When the Russo-Ukrainian war erupted in 2014 a small group of foreigners rushed to join both sides of that conflict. At that time, they were mostly seen, and to a large degree rightly, as a band of misfits or pariah, often associated with the far-right or the far-left, who went to Donbas to find meaning in their lives.

Adam Mestyan is Associate Professor of History at Duke University. His works include Modern Arab Kingship – Remaking the Ottoman Political Order in the Interwar Middle East (Princeton University Press, 2023), Primordial History, Print Capitalism, and Egyptology in Nineteenth-Century Cairo (Ifao, 2021); and Arab Patriotism: The Ideology and Culture of Power in Late Ottoman Egypt (Princeton University Press, 2017).

A gripping, intimate story of one heartbreaking day in Palestine that reveals lives, loves, enmities, and histories in violent collision

Milad is five years old and excited for his school trip to a theme park on the outskirts of Jerusalem, but tragedy awaits: his bus is involved in a horrific accident. His father, Abed, rushes to the chaotic site, only to find Milad has already been taken away. Abed sets off on a journey to learn Milad's fate, navigating a maze of physical, emotional, and bureaucratic obstacles he must face as a Palestinian.

There has been a rise in majority nationalism globally, often linked to the rise of populism and (causing?) democratic backsliding. Many of the countries within South Asia have also seen a rise in religious majoritarianisms in recent decades. Majoritarianism(s) have challenged the liberal attributes of democracy across the subcontinent; justifying the curtailment of civil liberties, such as limiting the freedom of expression or association and to restrict citizen access to alternative sources of information.