Editorial

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Is Human Development Index Still Relevant?

An Introduction to the Human Development Index

The 21st century has seen the world being digitalised, globalised, and interconnected in all aspects; without delving into the pros and cons of this modern era and its technological advancements, this article explores how global trends have shaped human prosperity and the quality of life. For this purpose, a commonly used index, the Human Development Index (HDI), is considered for this analysis as a measurement of human progress. But as the world evolves and inequalities divide the world further, more and more questions arise over the capability of the HDI to measure variables across heterogeneous societies. These reservations are taken into consideration and analysed below. Read more

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China’s Belt and Road Initiative

The revival of Silk Road

The Belt and Road Initiative, BRI in short, reflects China’s vision to revive the ancient trading routes that connect the East with the West. The Modern Silk Road represents the largest market worldwide that accounts for 3 billion people and extends beyond the three continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe.

The idea was born for the first time in 2013 when the Chinese President visited Kazakhstan. The goal was to highlight the crucial role of Central Asia in the regional economy; a year later, the Chinese national agenda incorporated the Silk Road initiative. The section below aims to explore further this initiative by breaking down its core elements. Read more

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Conflicts in the East Mediterranean

Why it matters

The East Mediterranean covers a region that stretches from Italy’s heel tip eastward to the Levant¹. Throughout history, it has played a crucial role in world politics. Given its geographic position as a crossroad between Africa, Europe, and Asia, East Mediterranean has become numerous times the epicentre of great competition and conflict.

During the Cold War, East Med was vital for the United States. Its geographic location became a landmark of delimitation between the US-USSR influence zones that would refrain Communism from penetrating the three continents. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US attention shifted to other regions that were undergoing more pressing crises (such as the Balkans, the Persian Gulf, and the Horn of Africa).

The last decade has seen a rising tension in the region, which has picked the interest of political experts. As a result, many voices urged the United States to renew its attention in the Mediterannean. The below section lists the ongoing conflicts the region encounters. Read more

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Conspiracy Theories on the Rise

A Scope Analysis of  the Conspiracy Theories during the Pandemic 

In a period of uncertainty, fear, and continuous talks from experts presenting facts, conspiracy theories have been thriving. For over a year, conspiracy theories have emerged ranging from explanations over the source of the virus to controversial suggestions of how to protect the public from potential infection.

Among other theories, some of the prevalent conspiracy rumors that circulated over the spread of the coronavirus are:

  • The epidemic seen as a hoax
  • The laboratory creation of the virus and its deliberate spread to serve as a bioweapon
  • The role of the 5G technologies in the spread of the virus
  • Vaccination as a control or monitoring tool of the public on a global scale

Of course, setting a straight line of what is fake or real is quite essential, especially when this entails such a sensitive matter as the value of health and human life. Misinformation not only undermines the global response to the pandemic but also endangers social unity. This is why policymakers should pay extra attention to the debunking of circulating myths, which will empower social cohesion and cooperation.

Before this article gets deeper into the roots of the Covid-19 theories, it is essential to explore the definition of the conspiracy theories. Read more

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EU Sanctions

EU Sanctions on its Neighbourhood

This article follows the recent analysis of economic sanctions as a coercive tactic and their role in international relations. As part of this topic, the first case study ‘‘US Sanctions on China” examined how sanctions are used in traditional world politics, where governments or global leaders decide to impose sanctions based on their national agendas. It is now time to explore how sanctions are shaped in an intra-state, collective level.

For this analysis, the European Union is selected as the area of study. The reason behind this lies in the particularity or the unique role of the European Union in the global system, which will help us to better understand how sanctions work in the modern politics outside the national boundaries. An in-depth analysis of the reasons is given in the section below. Read more

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US Sanctions On China

The US-China relations and the role of economic sanctions

The strife between the United States and China for global dominance – whether that be on the Innovation & Technology or Financial sector – reflects also on the imposition of sanctions among the two countries. Read more

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Oil leakage in Russian Arctic

An Arctic oil accident that will take years to clean up

Despite the recent freeze of the global economic activity due to the COVID-19 outbreak, climate change continues to accelerate at its own pace, reminding us the detrimental effects of decades’ pollution and greenhouse emissions that have led to the rise of the global temperatures.

One of the most serious consequences is the thawing of the Arctic permafrost, a permanent ice layer that covers large parts of the Arctic Circle; an area of major geo-economic importance both for the environmental sustainability in the north sphere as well as for the economic initiatives due to its significant fossil fuel reserves. Read more

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Covid-19 shaping energy trends

A health global crisis turning into an energy crisis or an opportunity?

The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus seems to have hit every aspect of modern societies; from the economy, health, employment, energy and transport to politics. Media analysts and policy experts talk about the disastrous impact of the virus on the global economy and the unknown that will follow, once the global lockdown is lifted.

Amid this panic and darkness, an interesting article published on Bloomberg Green on the 1st of May appears to bring hope for the future. The article spots some interesting aspects of the lockdown on the energy sector and its positive impact on the climate (Lombrana, 2020).  Read more

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Cybersecurity: A Modern Threat

Nowadays, the term of cyber-attack or cybersecurity pops up very frequently on the news and across the internet. As bold as this term sounds, a cyber-attack constitutes a digital crime that very few understand along with the risks that entail for its next victim; whether that be a governmental body, a company or simply an individual. This article aims to analyse this modern threat by breaking down its characteristics through various case studies.

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Renewables: The end of energy geopolitics?

Reality or just a myth

Are we entering an era where renewables and low carbon technologies are going to replace fossil fuel and the associated geopolitical complexities? Early this year, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, Dr Fatih Birol highlighted the rapid penetration of clean energy technologies into the future energy mix – especially in China, the largest energy consumer and carbon emitter. Inevitably, the energy status is changing, but little is known about the impact on the global energy economy.

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