By Simon Blumenstock.

Modern-day Germany is – for good reasons – not a country known for celebrations of its own successes. In major public perception, anything resembling patriotism evokes memories of the crowds following Adolf Hitler in the horrible so-called Drittes Reich (1933-1945) – some with blinded, most with open eyes. An assumed “ban of patriotism” is one cause for the conflict constantly growing within German society, with left- and right-wing parties and citizens hardly finding common ground anymore. However, the 23rd of May 2019 was one of the rare occasions on which literally every German party and their supporters did agree upon a cause to celebrate German history. That date in 1949, thus 70 years earlier, the Grundgesetz (“basic law”), modern Germany’s constitution, had been proclaimed, coming into effect with the start of the following day. […]

By Kimana Zulueta-Fülscher.

Since independence from Great Britain, Myanmar/Burma has had three different constitutions. The first was signed immediately after independence in 1947, following the “Panglong Agreement” between the Burmese government and three different ethnic groups, the Shan, the Kachin and the Chin. It also aimed to enhance the autonomy of the so-called frontier or ethnic areas vis-à-vis the central government. After the 1962 military coup, two other constitutions entered into force in 1974 and in 2008, respectively. Both of these constitutions were decreed by the Myanmar armed forces, though affirmed in nationwide referendums. The 1974 Constitution was based on the “Burmese Way to Socialism,” and the 2008 Constitution was based on the armed forces’ 2003 “Seven Step Roadmap to Disciplined Democracy.” […]

By Augusto Lopez-Claros.

In October of 2018 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a Special Report on Global Warming in which it stated that “limiting global warming to 1.5°C would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.” It noted that we are well on our way to breach that threshold, something that has not happened in over a million years (perhaps longer), taking us into uncharted territory. But climate change is not by any means the only global catastrophic risk that we confront. We, in fact, face a range of unresolved global problems. […]