Category Archives: International Relations

White Paper: Pathways to the Reunification of Cyprus

Executive Summary The island of Cyprus has been divided since 1974, and despite decades of negotiation under the auspices of United Nations (UN) and other actors, a comprehensive settlement remains elusive.  This white paper outlines the key pre-conditions, structural components, obstacles, … Continue reading

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White Paper: Voting Rights Limitations for Non-Citizen Residents — A Comparative Legal Analysis

Executive Summary This white paper examines the general restrictions that nations impose on the voting rights of residents who hold foreign citizenship. While global migration and dual residency have created increasingly multicultural electorates, most sovereign states continue to reserve the … Continue reading

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White Paper: Nations of Negative Identity: A Typology and Analysis of Societal Harm

Executive Summary This white paper examines the phenomenon of negative national identity—when a nation defines itself primarily by opposition, resentment, or trauma rather than by a positive shared vision. Such identities often arise from colonization, defeat, victimization narratives, or ideological … Continue reading

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White Paper: Afghanistan–Pakistan: Conflict Dynamics, Capabilities, and Pathways to (De-)Escalation

Executive summary Border violence between Pakistan and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan has spiked to the worst levels since 2021, culminating this week in a Qatar- and Turkey-mediated ceasefire after days of airstrikes, artillery exchanges, and border closures. The truce commits both sides … Continue reading

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White Paper: The Typology of Looting and Profiteering in Wartime and Its Role in Social Mobility and National Economic Policy

I. Introduction Looting and wartime profiteering are persistent and paradoxical features of human conflict. While they represent moral and legal violations in most contexts, they also serve as engines of redistribution, innovation, and occasionally modernization. From ancient empires to contemporary … Continue reading

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White Paper: Intentions and Misunderstandings in the First Encounters Between Columbus and the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas

An Objective Analysis Without Ideological Bias Abstract This white paper examines the initial encounters between Christopher Columbus and the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean from the perspective of intentionality—that is, what each side meant to accomplish and how those intentions … Continue reading

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White Paper: A Typology of Failed States: Structural, Institutional, and Cultural Determinants of Collapse

Executive Summary This paper classifies failed states not merely as products of conflict or corruption but as systemic outcomes of structural, institutional, and cultural breakdowns. It identifies eight primary typologies of failure—each rooted in distinct forms of dysfunction—and explores how … Continue reading

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White Paper: Scottish Independence: An ROI Perspective

Executive summary Bottom line: On current public accounts and trade patterns, an independent Scotland would begin with a sizable structural fiscal gap (≈11–12% of GDP on a net basis) alongside material border-related trade frictions with rUK (its dominant market), which … Continue reading

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White Paper: What Was Lost: Scotland in the Wars of the Auld Alliance and in the Brain Drain of Empire

Executive Summary Scotland’s history is marked by two great forms of loss: first, the devastation of recurrent wars fought against England in the medieval and early modern periods, often within the framework of the Auld Alliance with France (1295–1560); second, … Continue reading

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White Paper: The Effects of History and the Seeming Marginality of Scotland on Relations Between Scotland and England

Executive Summary The relationship between Scotland and England is one of the most enduring and complex in Europe. From centuries of armed conflict to the eventual Treaty of Union in 1707, their shared history has shaped both nations’ identities, economies, … Continue reading

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