The Tokyo Olympics and Abe's False Bravado

The 2020 Olympics scheduled to be held in Tokyo were touted as a “safe bet” compared to other recent Olympic Games given Japan’s status as an industry-leading advanced country. The city has prior experience hosting the games, and the spectacle would have been an incredible springboard to elevate Japan as a world leader in accordance with Prime Minister Shinzō Abe’s desire to increase Japan’s involvement in international affairs. In a career filled with large promises, here was a true chance to deliver on the world stage, a worthy keystone in the legacy of Japan’s longest-serving Prime Minister.

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Nat Malkus Interview

Nat Malkus is a resident scholar and the deputy director of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he specializes in K–12 education. Specifically, he applies quantitative data to education policy. His work focuses on school finance, charter schools, school choice, and the future of standardized testing. Before joining AEI, Malkus was a senior researcher at the American Institutes for Research, where he led research teams analyzing national education data on topics ranging from how many college students take remedial courses, to the comparisons between charter and traditional public schools, to tracking student achievement and graduation rates in schools undergoing turnaround reforms. Previously, Malkus worked on a four-year experimental study to evaluate whether math coaches could help math teachers improve student performance. He has also taught advanced graduate statistics courses and quantitative policy analysis to graduate students. Earlier, Malkus spent four years as a middle-school teacher in Maryland. Malkus has a Ph.D. in education policy and leadership from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a B.A. in historical studies from Covenant College.



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Silence is Betrayal

There comes a time when silence is betrayal. In response to the murder of George Floyd, as well as the state-endorsed police violence that has occurred in the U.S. over the past several decades, we find it imperative to use our privilege as a publication at an institution like UVA to stand in solidarity with those who are protesting, as well as encourage our readers to support organizations that seek to rectify these injustices.

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Justice Bill Mimms Interview

Justice Bill Mims currently serves as the hundredth justice of the Virginia Supreme Court. He is the second person to ever serve as a member of the General Assembly, attorney general, and Supreme Court justice. Justice Bill Mims received his A.B. in history from the College of William and Mary (1979), his J.D. from George Washington University (1984), and his LL.M from Georgetown University (1986).



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The BRI and the String of Pearls: A Challenge to the U.S.-Led Global Order

China’s President Xi Jinping announced the world’s largest infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), in 2013. Since then, China has pumped billions of dollars into the project in an effort to boost its soft power (and arguably its hard power) abroad. This project highlights China’s desire to expand their global influence and rewrite the global norms on their own terms.

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