The Road to Peace

Since our last issue, a ceasefire has paused the war between Israel-Hamas, which has arguably become one of the defining conflicts of our decade. The war has been a humanitarian tragedy, numbering now in the tens of thousands of civilian lives lost. It has also been exceptionally divisive, bringing century-old tensions and grievances to a global stage. This discord has caused many to stop discussing, furthering polarisation and hatred, but peace can never be achieved when communication stops.

This ethos developed into our feature this month: A Road to Peace. It exists because students who disagreed decided to participate in open dialogue together: a voice from the Palestinian diaspora watching a homeland he never knew; an Israeli student in Tel Aviv writing from within the violence; a Lebanese student tracing how fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has torn his country’s politics and economy; and a British student examining the West’s recurring toxic entanglement in the region. The ceasefire, Trump’s reconstruction plan, and Lebanon’s new cabinet are signs of temporary stability, not long-lasting peace. We asked our writers to look beyond the past and focus on the future: how to get from this tenuous state to something concrete. Sometimes there were no clear answers, but it occurred to me that in creating this issue we had stumbled on one: open dialogue. Whilst debate and hard work are not a peace plan, they are how one begins.

Although there are vastly different perspectives, the common thread is the fragility of the situation: there has been some end to the violence, but what awaits is just as treacherous to navigate.

This issue also features incredible stories, from Burundi, Iraq, Italy, and Russia. A favourite is an article Aldeguer-Roure wrote, an exchange student at the American University of Central Asia, describing how language shapes the way we perceive love culturally.

I hope that everyone will be able to approach this issue with the same empathy and nuance that the authours came with, agreeing to be published side by side.

Siena Jackson

Editor-in-Chief