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Listening to ordinary Americans.

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Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · 1d

While traveling across the US after 40 years abroad, Alison Langley @langleyshields.bsky.social meditates on myth & reality, listening to ordinary Americans at a Kansas brewery share conspiracy theories and fears for their loved ones' safety: compass.icwa.org/p/postcard-f...

Postcard from Topeka

A night on the streets of Cracolândia - ICWA

Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · 5d

During a night in Cracolândia, a neighborhood in São Paulo, Brazil, known for its rampant public drug use, Rowland Robinson learns that art is a powerful tool for engaging & stimulating people living in precarious situations or struggling with substance use: www.icwa.org/night-in-cra...

ICWA fellow Rowland Robinson arrives in Sao Paolo, Brazil and describes experiencing the world's largest open-air drug market up close.

Could the White House inadvertently benefit foreign assistance in the long run?

Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · 6d

David Sims argues that Trump's dramatic cuts to foreign aid might shake things up in Washington and wake other donor countries to the reality that no amount of concessionary funding from abroad is a substitute for a country's own responsibility for development: compass.icwa.org/p/killing-us...

Killing USAID

Twenty days at sea - ICWA

Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · 7d

"As I discovered aboard the Dana, crossing an ocean that comprises over 70% of Arctic geography, my worldview had been as yet—quite myopically—terrestrially bound." ICWA fellow @brettvsimpson.bsky.social reports from a ship researching climate change in the Arctic Ocean. www.icwa.org/arctic-ocean...

ICWA fellow Brett Simpson reports about three weeks aboard a research ship tracking climate change in the Arctic Ocean.

First Czechoslovak president’s message unsealed after 90 years

Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · 8d

The contents of the nearly 100-year-old envelope opened earlier this month contained first Czechoslovak president Tomas Masaryk's thoughts on his approaching death and final messages to his country, Robert Coalson reports for Compass: compass.icwa.org/p/first-czec...

As fascism was engulfing Central Europe, Tomas Masaryk urged his country to defend his work establishing independence.

Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · 12d

Armenia in black - photography by Annas Smitko on Compass: compass.icwa.org/p/armenia-in...

Armenia in black

Photo by Anna Shmitko

ICWA@100: How Russians learned to stop worrying and love President Putin

Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · 13d

In 2001, former ICWA fellow and current executive director @gregoryfeifer.bsky.social reported on Putin’s state takeover of the main independent television station, a development one of the station’s journalists described as “the point of no return” for Russia: compass.icwa.org/p/icwa100-ho...

Gregory Feifer on Putin’s state takeover of the main independent television station in 2001.

Lessons from the post-WWII refugee crisis

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Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · 14d

"The UN’s International Refugee Organization resettlement program, viewed from a certain perspective, was a success." Sheila Fitzpatrick tells Compass about her new book Lost Souls: Soviet Displaced Persons & the Birth of the Cold War @princetonupress.bsky.social: compass.icwa.org/p/lessons-fr...

Sheila Fitzpatrick discusses her new book about the mass resettlement of displaced Soviets.

On frames of beauty - ICWA

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Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · 15d

Though Edric Huang was impressed by the organization & warmth of queer spaces in Tokyo, Japan as a whole remains largely homogeneous & conservative. Support for same-sex marriage has climbed to 70%, but traditional values persist, particularly within institutions: www.icwa.org/queer-japane...

David Mixner LGBTQ+ fellow Edric Huang explores queer art challenging conservative Japanese society during a visit to Tokyo.

An introduction to Brazil’s tangled drug policy - ICWA

Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · 16d

Brazil makes up 47% of South America's landmass & a third of its population & economy. But although Brazil & the US are alike in many ways, the southern country is often overlooked, Andrew Weil Global Health Care Fellow Rowland Robinson reports from Fortaleza: www.icwa.org/brazil-tangl...

ICWA Fellow Rowland Robinson reports on drug addiction policy in Brazil’s national health service, Sistema Único de Saude.

On frames of beauty - ICWA

Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · 19d

In Tokyo, David Mixner LGBTQ+ fellow Edric Huang met Akira the Hustler, a sculptural and visual artist whose 2000 memoir A Whore Diary chronicles his experiences as a gay escort. Akira and other queer Japanese artists are reformulating how queer bodies are seen in Japan: www.icwa.org/queer-japane...

David Mixner LGBTQ+ fellow Edric Huang explores queer art challenging conservative Japanese society during a visit to Tokyo.

An introduction to Brazil’s tangled drug policy - ICWA

Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · 20d

Andrew Weil Global Health Care Fellow Rowland Robinson has his first encounter with Brazil’s national health service, Sistema Único de Saude, and begins to research Brazilian drug policy, which raises more questions than answers: www.icwa.org/brazil-tangl...

ICWA Fellow Rowland Robinson reports on drug addiction policy in Brazil’s national health service, Sistema Único de Saude.

