To be very honest, I didn't really care for Barack Obama when I first heard about him in 2008.

This type of ideological disagreement and debate is what makes me love this publication. Since our inception, we have prided ourselves on being a “multi-partisan” magazine. People often ask me, “What does that even mean? Why don’t you just call yourselves a non-partisan magazine?” We are by no means a non-partisan magazine. Our writers hail from every political leaning and emphatically express their views without any inhibitions. That’s what makes us unique in a world of journalism in which political publications are quickly pigeonholed into one side or the other. This issue marks our 10th year of existence and I’m incredibly proud that we have stayed true to our ideals.

Turath, the Arab Students Group, hosted a debate last night on President Obama’s Middle East Foreign Policy that brought together the College Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Socialists, and The Current (Jewish-affairs magazine).

This past year has been one of the most tumultuous ones that I can recall. Social movements have sprung up all across the world from the Middle East to India to South America to Europe to, without a doubt, here at home in the United States. Some of the most entrenched systems are being resisted and, in some cases, even shaken. The energy and enthusiasm of these movements are palpable – who hasn’t had a conversation or a heated debate with a friend, relative, or stranger about one of the movements?

A conversation with Columbia University's Adlai E. Stevenson Professor of International Affairs and former president of the American Political Science Association on withdrawal and recovery in Afghanistan.

With movies like The Day After Tomorrow depicting the apocalyptic consequences of global warming, the issue of climate change has since transformed from being simply a “Hollywood problem” to a reality we must confront. Global warming deniers have long since been discredited, and an urgency to address climate change has heightened in policy spheres and also in the public imagination. It is the unfortunate fact that climate change is not an issue that can be simply tackled by one well-meaning individual or even one nation. Maintaining the sustainability of our planet is a collective responsibility, because it affects us all. An effective and lasting solution—or, at the very least, a hope of one—can only be reached through global consensus. The Copenhagen climate summit that will take place early this month provides an opportunity for nations to collectively define the direction of climate change policy over the next few decades.