Understanding Social Structures: Relationships, Representations, and Rules

How often have you found yourself attributing something to “social structure,” or heard others doing so? 

16 Min Read

Private Censorship: Between Corporate Power and Free Speech

Censorship is permissible when private parties target speech that threatens harm greater…

Academia and the Illiberal Challenges to Freedom of Expression

This article explores the democratic complexities encountered by researchers and academic institutions…

Does Free Speech Have a Future?

About the book The Life and Death of Freedom of Expression by Richard Moon, published by University of Toronto Press…

Richard Moon
21 Min Read

From Vandalism to Voice: The Revolutionary Power of Urban Murals

The transformation of street art from an act of rebellion…

10 Min Read

Eros and Emperor: Mishima Yukio’s Homoerotic Nationalism

Through the lens of 'homoerotic nationalism,' Mishima Yukio intricately maps…

16 Min Read

Manga Politics: Gender Norms in Japanese Artistry

Manga, often dismissed as mere comic art, serves a much…

14 Min Read

From Dylan to Beyoncé: Pop Music’s Role in Social Change

The relationship between pop music and politics is a dynamic…

10 Min Read

Project 2025: Authoritarian Agenda Disguised as Reform

The Heritage Foundation’s 2025 “Mandate for Leadership” lays out a coordinated effort to restructure federal governance by consolidating executive power and reshaping institutional norms along partisan lines.

Localized Content Moderation: A Human Rights Approach

Adopting a human-centered, localized approach to content moderation is crucial…

12 Min Read
The Future of the United States Under Donald Trump

Donald Trump’s return to the presidency is expected to redefine…

19 Min Read
Democracy in 2024: Elections, Autocratization, and Freedom

With nearly 3 billion voters engaged in the largest electoral…

11 Min Read
Project 2025: Authoritarian Agenda Disguised as Reform

The Heritage Foundation’s 2025 “Mandate for Leadership” lays out a…

9 Min Read
Citizens United: Impact of Wealthy Donors and Dark Money

The effectiveness of legislative efforts to curb dark money, the role of…

14 Min Read

Editor's Pick

Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and author of Land Power:...
Dillon Professor of American History at Harvard University, where she teaches in the Department...
Emeritus Professor of Policy Analysis at the London School of Economics and Political Science....
Professor of African Diaspora Studies at Yale University. Author of Awakening the Ashes: An...
Professor of International Relations at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Sidney Sussex...
Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Oxford, affiliated with the Faculty of...
President of the Royal Society of Canada, Canadian Research Chair in Quebec and Canadian...
Susan Westerberg Prager Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA and Faculty Co-Director of its...
Stanley Morrison Professor of Law at Stanford University and Faculty Co-Director of the Stanford...

The Book Curator

Discover the Books Featured in Politics and Rights Review

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Award-winning books in the humanities and social sciences: works that shape thought and intellectual debate.

What Racism Really Costs Us All

Winner of the 2022 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Book Award.

6 Min Read

Climate-Friendly Food Choices: The Blue Plate

Winner of the 2025 IBPA Gold Award.

8 Min Read

How Group Empathy Can Transform Politics and Society

Winner of the 2022 Merze Tate – Elinor Ostrom Outstanding Book Award.

5 Min Read

Patchwork Freedoms: How Enslaved People Won Their Rights

Winner of the James A. Rawley Prize in Atlantic History (2023) and the Peter Gonville Stein Book Award (2023).

4 Min Read

Rethinking Colonial Caribbean History

Winner of the 2022 James A. Rawley Prize in Atlantic History

7 Min Read

Nagasaki: The Atomic Bombing and the Christian Crossroads

Eighty years ago, on August 9, 1945, the second atomic bomb of World War II fell on Nagasaki. While overshadowed by the more publicized Hiroshima mission, the Nagasaki strike...

Barry Scott Zellen
15 Min Read

When Animals Dream: The Hidden World of Animal Consciousness

In the fourth century BCE, the Greek philosopher Aristotle labeled sleep “a border-land between living and not living.”

David M. Peña-Guzmán
14 Min Read

A World on Edge: Environmental Injustice Threatens Us All

Our old planet is now like a fragile crystal, shimmering yet perilously close to cracking...

12 Min Read

Environmental Violence and the Human Right to a Healthy Planet

We live in a time of immense juxtaposition. Recently the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)…

13 Min Read

How Emotions Shape Climate Action: Barriers and Agency

If we have learned anything from the past four decades of non-progress in the face…

19 Min Read

Does Humanity Have a Death Wish?

Extreme climate change and the despoliation of our planet. Threats of global war and nuclear…

16 Min Read

Latest Articles

Understanding Social Structures: Relationships, Representations, and Rules

How often have you found yourself attributing something to “social structure,” or heard others doing so? 

16 Min Read

Indigenous Power and the Future of Greenland

Trump’s plan to extend American sovereignty to Greenland is presented in classical geopolitical terms, framed in Mackinderian lens with Greenland…

18 Min Read

Nagasaki: The Atomic Bombing and the Christian Crossroads

Eighty years ago, on August 9, 1945, the second atomic bomb of World War II fell on Nagasaki. While overshadowed…

15 Min Read

Against Innovation

Last summer I visited The Tech Interactive, an innovation-focused technology museum for children in the heart of Silicon Valley. The…

12 Min Read

Harvard’s Internal Decay: Class, Culture, and Privilege

Harvard has long offered a broad range of academic programs designed to support students with diverse educational backgrounds.

19 Min Read

Sacred Violence: Military AI in the Israel-Palestine Conflict

AI's role in the Israel-Palestine conflict blurs ethical lines, challenging the principles of international humanitarian law.

17 Min Read

Hope in Hate Crime Laws? Lessons from India

It seems that we don’t currently exist in a time of hope. Perhaps more specifically, we don’t seem to be…

17 Min Read

Trump Battles Harvard Over Elitism and Public Subsidies

Trump challenges Harvard’s privileges, subsidies, and foreign student policies in a broader fight over merit, access, and public accountability...

19 Min Read

What are conditions of violence ?

This article describes the concept of conditions of violence that I have recently introduced in a book under the same…

15 Min Read

Understanding the Causes of War: Human Nature and History

The question “Why War?” is of fundamental importance in understanding the human past and the human future.

14 Min Read

Trump’s Arctic Gambit: The Battle for Greenland

Remote and long-isolated Greenland has taken center stage in global diplomacy with America’s renewed ambition for an Arctic territorial expansion…

14 Min Read

What Racism Really Costs Us All

Winner of the 2022 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Book Award.

6 Min Read

Can Robots Love? Ethics at the Boundaries of the Human

Uncanny things have been happening in the borderlands between humans and non-humans. In August 2021 the Washington Post reported on…

13 Min Read

The Religious Turn in Great Power Politics

Religion has returned to the global stage—not just as a source of identity or mobilization, but increasingly as a tool…

10 Min Read

Is the US Using Beijing’s Authoritarian Playbook?

The world has watched in horror as US President Donald Trump sets about adopting an authoritarian playbook. To understand popular…

31 Min Read

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