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Opposing corruption in international forums is easy. Nobody is openly for it, and popular sentiment is strongly against it. Global public opinion surveys show that corruption is a primary concern of citizens all around the world, and a host of public ills can be attributed to it, from economic stagnation, to the global decline of trust in democracy and a range of other societal challenges. And corruption does play a role in these issues, which is why it makes for such a convenient target. Major leaks exposing corruption have grabbed public attention and inspired a raft of policies aimed at […]

Last Friday, Jan. 27, marked the 77th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camps, a day now observed as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Many used the occasion to commemorate loved ones they lost, to hear stories from Holocaust survivors and to reflect on the tragically destructive capabilities of humankind. Others used it to highlight the persistence of antisemitism worldwide, taking the opportunity to urge us to do “everything we can to make sure it never happens again.”  Almost eight decades later, however, many survivors of the Holocaust are no longer alive to share their stories. This prompts some interesting […]

It has long been clear that humans are not the only species that contract COVID-19. At least 15 different animal species in U.S. zoos—including hippopotamuses, hyenas and snow leopards—have tested positive for the coronavirus during the course of the pandemic. The disease is running rampant through the white-tailed deer population in the United States’ Upper Midwest region, with more than one-third of deer examined in Ohio showing evidence of recent or active COVID-19 infections. In 2020, the Danish government culled 17 million minks out of fears that coronavirus infections among the animals could lead to outbreaks among humans, causing a […]

Normalization of diplomatic ties with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad raises troubling questions for humanists who are also realists. When an evil regime wins a bloody war that allows it stay in power, how can a liberal-democratic state express solidarity for victims of that regime's brutality without engaging in fantasy politics? By fantasy politics, I mean pursuing policies that continue a lost war through punitive acts that do little to limit the targeted regime’s capabilities, while hurting the innocent civilians those penalties are ostensibly intended to help; or pretending that the losing side of a conflict has leverage to pursue its […]