The United States came in 41st worldwide on the UN’s 2022 sustainable development index, down nine spots from last year. A political historian explains the country’s dismal scores.
Jeffrey Fields, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
The US frequently chooses to put its own interest ahead of its professed values. That approach to foreign policy is called ‘realpolitik’ and it may lead to an unsatisfying peace deal in Ukraine.
The First Amendment to the US Constitution protects Americans’ freedom of speech, so much so that even the most hateful speech has the right to be quoted.
African evangelism is born from – and often funded by – American evangelism, and with it comes a damaging cocktail of rightwing ideologies, especially during the Donald Trump years.
Donald Trump uses language like a dangerous demagogue. The author of a book on Trump’s rhetorical skill gives a guide to the six most important rhetorical strategies Trump uses.
Gordon Adams, American University School of International Service
President Trump is criticized for wreaking havoc on the international order, where the US was the established leader. But Trump is simply hastening a change that has been a long time coming.
In the 19th century, Russian intellectuals launched a search for historical evidence of their moral and military superiority. What they found drives what today some call “Russian aggression.”
American presidents have spent a great deal of time proclaiming US leadership of the global system. The decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement undermines much of what they have said.
While Costa Ricans pride their country for being an oasis of stability in Latin America, the nation has struggled with restrictive laws and social attitudes toward immigrants from Nicaragua.
Abram Van Engen, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis
Trump’s budget would eliminate the National Endowment for the Humanities, breaking a tradition of funding humanities scholarship that goes back to the nation’s founding.
One of the newest trends in education is teaching students how to develop grit. But what’s even meant by ‘grit’? And what if grit means something different for everyone?
Trump appeared surprisingly presidential. According to a scholar of American political rhetoric, there were echoes of Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Reagan.
The latest instalment of wildly popular videogame Call of Duty, Advanced Warfare, shows the narratives of today’s games can reveal the motives behind real-world politics. Over the past decade, fictional…
Professor of Public Theology in the Department of Beliefs and Practices, Faculty of Theology, at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Free University of Amsterdam), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam