Columbia Global Reports

Let’s play a game: Which election is it? Iran or USA? Q: Student protesters were physically shuffled out of a political rally. A: USA Q: Voter turnout was 62 percent. A: Iran Q: A photojournalist was thrown to the ground in a chokehold for straying. A: USA Q: Women doubled their presence on the political… more

Each year, individuals donate hundreds of billions of dollars to charities. Last month, GiveWell, the science-minded philanthropy evaluator, announced that in 2015, as a direct result of its research, more than $98 million in donations went to charities it found to be the most effective at doing good in the world. By reviewing randomized control trials and… more

On February 1, at China's Guangzhou Railway Station—a battle royale on a good day—a snowstorm stranded tens of thousands of passengers. The timing couldn’t have been worse. It was the beginning of the world’s largest annual human migration, the Lunar New Year, when reuniting Chinese families run up three billion trips in a matter of… more

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s whirlwind visit to Europe last month is being seen as a turning point in Tehran’s relationship with the West, after decades of hostility. But the stint’s moments of awkwardness demonstrated that the two sides still have much to work out before a reunion tour. When Rouhani gave a press conference at the… more

Haiti has once again plunged into a familiar pattern of political upheaval as a presidential election that was delayed twice already was postponed indefinitely. Last Sunday’s runoff would have had just one candidate—frontrunner Jovenel Moïse, a banana exporter and the handpicked successor of his friend, President Michel Martelly. Jude Célestin, the runner-up in October’s disputed… more

This week, Rana Rahimpour, a journalist for the BBC who has dual British and Iranian citizenship, was informed that she and her young daughter did not have the appropriate paperwork to fly to the U.S. The pair was prevented from boarding their flight, and Rahimpour’s daughter missed her cousin’s surprise birthday party. Iranians all over… more

Photographer Stéphanie de Rougé, whose work was used on the cover of Atossa Araxia Abrahamian's new book The Cosmopolites: The Coming of the Global Citizen, answered some questions about her ongoing series, "Walking By." Q: How long have you been working on this series and how did it start? ​How has the project evolved? A: I have been shooting… more

In 1979, when armed jihadis seized the Grand Mosque at Mecca and killed well over a hundred worshippers, the high-drama narrative didn’t make the splash you might expect. It was, as one scholar put it, “the age before Al-Jazeera,” and the Saudi authorities saw no reason to allow negative news coverage of the pilgrimage that… more