The Conversation

In 2014, the 'decrepit' Ukrainian army hit the refresh button. Eight years later, it's paying off

Written by Liam Collins, Founding Director, Modern War Institute, United States Military Academy West Point

In this March 4, 2022, photograph, Ukrainian soldiers stand guard outside the train station in Irpin, Ukraine. Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times

In 2014, Ukraine’s military was called “decrepit” by one national security analyst, and its navy was in “a sorry state.” Ukrainian General Victor Muzhenko, a former top commander...

Support for democracy is waning across the Americas

Written by Elizabeth J. Zechmeister, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Political Science and Director of LAPOP, Vanderbilt University

Armed Salvadoran soldiers, following presidential orders, surrounded lawmakers in 2020.AP Photo/Salvador Melendez

People are losing faith in democracy throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Across North, Central and South America, and parts of the Caribbean, only 63% of the public expressed support for democracy in 2021. This is a main takeaway from the...

Canada has long feared the chaos of US politics

Written by Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy, Associate Teaching Professor of American Studies, Miami University

Anti-Catholic riots, like this one in Philadelphia in 1844, worried Canadians.H. Bucholzer via Library of Congress

When the nation of Canada was founded in 1867, its people deliberately chose a form of government meant to avoid the mistakes and problems they saw in the U.S. government next door.

That helps explain why Canadian police used emergency...

Ukrainian war bonds: The American roots of a powerful financial and propaganda tool

Written by James J. Kimble, Professor of Communication & the Arts, Seton Hall University

Ukraine could use war bonds to tap into the broad international outrage over Russia's invasion.AP Photo/Leo La Valle

Ukraine is desperate for money. And as the saying goes, freedom is not free.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Finance – at this moment trying to fund the nation’s defense against a massive Russian invasion – would surely...

3 things that influence college graduates from rural areas to return to their communities

Written by Stephanie Sowl, Ph.D Candidate in Higher Education, Iowa State University

Rural students who grow up with strong ties to their schools are more likely to return to their hometowns after they graduate from college.Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

When high-achieving students from rural areas go off to college and graduate, they often choose to live in suburban or urban areas instead rural...

A brief history of Babi Yar, where Nazis massacred Jews, Soviets kept silence and now Ukraine says Russia fired a missile

Written by Jeffrey Veidlinger, Professor of History and Judaic Studies, University of Michigan

A woman pays homage at the memorial to victims of the 1941 Nazi massacre of Jews in Babi Yar in Kyiv, Ukraine.AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky

“At Babi Yar no memorials preside.”

Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko wrote that line in a 1961 poem in a reference to to the ravine in the suburbs of Kyiv where, starting on Sept. 29, 1941, and continuing...

Even mild cases of COVID-19 can leave a mark on the brain, such as reductions in gray matter – a neuroscientist explains emerging research

Written by Jessica Bernard, Associate Professor, Texas A&M University

A new brain-imaging study finds that participants who had even mild COVID-19 showed an average reduction in whole brain sizes.Kirstypargeter/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Researchers have been steadily gathering important insights into the effects of COVID-19 on the body and brain. Two years into the pandemic, these findings are raising concerns...

Why did Russia invade Ukraine?

Written by Kathryn David, Mellon Assistant Professor of Russian and East European Studies, Vanderbilt University

Memorial tanks at the Ukrainian Motherland Monument in Kyiv.Madeleine Kelly/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

Why did Russia invade Ukraine? – Artie W., age 9, Astoria, New York

Ukra...

After Hollywood thwarted Anna May Wong, the actress took matters into her own hands

Written by Shirley J. Lim, Professor of History, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)

Anna May Wong appears alongside Akim Tamiroff in a promotional poster for the 1939 film 'King of Chinatown.'LMPC/Getty Images

The U.S. Mint will, over the next four years, issue quarters featuring the likenesses of American women who contributed to “the development and history of our country.”

The first batch of the American Women...

Many Ukrainians face a future of lasting psychological wounds from the Russian invasion

Written by Arash Javanbakht, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne State University

Local militiaman Valery, 37, carries a child as he helps a fleeing family across a bridge destroyed by artillery, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Wed., March 2, 2022.AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti

“Polina came to our bedroom awakened by the sound of explosions. I didn’t know and still don’t know what to tell her. Her eyes today...