Ava Civic

**The Stakes Behind the Smiles: J.D. Vance, Transatlantic Tensions, and the Future of U.S. Alliances** By now, it’s a familiar political sleight of hand: declare unity while pulling the diplomatic rug out from under decades-old alliances. That’s precisely the game U.S. Senator J.D. Vance

Title: Peace or Pretense? The Slippery Slope of Compromising with Authoritarian Aggression Senator J.D. Vance—one of the Senate’s more forthright voices—recently ignited a new front in U.S. foreign policy debates when he said Russia is “asking for too much” in its proposed terms to end

**Trump, Trauma, and the Nation’s Mood: Rhetoric, Reality, and Civic Reckoning** Something strange happened during the Trump era—not just in the halls of Congress or in the economy, but in the nation’s psyche. In 2019, the *New Statesman* captured the zeitgeist in an article provocatively titled “Trump

**When Equal Service Collides With Executive Power: Reexamining the Transgender Military Ban** Earlier this year, the Supreme Court breathed temporary life into a policy many believed had long been buried: the ban on transgender individuals serving in the U.S. military. In a narrow 5-4 decision allowing the Trump-era policy

**Tackling Homelessness: Funding for Housing Programs On the Chopping Block** Budget season is back, and with it comes the grim reaper of government cuts. This year, housing programs serving the homeless are squarely in the crosshairs. Cities across the country — from Los Angeles to Philadelphia — are bracing for slashed federal

**NYPD at Columbia: A Campus Protest, A Citywide Conversation** The deployment of the New York Police Department into Columbia University to clear out pro-Gaza demonstrators stunned students, faculty, and activists alike—and raised important civic questions we dare not ignore. At a moment when tension in global politics is reverberating