The Conversation

War in Ukraine is changing energy geopolitics

Written by Scott L. Montgomery, Lecturer, Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington

A woman holds a blood-stained portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin at a protest at the Russian Consulate in Montreal on Feb. 25, 2022. Andrej Ivanov /AFP via Getty Images

Russia’s war against Ukraine will change the landscape of global energy and its geopolitics in profound ways. Pieces of this terrain have already begun shifting.

As...

Skateboarding's spiritual side -- skaters find meaning in falls and breaking the monotony of urban life

Written by Terry Shoemaker, Lecturer in Religious Studies, Arizona State University

A skateboarder attempts a jump. MoMo Productions/Collections Stone via Getty Images

Over the last decade the numbers of those identifying as “Spiritual But Not Religious,” or SBNR, have continued to increase. In 2017, Pew Research Center found that a quarter of Americans identified as SBNR.

Sociologist Wade Roof Clark argues that the...

¿Qué tiene que ver el cambio climático y las tormentas de nieve que experimenta EEUU?

Written by Michael A. Rawlins, Associate Director, Climate System Research Center, UMass Amherst

Los bostonianos tuvieron que cavar para librarse de casi dos pies (0,6 metros) de nieve después de que una histórica tormenta de nieve a finales de enero de 2022.Scott Eisen/Getty Images

El noreste de Estados Unidos, región donde se encuentra la ciudad de Boston, ha visto un montón de nieve este invierno de 2021-2022,...

Sharing top-secret intelligence with the public is unusual – but helped the US rally the world against Russian aggression

Written by Stephen Long, Associate Professor of Political Science and Global Studies, University of Richmond

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan speaks about the Ukraine crisis during the daily White House press briefing on Feb. 11, 2022, in Washington, D.C.Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

In the weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, President Joe Biden and U.S. national security officials provided the public with a running stream of...

The US is boosting aid to Ukraine: 4 questions answered

Written by Jessica Trisko Darden, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Virginia Commonwealth University

Workers unload a shipment of U.S. military aid in Ukraine in February 2022.AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky

The U.S. government has condemned Russia’s war on Ukraine and vowed to make sure Russia faces consequences for its attack. Political scientist Jessica Trisko Darden, author of “Aiding and Abetting: U.S. Foreign Assistance and State Violence...

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has Kremlin battling for hearts and minds at home

Written by Cynthia Hooper, Associate Professor of History, College of the Holy Cross

The Kremlin has exerted tight control over news and social media in an effort to control the information Russians receive about the Ukraine war.SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Russian President Vladimir Putin is locked in a vicious struggle not only to subjugate Ukraine, but also to keep his own citizens united in support of Kremlin...

Holy wars: How a cathedral of guns and glory symbolizes Putin’s Russia

Written by Lena Surzhko Harned, Assistant Teaching Professor of Political Science, Penn State

Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, center, attends a ceremony consecrating the Cathedral of Russian Armed Forces outside Moscow. Andrey Rusov, Defense Ministry Press Service via AP

A curious new church was dedicated on the outskirts of Moscow in June 2020: The Main Church of the Russian Armed Forces. The massive, khaki-colored cathedral in a...

Solar storms can destroy satellites with ease – a space weather expert explains the science

Written by Piyush Mehta, Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, West Virginia University

The Sun occasionally ejects large amounts of energy and particles into space that can smash into Earth.NASA/GSFC/SDO via WikimediaCommons

On Feb. 4, 2022, SpaceX launched 49 satellites as part of Elon Musk’s Starlink internet project, most of which burned up in the atmosphere days later. The cause of this more than US$50 million failure was a...

Why your kid won't put down the smartphone – it's not your fault

Written by Meghan Owenz, Assistant Teaching Professor of Rehabilitation and Human Services, Penn State

It's important to know how technology affects the human brain.John M Lund Photography Inc/Stone via Getty Images

Nearly three-quarters of parents are concerned that their kids’ use of mobile devices may be harmful to them or to family relationships – and that was from research done before the pandemic.

But it’s not parents’...

'Freedom will triumph over tyranny': Biden's first State of the Union echoes themes from the Cold War

Written by Allison M. Prasch, Assistant Professor of Rhetoric, Politics and Culture, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Presenting a unified front.Saul Loeb-Pool/Getty Images

It was a familiar scene.

The president of the United States strode down the aisle of the U.S. House of Representatives to deliver the State of the Union address, the only constitutionally mandated instance of presidential speech. Usually, it serves to lay out the White House’s policy...