Joe Biden was elected president of the United States on a platform of unifying the country through bipartisanship, but political divisions over the US policy on Cuba have revealed a major challenge to his message of national unity.
As the tumultuous and controversial Tokyo Olympics came to an end, the world set its eyes on Beijing, where the Winter Olympics is to be held in just six months. The 2022 Games could become even more contentious than the event which just closed.
New Diplomacy Initiative (NDI), Japan’s only progressive think tank, has issued its latest report on Japanese foreign and domestic affairs, and the challenges the world faces in the coming decades.
For most of the world, the Olympic Games serve as a point for celebration and national unity. This time, however, many Japanese are gripped by worries about how the Games may serve to intensify the pandemic, and the fact that some of these athletes are promoting anti-vaccination ideology only deepens these concerns.
Sports fans around the planet are beginning to sit around their televisions to watch the world’s greatest athletes compete head-to-head in Japan’s capital. However, as the Olympic Games launch, the linkages between this international sports event and nationalism must be discussed, especially in the context of promoting a vibrant culture of democracy.
