My name is Casper de Boer, a first year IR student, who is willing to discover all the beauty and ugliness that the world that we're living on has to offer. I am new to the Checks & Balances team, I'll be handling the lay-out of the magazine and write an monthly article. Moreover I am currently working on a first novel. I hope that my addition to the team may open new paths to you as reader. Understanding the world around ourselves is a complex task, fortunately it is equally fascinating at the same time.

An Equation with Two Unknowns – How the unconventional 2017 presidentials brought about insecurity and hope

For several decades, the French presidentials have been one vested in traditions – From the different party preliminaries to the massive meetings in the weeks before the first round of

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‘The Case for Optimism’ Why 2017 could actually become a shining year for the European Union

With a series of essential national elections that will, without any doubt,  determine the path to follow for European integration in the near future, 2017 is shaping up to be

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Oversimplification in the era of Complexity – On Twitter’s Role in Reconceptualising Diplomacy in the 21st Century

Back in 2010, Twitter’s total network encompassed over nearly 30 million monthly active users. Nowadays, that number has increased to over 317 million. Little doubt exists, Twitter is booming. But

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Designing the Future- An introduction to Daan Roosegaarde

It is in the unmistakeable Dutch name of Daan Roosegaarde, that we find one of the most talented Dutch designers of the past decade. With his thin and seemingly vulnerable

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Tinder: how consumerism drastically altered the way we love

Tinder stands for 24 million users, of whom 30% are already married and 12% are already in a relationship. 70% of these ‘love seekers’ already have an account on another

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The Day Bowie Brought the Wall Down

‘The Day Bowie Brought the Wall Down’-David Bowie’s political heritage- ‘Look up here, I’m in Heaven, I’ve got scars that can’t be seen, I’ve got drama that can’t be stolen,

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The Man Who Turned Fiction Into Reality?

-An article on Michel Houellebecq’s Soumission and a changing France- Paris, the night of the 6th of January 2015. Michel Houellebecq, enfant-terrible of the French literary world, is sitting in

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‘Islam, for a Better World?’ – The World of Islamic Banking

In recent years, no religion in the world had to face so much criticism and negativity as the Islam. Since the media tends to show just one part of the

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Torn Apart: how the Korean War destroyed a story of Love

‘’What greater punishment is there than life when you’ve lost everything that made it worth living?’’, Shakespeare wrote in his play Romeo and Juliet. These thoughts must have crossed more

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