Tiny Qatar, tapping its vast resources into this cash-strapped but immensely popular global sport, is tactfully increasing its global standing. Football is essentially another form of diplomacy.

For one, groups within this evolving network must be understood for what they represent, and henceforth analyzed for the magnitude of threat they pose. After that, solutions must be pursued on a region level, and direct and combative action on the part of international players and the United States must be avoided.

It is disappointing, but broadly true, that the transgressions of FIFA will eventually recede into the background as long as soccer keeps growing in global popularity and importance. What is sure is that Blatter must not be forgotten, for he is owed his place in the history of soccer; but those looking back decades on must know that he has had it very lucky indeed.

The United States, with the president’s leadership, must think beyond the common slogans of big government and small government, towards the perhaps eerie, unsettling, and hard-to-package prospect of the right government.

The democratically inadequate electoral law and its disproportionate representation still remain as fundamental issues, and the prospects for immediate and sweeping reform are dubious at best.

If we allow the passion of Columbia students to shine through in a constructive and positive manner, I have faith that our community will be strengthened, anger will dissipate, and the social justice that all of us strive for will be made just a little more possible.

Letting go is hard to do. So hard, in fact, that I called up Hillary earlier this week to give her the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to serve as Columbia Political Review’s next editor-in-chief once she ends her State Department gig. I hate to say it, but she politely declined.

Cover Story: Fall 2012“The problem is that in Brazil you don’t convict. I’ve been in court for seven years, yet this is the second time we attempt to reach conviction. This course of action is still very novel to me and to other judges.”

The total dollar amount spent on domestic counterterrorism has continued to climb ever since, and for fiscal year 2013, the Congressional Budget Office expects the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) budget to be $68.9 billion, or roughly $526 per household.

At present, the Egyptian political scene sees the negotiations over its constitution as its primary struggle for the future. The political climate, nonetheless, that will emerge is not bound by new laws: It is an ethos that will characterize how the country expresses its pluralistic interests for years to come.

The short-term goal of halting Iran’s nuclear program can and should be coupled with the long term goal of fostering a more democratic, open Iran, if only because the sanctions that target those worth targeting and a diplomacy that offers Iran a path to legitimacy are ultimately the solutions to both these issues.

So we are left with a vivid understanding: Multinational oil corporations cannot be properly held accountable, and, if left unchecked, they are capable of strongly influencing United States foreign policy and policies on energy and climate change in ways that are inconsistent with government’s ultimate goal of promoting the well-being of the American people.