Azerbaijani Armed Forces launched a brutal offensive on the Nagorno-Karabakh region — known as Artsakh to the Armenians — a de facto independent state inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians but recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan. Since 1994, this inevitable conflict had been held off by a delicate ceasefire organized by the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe — co-chaired by Russia, the United States and France. Today, however, even this basic ceasefire seems untenable due to the rise of a new obstacle to peace: Turkey. While Turkish involvement elicits painful memories of the 1915 Armenian genocide for many Armenians, many non-Armenians seem to be unaware or, worse, generally apathetic towards it. The Dartmouth community must do its part in raising awareness of these events, since the world’s collective silence may lead to another Armenian genocide.
