About the Journal

Leviathan is the leading student-led academic journal at the University of Edinburgh. It was founded in 2010 as a means for students to elevate political discourse through rigorous research and open-minded discussion. Here, we read more, help you write better and allow you to be part of Edinburgh’s amazing student community.

Leviathan’s editorial staff remains committed to working with students from all backgrounds and skill sets to express informed opinions and start conversations. Where there is a will to learn, there is no story too difficult to tell.

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Vol. 15 No. 2 (2025): Tipping Point
					View Vol. 15 No. 2 (2025): Tipping Point

Dear Readers,

 

Building on the momentum of our Autumn 2024 issue, this Spring 2025 issue, Tipping Point, features a record number of articles. We are enormously grateful for the continuing student enthusiasm for Leviathan Journal, as we witness several seismic shifts in politics, democracy and critical engagement across the world. Though there has never been a dull moment in global politics, our generation of current undergraduates has come of age amidst a worldwide pandemic, the rise of right-wing populism, social media and misinformation, and more. Our political consciousnesses have been formed in an era of disruption and disarray. The theme of Tipping Point evokes this sense of unprecedented and profound change, as our authors explore an array of political changes, offering both hope and uncertainty for the times ahead.

 

Cultivating the platform for students to engage critically with such political ideas creatively and rigourously would not be possible without the incredible work of the entire editorial team, who have risen to the challenge of increasing participation yet again. 

 

Within this issue, each author has carved out their own niche, offering readers the opportunity to learn about political issues with both depth and breadth. This issue features an amazing array of political issues, movements and actors often not discussed in mainstream discourses, as well as fresh perspectives on significant moments in political history.

 

The issue begins with an exploration of the relationship between politics and religion and their ability to mobilise movements, as authors bring understudied elements of contemporary religious conflicts to the fore: Mariela Brown’s analysis of the Taliban’s propagandistic destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas, Ross Doran’s exploration of the role of class and fear in legitimising paramilitary violence in the Troubles, Kyle Scorgie’s recentring of the long history of anti-Zionism in the Jewish tradition, and Isabelle Galloway’s critique of the Orientalist framing of Islam. 

 

Several articles then draw crucial attention to issues of Indigenous communities around the world and critical tipping points in oppressive policy structures, including Lucy Barrett’s study of Arctic Indigenous Peoples in northern Russia, Liam Burgess’s critique of Australia’s unjust attempts to assimilate Aboriginal Australians, rather than uplift them, and Finley Farrell’s analysis of Indonesia’s cummulatively oppressive policies towards Indigenous West Papuans. 

 

Our authors offer new insights on critical social movements in modern history: Cerys Jones looks at the recent Giséle Pelicot case in France and its implications for the legal treatment of violence against women, Zofia Jastrun revisits the Stonewall riots and their impact on the LGBTQ+ movement, Theo Webb assesses Rappler — a grassroots social media platform working against former President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte’s authoritarian tendencies, Zikra Zuhuree highlights the shortcomings of the U.S. healthcare system, Desiree Amir-Aslani studies the catalysts for the Arab Spring uprisings, and Georgi Mitchell-Jones analyses the rise of the Reform UK Party in rural, conservative heartlands of the United Kingdom.

 

Diving into an exploration of the law, Jonathan Vickers considers the stability of the UK’s asymmetric constitutional system, Maya Pearson analyses the enduring neocolonial aspects of EU Member States’ citizenship policies and the EU’s inaction to rectify this contradiction of the Union’s founding values, and Alma Hein assesses how international human rights regimes and courts are adapting to new challenges brought on by climate change. 

 

Luca Freeman and Finn Hughes continue to explore the critical tipping points of climate change, analysing geoengineering’s reinforcement of the structural flaws of capitalism and the green technology industry’s reliance on unsustainable and inhumane mining practices in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, respectively. And, Clara Ricketts explores the geopolitical implications of the U.S.’s moves towards energy self-sufficiency for alliances between Gulf States and rising Asian powers.

 

Joanna Saunderson opens a series of economic explorations with an analysis of how Saudi Arabia is using investment in sports to diversity its economy as well as strengthen its nation-building project. Subsequently, Max Pohlman assesses the likelihood and potential impacts of waning U.S. dollar hegemony for the international monetary system, and Jaroslav Vlasak highlights the structurally unequal nature of the U.S.’s coercive sanctions against their Latin American neighbours. 

 

Building on the themes of democratic instability, Dikran Bakkalian and Matías Lea Plaza analyse Argentinian President Milei’s rise to power and his use of underdog and outsider narratives to propel him to popularity. Noémie Valéry develops a portrait of Salvadorian President Bukele’s leadership as simultaneously attentive governance and a potential threat to democratic stability. Rodrigo Ramos assesses Mozambique’s struggles to democratise after gaining independence 1975, and Layla Osama Zaki analyses the confluence of internal instability and external involvement in Sudan’s recurring violent conflicts. 

 

Mathew Huang shifts focus towards the shortcomings of the nation-state and cohesive governance in Southeast Asia as transnational criminal organisations continue to evade law enforcement in the region. Taylor Cameron assesses the implications of the fall of the al-Assad regime in Syria for the semi-autonomous region of Rojava, dominated by Kurdish political movements. Continuing this thread, Aisyah Ab Halim analyses why an independent Kurdistan remains elusive. Bringing these themes of statehood and stability to Eastern Europe, Ornela Beqa explores the contributing factors to the fall of Yugoslavia through various eras of leadership and the Kosovo conflict. Lastly, Eva Chown analyses Georgia’s turbulent relationship with Russia, as the state has faded in and out of Russian influence throughout the twenty-first century, and Oleksandra Zhyhalkina highlights the significant ramifications of the Russian invasion of Ukraine from 2022 to present on the global food supply chain.

 

We are also honoured to publish the six winning essays from the Ukrainian Politics Network’s Student Essay Competition. These six essays featured at the end of this issue undertake multifaceted explorations of both topical and underappreciated political complexities. As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues, Leviathan is proud to support the mission of the Ukrainian Politics Network to understand Ukrainian politics on its own terms, not exclusively in the shadow of Russia. In the face of such oppression and destruction, academia plays a critical role in both raising awareness to understudied or underdiscussed aspects of the conflict but also deepening our understanding of the structural roots at play. 

 

We hope that these essays, as well as our thirty-three articles, offer new perspectives and insights into contemporary political issues, enriching our readers’ worldview and making factual, critical analysis accessible to all. Though we cannot predict what the future may entail, these political analyses allow us to better understand the world we live in and how we may change it for the better.

 

Sincerely,

Grace Hitchcock

Editor-in-Chief

Published: 15-Jun-2025

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