Letter from the Editor

Welcome to Ilios, USC's Undergraduate Political Science Journal. We halted production during the COVID-19 pandemic, and this is the first edition since the USC's reopening last fall. In February of this year, soon after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I emailed Professor Anthony Kammas a short essay. I wrote about what I felt that the invasion meant for me, as someone with family not far from the Ukrainian border in Poland. As members of diasporas often do, I felt hopeless sitting thousands of miles away from my friends and family who had to face the war. After talking with Professor Kammas, Ilios appeared as a way to take some tangible action, organizing discourse on campus around issues of this sort.

Since February, we have continued to witness more issues relating to national identity and displacement. Though our world appears to be beset with these conflicts, our discourse about such events certainly need not be dramatic. Instead, we seek to amplify many students' points of view; it is our hope that Ilios will continue to serve as a voice for students to engage with the academic material, their peers, and perhaps most importantly, the outside world. We simply seek to, by engaging others' points of view, understand these life-changing issues with more depth and greater perspective.

The theme of this edition of Ilios is war, national identity, and displacement. In the past year, populations around the world -- from Ukraine, to Iran, to the United States -- have been forced to respond to violence and threats to their security.

This publication seeks to speak to different causes and effects that violence and displacement has on groups and their identities. The edition is separated into two sections: one covering theoretical and international questions, and the other analyzing specific countries or historical events. When analyzing war, national identity, and displacement, there are a variety of questions that beg consideration; the journal's two sections seek to shed light on these different considerations.

Our publication begins with a discussion of journalists in war zones and the international laws that are required to protect those who seek to cover violent events; this article has currency today, given what is taking place around the world and our desire for information about it. Next you will read an article about refugees, which demonstrates the quotidian and political effects of political violence. Finally, the last two articles explore identities' interactions: one discussing the EU and Turkey, and the other discussing how the Los Angeles and Shanghai unhoused communities indicate broader themes of these cities' character.

Articles in the second section of the volume discuss recent ethnic conflict in Kyrgyzstan, the economic impacts of COVID-19 on Los Angeles' minority communities, and the democratization of Ghana. Though these articles all cover varying locations and eras, in conjunction they can be used to consider the effects that crises have on populations and their identities, regardless of time and place.

So, this edition of Ilios asks prudent questions to better understand how these identities form (on both national and international scales). Although these articles are divergent in their specific topics, they all ultimately speak to the fact that identities shift over time on account of specific events, which (as we currently bear witness) can often be catastrophic. And yet, despite their constructed nature, these national identities continue to be potent: They organize us, and they tell us where we come from, which can help us determine the direction that we face moving forward.

A few notes of gratitude are also in order. First, to the editorial board: Minji Kang has been dedicated to this project since its inception, and she deserves much praise for making it known to many of our peers; without this work, a number of the papers in this edition would have never been submitted for this volume. Fethi Yaşar and Mané Berikyan are also dedicated members of the Ilios board — Fethi adding his philosophical insight at the best moments, and Mané her keen International Relations lens and network.

I would also like to especially thank Professor Anthony Kammas for his support throughout this process. His encouragement and guidance was essential for resuming Ilios’s presence on campus, and his dedication to our University’s academic discourse is profound. I hope that this edition is foremost enjoyable to read, and that it also brings up questions that help you better consider the diversities and similarities of political systems around the globe.