‘This is not the end of moral universalism’

Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · 21d

Michael Ignatieff and Robert Coalson on the violence at the core of American democracy: "any democratic system—and America is one example, but France is another—that starts in revolution, then has enormous difficulty keeping democratic argument peaceful." compass.icwa.org/p/this-is-no...

A conversation with Michael Ignatieff

International media protest US plan to limit journalist visas

Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · 22d

News organizations worldwide have called on US Department of Homeland Security to withdraw its plan to reduce the amount of time foreign correspondents may stay in the US to 240 days, down from the traditionally permitted 5 years, Elizabeth Wise reports for Compass:
open.substack.com/pub/compass1...

The policy would threaten global reporting about America, they say.

open.substack.com

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Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · 23d

Former ICWA fellow & executive director Peter Bird Martin reports on a secret 1954 meeting with the president of the African National Congress, Albert John Luthuli. Luthuli would later be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent anti-apartheid movement: compass.icwa.org/p/meeting-in...

ICWA@100: Meeting in secret with the African National Congress president

Peter Bird Martin on Albert John Luthuli in 1954.

Climate Week 2025: Friday | The Explorers Club *

Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · 27d

On September 26 at 5pm, former fellow Susan Brind Morrow, author of the book Water, will participate in The Explorers Club event "Writing for Nature," responding to the question, "Where are we going, now that it's come to this?" For more information and tickets: www.explorers.org/calendar-of-...

Writing for Nature Friday at 5:00pm Celebrated authors who write about Nature gather to ask a simple question: where are...

www.explorers.org

Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · 28d

Barry Rosen, a survivor of the Iran Hostage Crisis, writes for Compass about growing nationalism in Iran following the 12-Day War with Israel and asks whether Iranians will continue to support the repressive Islamic Republic: compass.icwa.org/p/after-war-...

After war with Israel, will Iranians support their regime?

Both nationalism and resistance are surging. Which will endure?

A forgotten vision for Middle East peace

Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · 29d

Daniel Warner writes for Compass about the 1919 King-Crane Commission, whose report on the defunct Ottoman Empire might have served as a basis for resolving vexing issues in the Middle East & northern Africa: compass.icwa.org/p/a-forgotte...

In 1919, the King-Crane Commission on the defunct Ottoman Empire issued a report one historian called ‘one of the great suppressed documents of the peacemaking era.’

On frames of beauty - ICWA

Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · Sep 8

During a visit to Tokyo, David Mixner LGBTQ+ fellow Edric Huang discovered the contemporary queer artists challenging the pressures of conservative Japanese society, which still offers few protections to queer people: www.icwa.org/queer-japane...

David Mixner LGBTQ+ fellow Edric Huang explores queer art challenging conservative Japanese society during a visit to Tokyo.

How to read Russian exile media

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Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · Sep 5

For Compass, Paul Starobin examines Russian exile media, a vibrant independent press covering the country from abroad with the aid of staff working anonymously from within: compass.icwa.org/p/how-to-rea...

At a time of war and repression, a vibrant independent press covers the country from abroad.

‘This is not the end of moral universalism’

Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · Sep 4

"The real problem is the depth of American disillusion with the cost of being a global leader," Michael Ignatieff tells Compass's Robert Coalson. "Trump has been the first to ask, 'What’s in it for us?' so directly, but he won’t be the last." compass.icwa.org/p/this-is-no...

A conversation with Michael Ignatieff

ICWA@100: Czechoslovakia’s first president tours the countryside

Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · Sep 3

As ICWA marks its centenary this year, we’re looking back at the writing & lives of our fellows over the past 100 years. In this 1922 dispatch on Compass, our first fellow John O. Crane tours the countryside with Tomas Masaryk, Czechoslovakia's first president: compass.icwa.org/p/icwa100-cz...

An excerpt from a 1922 report by John O. Crane, first fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs.

A night on the streets of Cracolândia - ICWA

Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · Sep 2

São Paulo city & state govs have reinvigorated their decades long effort to gentrify Cracolândia, a central neighborhood known for its rampant public drug use. This violent displacement has dispersed Cracolândia’s inhabitants across the city, Rowland Robinson reports: www.icwa.org/night-in-cra...

ICWA fellow Rowland Robinson arrives in Sao Paolo, Brazil and describes experiencing the world's largest open-air drug market up close.

The ‘Switzerland of the Caucasus’

Institute of Current World Affairs @icwa.org · Aug 29

Dilijan, an Armenian spa town nestled inside a national park in the Lesser Caucasus Mountains, boasts an eclectic mix of old, new & Soviet architecture, storied monasteries, and a thriving natural wine scene, Aron Ouzilevski @aronouzil.bsky.social writes for Compass: compass.icwa.org/p/the-switze...

A weekend in Dilijan, Armenia.