As information technology, social media platforms, and mass media continue to grow, they have become part of new mechanisms by great powers and non-state actors to undermine social cohesion and political institutions of adversaries, more notably Western democratic countries such as the United States. With the consumption of media information, we run the risk of either unconsciously assisting in the expansion of disinformation and misinformation components of Information warfare or becoming the direct recipient of the Information Warfare campaign.

Afghanistan is unfortunately positioned in one of the top historically geopolitical regions in the world as it is centered at the center of South Asia, Central Asia, Far-East Asia, and the Middle East. From the 2020 Global Terrorism Index, Afghanistan remains the number one country for global terrorism and terror-related incidents due to the Taliban. To understand the Taliban, it is important to understand Afghanistan.

Global terrorism has been on a consecutive decline over the past 5 years; however, the acts of terrorism appear to remain a part of daily news. It is imperative to explore this dynamic trend as islamic jihadism appears to be decreasing while right-wing extremism and terrorism are on the increase.

Fun fact: Right-wing extremism in the Western World is the highest it has been in the past 50 years!

The Asia-Pacific is experiencing Great Power Contestation for Its Future. This series seeks to unpack the contested region and bring to light pressing matters and realities that can no longer be ignored. Good friend and upcoming young practitioner of Asia-Pacific geopolitics Joseph Ross was gracious to come on and begin the discussion that will lead into future episodes about the contested Asia-Pacific!

Host Semaj McDowell and Guest Katie Zakrzewski have a genuine conversation about the current state of affairs within the United States and the dire implication of continual divisiveness among Americans. The number one threat to the American power and prestige is not necessarily foreign adversaries but in fact domestic instability.

Iran has pursued the development of a robust Iranian ballistic missile arsenal since the War of the Cities during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988. After 30 years, Iran has the largest ballistic missile arsenal of the Middle East and can target enemies within a range of 1,500 miles! This provides a major geopolitical blunder not just to American defense and national security strategies but also to the well-being and sovereignty of regional countries of the Middle East North African and Mediterranean region.

The Sahel region of Africa is approximately 3,300 miles of semi-arid land that has become an epicenter in the birth of Islamic insurgency and jihadism. As the Sahel region is the transitional geographic location between the Islamic Sahara and the Catholic/Christian Sub-Sahara, it is only fitting that the Sahel would be a battleground of ethno-religious tensions and a new frontier of counter-insurgency operations. But in this matter, it must be up to the Sahel region countries to spearhead the initiatives rather than the over-presence and over-reliance on the operations of foreign countries.

Welcome back to the Pivot! This episode is an unscripted monologue on a brief discussion on the concept of civilization with the usages of Chinese, Indian, Japanese, and Western civilization as case studies to explain the importance of civilization to the promotion of identity. The adaptation of civilization allows for the flourishing of political and economic institutions; however, so too does the development of technology provide a civilization with the capacity to promote its identity at the expense of others!

 Script for Pivot Introductory Post:

As Samuel Huntington stated in his book “The Clash of Civilizations”: “Civilization and culture both refer to the overall way of life of a people, and a civilization is a culture writ large. They both involve the ‘values, norms, institutions, and modes of thinking to which successive generations in a given society have attached primary importance”. Emmanuel Wallerstein explained civilization as “a particular concatenation of worldview, customs, structures, and culture (both material culture and high culture) which forms some kind of historical whole and which coexists (if not always simultaneously) with other varieties of this phenomenon.”