As more people around the world depend on illicit economies for basic livelihoods, nonstate actors are becoming more empowered while governments are weakened. In a new series on nonstate actors, Vanda Felbab-Brown outlines issues the Biden administration should pay attention to, especially as COVID-19 exacerbates the struggle between states and criminal groups.
Interpersonal network connections provide access to support, information, power, and resources, and are a critical element of opportunity structures. Camille Busette, Jill Simmerman Lawrence, Richard Reeves, and Sarah Nzau compare the social networks of Racine, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. to see how social capital translates to economic mobility.
There are currently 750 million seniors—people 65 and older—in the world, and that figure will cross the 1 billion mark by 2030. Wolfgang Fengler discusses the role of seniors as significant players in national economies.
The assault was an attempted coup. "As in the case of other coup attempts, the president's actions have put us on the brink of civil war. Trump did not overturn the election results, but, just as he intended, he disrupted the peaceful democratic transition of executive power," writes Fiona Hill in Politico.
A new chapter in domestic terrorism. Writing for The Washington Post, Daniel Byman examines the difficult questions raised by last week's mob violence in Washington, D.C. and discusses what we can learn from America's past counterterrorism efforts.
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