Articles by The Conversation
We found 220 results.
The Little-Known History of U.S. Secrecy and Censorship in Wake of Atomic Bombings
Janet Farrell Brodie – The Conversation,
7 Aug 2017
I recently published a social history of US censorship in the aftermath of the bombings. The material was drawn from a dozen different manuscript collections in archives around the US. I found that military and civilian officials in the US sought to contain information about the effects of radiation from the blasts, which helps explain the persistent gaps in the public’s understanding of radiation from the bombings.
→ read full articleThese Five Countries Are Conduits for the World’s Biggest Tax Havens
Javier Garcia-Bernardo, Eelke Heemskerk, Frank Takes and Jan Fichtner – The Conversation,
31 Jul 2017
Tax sheltering is not just the domain of exotic Caribbean isles. Major world powers, including the United Kingdom, play a critical and previously undisclosed role in global tax avoidance. A new study has now uncovered all the world’s corporate tax havens and, for the first time, revealed the intermediary countries that companies use to funnel their money into these places.
→ read full articlePlatform Co-Ops Offer Urban Communities a Bigger Say in Their Lives
Liam Magee, David Sweeting and Teresa Swist – The Conversation,
17 Jul 2017
13 Jul 2017 – Digital platform companies like Facebook, Uber and Google regulate our likes, updates, schedules, locations, photos, jobs and trips. A co-operative project that maps services in Dhaka shows how communities of citizens can be more than passive users of the digital platforms that increasingly shape our daily lives.
→ read full articleAre NGOs Responsible for the Migration Crisis in the Mediterranean?
Antoine Pécoud and Marta Esperti – The Conversation,
26 Jun 2017
20 Jun 2017 – 2016 was an extraordinarily deadly year for migrants: 5,000 people perished in the Mediterranean Sea, vastly exceeding the death toll of 3,700 in 2015. And in the first six months of 2017, more than 1,000 deaths have been recorded. With calm weather conditions ideal for sea crossings, the northern summer is almost upon us. The migration debate is only just beginning and it brings with it the need for a basic rethinking of European migratory policies.
→ read full articleRefugee or Migrant? Sometimes the Line Is Blurred
Parvati Nair – The Conversation,
26 Jun 2017
June 20 is World Refugee Day, a time to reflect on not just refugees but on those people who are both refugees and migrants. The day of commemoration comes at a historic moment: for the first time ever, all UN member states are working together to develop two new global compacts. The first is on shared responsibility for refugees and the second on more humane, coordinated and dignified approaches to governing global migration.
→ read full articleUsing Open Source Drugs to Help Treat Neglected Diseases
Gaëll Mainguy and Samir Brahmachari – The Conversation,
19 Jun 2017
14 Jun 2017 – The Open Source Drug Discovery project, launched in 2008 by biophysicist Samir Brahmachari, aims to develop low-cost treatments for neglected diseases using an open-source approach. Brahmachari is founding director of India’s Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology.
→ read full articleHow the Media Can Help Protect People with Albinism – A Tanzanian Case Study
Jean Burke – The Conversation,
19 Jun 2017
People with albinism in Africa face a range of prejudices and social stigmas. They are often dismissed as belonging to another race, or as ghosts or spirits. My research confirms this. The research looked at the role of the media in protecting the human rights of people with albinism.
→ read full articleAmerica’s Snub of the African Union Should Spur Regional Powers into Action
Tshepo T. Gwatiwa – The Conversation,
22 May 2017
17 May 2017 – In April 2017 US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson stood up one of Africa’s most powerful people, African Union Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki. Tillerson invited Faki to Washington for a meeting, then backed out at the last minute. Tillerson’s snub was a direct challenge to Africa’s international position and it sends a double-pronged message.
→ read full articleTwo Swedish Economists Foresaw the Backlash against Globalisation – Here’s How to Mitigate It
Rodrigo Zeidan - The Conversation,
15 May 2017
Work from the 1930s anticipated the backlash against globalisation. A fundamental insight into the distributive effects of free trade from almost 90 years ago.
