Security

Were the Sochi Olympic Security Threats Valid?

  After four long years, the image of the mountainous Vancouver landscape slowly faded away as the Olympic spotlight and Sochi geared up for the first Russian Olympic event since the breakup of the USSR. For more than a century, the Olympics have treated spectators around the world to a show that only the world’s […]

Why the US and the West Will Not Save Crimea

  The breaking of international law. A country divided. Military “protection” from a mother country for her children. A state recognized by just one other in the international community. Talk of punishment for the unruly state. No real actions taken. Statements from the West saying it will forever support the people and the government of […]

Establishing Limits: The Search for Viable Restrictions on Executive Power in a Post-9/11 World

  On Thursday, Northeastern’s political science department hosted its annual President’s Day lecture in which Professor Michael Tolley spoke about the limits of law on executive power and post-9/11 challenges the president faces. Professor Tolley opened his lecture by explaining that presidents of both major parties have taken actions of questionable legality in the years […]

NSA Rebuttal: Northeastern University College Democrats

  When it comes to the fundamental privacy rights of the American citizen, there is not much room for major disagreement. The Northeastern College Republicans and the Northeastern College Democrats can both agree that the Constitution is clear when it comes to this issue, there are serious privacy concerns with information collection today A wide […]

NSA Rebuttal: Northeastern University College Republicans

  Any issue dealing with privacy of personal data to many Americans seems more like a crime than political issue. This is the reason that public approval on both sides of the aisle of PRISM is so low. This issue is interesting because it appears that it has broken down some of the usual right-left […]

Party Perspectives: NSA Surveillance

In light of President Obama’s speech last week outlining new guidelines for intelligence-gathering, we asked politically-oriented student groups on campus to respond to the following questions: 1) Will the Obama administration’s proposed reforms restore public trust in the activities of the NSA? 2) How can the United States best respect the privacy of its citizens […]

Northeastern University College Republicans: NSA Surveillance

The concept of natural rights is critical to the understanding of the American Constitution. The Fourth Amendment clearly says what the government can and cannot do regarding searches and seizures. It states quite clearly: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall […]

Northeastern College Democrats: NSA Surveillance

  As we progress into the digital age, privacy has fast become one of the most challenging rights to maintain. Various methods of social networking allow us to track people in real time, and vice versa. With recent revelations that our federal government has access to very personal information about its citizens through the NSA […]

Buying Our Security: The Actual Risk of Terrorism

The United States is in a perpetual state of alert, forced to contend with a question that never seems to receive an answer: are we safer than we were before the fall of the Twin Towers changed everything? The effort to provide a positive response to this question comes with considerable cost. The Department of […]

Do-it-Yourself Terrorism: Al Qaeda’s Ad Campaign and the Domestic War on Terror

On April 15th at 2:49 p.m., two massive explosions detonated at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.1 Cheers were quickly replaced with screams of horror, celebration with mayhem. The two suspects believed to be responsible for this tragedy, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, allegedly used simple household items and over-the-counter materials to wound 264 people […]