Features

On July 5, 2022, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe declared that Sri Lanka was bankrupt. Days later, protesters stormed his office as well as former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s, forcing him to flee and eventually resign. What did the government do to attract the ire of Sri Lankans? How did a vibrant trading and tourism hub become a failed state? Ryan from The IAS Gazette investigates the series of unfortunate events that led to Sri Lanka’s economic crisis.

Prices of pretty much everything are rising, and it does not look like it will stop anytime soon. From global shortages to the very possible threat of a global recession, the economic outlook is all doom and gloom. Coupled with the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict and lockdowns in China, the global supply chain crisis looks like it is just getting comfortable. Claire from the IAS Gazette dives into the ongoing crisis.

With the influx of information on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it may seem overwhelming for some to grasp how such a situation that abruptly dominated our news and social media feeds unfolded to become one of Europe’s largest wars in recent times. We highlight the tangled history and the complex relationship between the two nations and reveal its part in setting the stage for the ongoing crisis.

When we hear about climate change, we mostly think about its effects on the environment. There has however been an increasing number of empirical research that reveal the drastic impacts of climate change on other areas including our health. Annabel from The IAS Gazette discusses the health implications that climate change poses and what different stakeholders can do to mitigate these issues.

Global trade continued to recover strongly from the COVID-19 pandemic in the third quarter of 2021 – though recovery was uneven across nations and industries. The robust overall performance of trade, however, hides the fact that recovery has been unequal among nations and industries.

In September 2021, gas prices in Europe began to surge, leading to fears of gas shortages for energy supply for the winter. The Gazette’s Ryan Toh has dug deeper into the issue to shed light on what led to Europe’s energy crisis and how they plan to approach future energy policies.

The United States of America has pulled out of Afghanistan after almost two decades – this would be the longest international conflict America has ever fought, surpassing the Vietnam War. Apart from the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, Ryan from the IAS Gazette looks back at two other instances of foreign interventions in the domestic affairs of other states and questions: should states ever intervene in the domestic affairs of other states?

Living in the digital age, it is vital to understand the media’s progression and the current information landscape. Awareness of the challenges that an increasingly interconnected world brings considering the way we consume and create content is equally important. However, when considering the future, what is truly critical is not figuring out how to grapple with these new developments. The focus should instead be on discovering a renewed purpose in using media and information literacy to benefit from the media’s strengths — making it a useful servant, not master of content.

The Asia 2021 Public Diplomacy Conference provided a detailed review of China’s emerging digital public diplomacy tactics. Using positive and constructive media to further their “waixuan” (external propaganda) goals; waixuan allows China to remake itself to a whole new audience. In this article, Aneesha from the IAS Gazette examines China’s public diplomacy operations on two social media platforms, Weibo and Twitter, to demonstrate this.

In the face of nebulous politics, wavering reliability of central governments and an ever-growing need for collective action in crises, cities may present themselves as the rising stars of global politics. What is city diplomacy, and what value might it bring to a city’s inhabitants, and nations as a whole? The IAS Gazette explores the growing role of micro-powers in the international relations landscape.