Letter from the Editors, 2023

May 26, 2023

Dear readers, 

The publication of the 34th edition of the Journal of Public and International Affairs comes at a time of great disruption in the world. From Russia’s war in Ukraine to prolonged drought in Ethiopia and Somalia to the advent of Chat GPT, the past year has been marked by turmoil and change. The rising tide of global authoritarianism, continued threat of climate change, and rapid expansion of advanced digital technologies have destabilized global norms and institutions already eroding under acute great power competition between the United States and China.

The 2023 Journal presents work from thirteen scholars who seek to analyze the effects of evolving global power dynamics and address the inequities exacerbated by political, environmental, and technological disruptions. Our authors reflect on a variety of such issues, from the importance of elevating female farming cooperatives in Sub-Saharan Africa to Chinese investment in Kazakhstan through the Belt and Road Initiative to the problem of space debris in low-earth orbit. Using Google analytics, qualitative case studies, and quantitative analysis, our authors center marginalized groups, the preservation of democratic norms, and the importance of good policy design. We hope that you learn as much from their scholarship as we have learned from working with them on these pieces!

We would like to extend a big thank you to the 27 student editors from 10 schools who traveled to Princeton from as far away as Spain, Switzerland, and Singapore to lend their expertise in service of the publication. This edition would not have been possible without your enthusiasm, knowledge, and dedication. We are also particularly grateful to Tam Le Rovitto, Princeton’s Associate Director of Graduate Student Life, for all her assistance throughout the year and to the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA) for its continued support. Finally, we would like to thank our in-house team for all their hard work on this edition. We wish the best of luck to next year’s leadership on what we are sure will be a wonderful continuation of the JPIA legacy.

To our readers, enjoy!

Allison Blauvelt & Ellen Swicord, Editors-in-Chief
Auri Minaya, Managing Editor