On February 1, 2021, telecommunications were cut, flights grounded, and state television turned off as Myanmar’s military seized power from the country’s democratically re-elected leaders. Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s State Counsellor, was detained along with many other cabinet members, AP News reports.
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In March 2019, toward the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, South Korea became one of the first countries outside of China to face the COVID-19 pandemic. The country adopted a liberal yet effective way to flatten the infection curve, ultimately enabling the country to host their parliamentary elections on April 15 as scheduled. The results were staggering.
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The recent November election in the United States shed light on the near future of the U.S.’s international involvement. In many ways, the future of many trade agreements depended on this election, with certain doom guaranteed from a Trump victory. However, even as Biden came out on top, there was not necessarily a wave of hope and certainty for many foreign leaders, states NPR
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Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara has won a controversial third term in an election that his opponents are decrying as a sham. Ouattara won the election by a landslide, capturing 94 percent of the votes as the opposing candidates urged their supporters to abstain from voting in the election, according to BBC News.
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Many individuals have pointed to the astounding efforts of New Zealand to control COVID-19. Along with the international community, the country’s handling of the coronavirus was also praised by its citizens. This played an important role in the re-election of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who orchestrated early virus restrictions. Her immediate plan was to not just control the spread of the virus, but eliminate it entirely.
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2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is facing a critical moment as ethnic tensions boil. Abiy was elected in 2018 and is seen by many outsiders as a reformer seeking to lead Ethiopia away from the current system of ethnic federalism towards a more unified, secular federalist form of government. Under the constitution, Ethiopia is divided into nine ethnically-based regions that are each granted a significant amount of autonomy from the central government.
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Recently the Diplomatic Envoy had the opportunity to interview Reverend Robert Chase, a Fellow at the School of Diplomacy and International Relations Center for UN and Global Governance Studies. The interview focused on his work in fostering interfaith dialogues and his views on the role of religion in the United States 2020 presidential election.
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Kyrgyzstan, a small Central Asian country with a population of 6.3 million people, is currently in a state of emergency. Following the results of the parliamentary elections on October 4, protests broke out in the country and resulted in a recall of the votes on October 6, CNN reports
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What we are seeing happening in Kyrgyzstan is just a microcosm of a larger issue threatening the global political landscape: the decline of democracy and the rise of authoritarian populism. In the last decade, an alarming wave of right-wing populism has swept the globe and endangered many democracies.
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Fatah and Hamas reached a deal on Palestinian elections at the Palestinian Consulate in Istanbul last week, according to Al Jazeera. This has raised hopes that the factions can unite after years of animosity, facing a shared issue as Israel continues to threaten annexation while it normalizes relations with Arab nations.
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