This month, the United States submitted an assessment of its human rights record to the UN Human Rights Council as part of the UN’s newest human rights mechanism, the Universal Periodic Review (UPR).  Unsurprisingly, its report immediately caught flak from the right and the left.  Nationalists and conservatives at the Wall Street Journal and Heritage Foundation complained we should not bother to subject ourselves to scrutiny by states with lesser human rights records and that by doing so we give ammunition to autocrats who can mock our shortcomings.  Progressives applauded the administr

The horrific massacre of 72 migrants from Central and South America in Mexico is just the latest tragedy to stem from the Mexican drug wars, as the cartels battle over money, markets, territory and trafficking routes. In the @Brookings podcast, Vanda Felbab-Brown looks at the problems of internal governance, law enforcement and border politics that underlie the escalating violence. Listen

Just 50 years ago, the Arctic was one of the world’s most remote and inhospitable regions, largely populated by indigenous peoples who hunted musk-ox and caribou and supported themselves with fishing, much as their ancestors had done for thousands of years. But climate change has transformed this timeless landscape of snow and ice into the hub of a geopolitical struggle over sovereignty and resource exploitation. Of the countries bordering the Arctic Circle, Canada may have the most to gain, as well as the most to lose, from that struggle. Read more

The current U.S. immigration system is broken in numerous ways. Today’s patchwork policies admit illegal immigrants while stopping legal immigrants at the border—all while local policies fragment this socially sensitive and economically critical issue. Comprehensive immigration reform that will both repair the immigration system and encourage social stability and economic growth is possible, but national leaders must find the courage to act. Read more