→ read full articleFive Ways the Meat on Your Plate Is Killing the Planet
Francis Vergunst and Julian Savulescu – The Conversation,
8 May 2017
Most people living in industrialised countries have historically unprecedented dietary choice. And if our nutritional needs can now be met by consuming foods that are less harmful, then we ought to choose these over foods that are known to cause more harm. Eating less meat and animal products is one of the easiest things we can do to live more ethically.
→ read full articleFamine Creeps In on Africa While the World’s Media Looks Elsewhere
John R Campbell – The Conversation,
1 May 2017
The western media’s focus on events at home like the US elections and the UK Brexit referendum has come at the expense of reporting on the famine that’s unfolding in Africa.
→ read full articleStuck in the Middle, South Korea Has Few Options for Securing Peace with Its Northern Neighbour
Bernard Loo Fook Weng – The Conversation,
1 May 2017
South Korea must seek to strike a balance in its respective strategic and economic relationships.
→ read full articleAfrica’s Anti-Malaria Efforts Face a New Hurdle – Drug and Insecticide Resistance
Andrew Githeko – The Conversation,
24 Apr 2017
20 Apr 2017 – The resistance of malaria parasites to antimalarial drugs and insecticides is a growing global public health concern. Dr Andrew Githeko explains how African countries can maintain the effectiveness of existing malaria control strategies as they work towards its elimination.
→ read full articleWhy Is the Illicit Rhino Horn Trade Escalating?
Jacques Rigoulet – The Conversation,
24 Apr 2017
21 Apr 2017 – In South Africa, domestic trade of rhinoceros horn, forbidden since 2008, is about to become legal again. On April 7 2017, a court effectively overturned the national ban. China has already taken steps and, in November 2016, Vietnamese authorities burnt a stock of rhino horn. Can the planet’s remaining 30,000 rhinoceros survive?
→ read full articleAs the US Stops Funding UN Reproductive Health Services, China Should Step In
Tamara Nair – The Conversation,
24 Apr 2017
The US is the largest donor to the agency, which mandates access to high-quality sexual and reproductive health services and voluntary family planning. It allows people to make informed and voluntary choices about their sexual and reproductive lives.
→ read full articleWho Owns the World? Tracing Half the Corporate Giants’ Shares to 30 Owners
David Peetz and Georgina Murray | Griffith University – The Conversation,
17 Apr 2017
11 Apr 2017 – When people say share ownership is highly diversified, they think most large public corporations have lots of shareholders – and often the largest shareholder has less than 15%, sometimes less than 5%, of the total shareholdings. But looking at it this way obscures the concentration that is taking place. The same organisations – usually finance capital, rarely families or individuals – own these public companies.
→ read full articleHow Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ Can Inspire Those Who Fear Trump’s America
Ani Kokobobo | The Conversation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
6 Feb 2017
31 Jan 2017 – As a professor of Russian literature, I couldn’t help but notice that comedian Aziz Ansari was inadvertently channeling novelist Leo Tolstoy when he claimed that “change doesn’t come from presidents” but from “large groups of angry people.” In one of his greatest novels, “War and Peace” (1869), Tolstoy insists that history is propelled forward not by the actions of individual leaders but by the random alignment of events and communities of people.
→ read full articleRussia, Ukraine and Europe Are Tied by Gas Dependency
Jack D. Sharples – The Conversation,
28 Apr 2014
The problem of how to wean Europe off of Russian natural gas is probably more problematic than actually resolving the crisis in Ukraine. With Europe criss-crossed by several gas pipelines the challenge will be to bypass Russia altogether.
→ read full articleLunch and Dinner with Julian Assange, in Prison
John Keane, The Conversation – TRANSCEND Media Service,
25 Feb 2013
Julian Assange could be described as the Tom Paine of the early 21st century. Drawing strength from distress, disgusted by the hypocrisy of governments, willing to take on the mighty, he’s reminded the world of a universal political truth: arbitrary power thrives on secrets.
→ read full articleSri Lanka: International Governments Must Take the Lead in Investigating War Crimes
Jake Lynch – The Conversation,
19 Mar 2012
There is a growing danger that the political leaders responsible for the greatest single atrocity of recent years will suffer no consequences. Journalists, not governments, have taken a lead in raising the issue to the international agenda of command responsibility for violations of humanitarian law in Sri Lanka.
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