Foreign affairs magazine aims to engage students

A new student publication, The Internationalist, will launch early next month and aim not only to inform Princeton students about international affairs, but also to act as a forum for university students around the globe to engage in dialogue about the challenges facing their countries and the world.

"We want people with only passing interest in foreign affairs to be gripped by our magazine," said Adam Frankel '03, who co-founded the magazine. "Young Americans are exceptionally un-engaged compared to their peers in other countries, especially in Europe, and that is dangerous."

The magazine is the work of by Alice Wang '03, Frankel and editor-in-chief Sally Torbert '05.

"There wasn't really a forum to compile all the energy and interest [students had in foreign affairs]," Wang said.

The Internationalist will begin publishing online, but editors hope to create a print edition next year. The magazine will consist of analytical pieces written by University students and will include a forum for opinions and editorials contributed by students from throughout the world.

Diverse views

The magazine aims to serve as a opportunity for those of varying opinions to express themselves, and actively encourages diverse submissions.

"It's really important to us to have as much objectivity as we can by recruiting from as many different backgrounds as we can," Frankel said. "We're going to publish all opinion pieces we get, within reason. Our aim is not to advocate a particular approach."

The analytical articles, organized into five regional sections, will explore the details of international issues with the intent to inform rather than to persuade, he said.

"We get so much rhetoric thrown at us that we don't really address the detailed issues," Torbert said. "We are going to explore the issues academically rather than emotionally."

The forum appearing in the first issue will focus on the potential war in Iraq, Torbert said. The magazine has recruited students from across the globe, including those nations with spots in the UN Security Council, as well as Turkey and Middle Eastern states.

Networks

The online magazine's editors said they contacted prospective contributors using personal networks as well as Internet searches to contact potential contributors.

The editors said they hope to launch the website early next month with a clean look uncluttered by "fancy graphics and cool toys that are supposed to make up for lack of content," graduate student Dimitri Laskoski, the website designer, said.

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Along with articles, the website will also include information on current markets, world news and currency exchange rates, as well as links to news sites and general reference sites, Laskoski said.