PARIS — French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen recently stated that if she wins the election, she will ban French dual citizenship with non-European Union nations, barring Russia. Le Pen’s citizenship announcement quickly garnered backlash, particularly from Jews holding French-Israeli dual citizenship. Le Pen, the leader of the National Front Party, is tough on immigration. She often notes that current immigration and citizenship laws are “too generous.” Le Pen’s citizenship proposal appears to be part of a “France first” policy that could create hardships for French-Israeli dual nationals. The burden of such a decision would fall on the 150,000 French Jews…
Author: Madeline Distasio
Madeline Distasio
Madeline writes for The Borgen Project from Philadelphia, PA. She has a degree in English and a postgraduate journalism certification. Madeline studied in London and loved it so much that she went back for her postgraduate work.
SEATTLE, Washington — After 22 years of political rule under Yahya Jammeh, a new Gambian president has been elected on the promise of just rule. Optimistic residents of the West African nation hope to move toward a vision of what the President-elect calls “New Gambia”. Adama Barrow won the election on December 1, 2016, and will officially declare himself president on January 1, 2017. He intends to take office despite Jammeh’s rejection of election results. A Track Record of Oppression Jammeh came to power at age 29 after a successful coup in 1994. Prior to this year, the eccentric and ruthless ruler…
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — A new piece of legislation aimed at reinstating the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 was introduced to the House of Representatives Representative Edward R. Royce (R-CA) on November 14, 2016. The bill was passed in the House one day later and presented to President Obama on December 2, 2016. Passage of the bill H.R. 6297 would reinstate sanctions against Iran that were lifted upon enactment of the Iran Deal in January 2016. Per the 1996 act, sanctions against Iran restrict the development, production and exportation of petroleum products in and from Iran. Even before the 2016 deal was…
ACCRA, Ghana — In November, Ghana’s Minister for Education, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, formally launched the 2016 UNESCO Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report; Education for People and Planet. The launch was held at the University of Education, Winneba. In her keynote address, Opoku-Agyemang emphasized that collaboration between educators and governing bodies could help Ghana reach a key United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG): to ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning. According to UNESCO, which publishes the GEM Report each year, analysts work under GEM report director Aaron Benavot to evaluate education in developing nations in the context…
SEATTLE — In light of the recent election, scholars from the Center for Global Development (CGD) have drafted transitional memos for incoming president-elect Donald Trump. The memos are designed to point the new administration to global issues that should be addressed over the next four years. On the economic front, these proposals address effective use of USAID funding, immigration and the reinvigoration of multilateral institutions. The CGD’s Rethinking U.S. Development Policy, Global Health and Gender teams drafted these memos before the election as part of a bipartisan approach to foreign aid. The goal is to position the United States as…
SEATTLE — When it comes to ubiquitous issues, few are of greater consequence than migration. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 65.3 million people fled their home countries in 2015. Because the number of refugees and migrants surpassed 60 million for the first time in history, the adoption of good migration policies is of critical importance. While politicians around the world use this crisis to leverage their campaigns, millions of people are trapped in war-torn nations or must leave their countries to find reliable work. Of the 65.3 million people displaced last year, 12.4 million left…
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senate bill S.3377 is a new piece of legislation that was introduced in Congress by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) on September 21, 2016. The bill focuses on increasing the number of female peacekeepers, involved in military and security operations worldwide. Cited as the Enhancing Military and Police Operations through Women’s Engagement and Recruitment Act of 2016, S.3377 proposes the investment of United States foreign aid funds to increase women’s involvement in foreign security practices. As stated by Valerie Norville of the United States Institute of Peace, “Half of the world’s population cannot make a whole peace.” That said,…
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — The Gambia, which is the smallest country in Africa, is home to just over 2 million people. Of the total population, just over 1 million are citizens of primary, secondary and post-secondary school age. Over the last two decades, great strides have been made in improving Gambian education That being said, the nation’s underfunded education sector poses problems in regard to access in the face of a growing population. To better understand schooling trends in the nation, here are 10 key facts about the system’s form and function. Education in Gambia operates on a 6-3-3-4 system. Lower…
YOLA, Nigeria–Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President of Nigeria and founder of the American University of Nigeria (AUN), deliberately built his school in Yola, one of the country’s poorest towns, to foster growth and development. As part of a new project for peace, AUN volunteers present locals with opportunities for growth in an effort to counteract extremism in Nigeria, particularly in the northeast. Abubakar built his university on the contentious soil in order to address the fallout of Boko Haram aggression. He was inspired to bring AUN to Yola after noticing the glaring lack of opportunity presented to people fleeing conflict…
SEATTLE–As part of 2016’s East African Joint Operations (EAJO) capstone project, the U.S. Department of State partnered with various task forces to ensure that first responders, civilians and military officials could collaborate to address terrorism in East Africa. The training exercise, which was funded by the Partnership for Regional East Africa Counterterrorism (PREACT), took place on August 12 through 15 in Nairobi, Kenya. Formed in 2009, PREACT is an organization that is designed to encourage communication among key response groups. PREACT’s primary objectives are to develop legal frameworks for counter-terror measures in partner nations, track funding for terrorist organizations, reduce…