The Harvard International Review is a quarterly magazine offering insight on international affairs from the perspectives of scholars, leaders, and policymakers. Since our founding in 1979, we've set out to bridge the worlds of academia and policy through outstanding writing and editorial selection.
The quality of our content is unparalleled. Each issue of the Harvard International Review includes exclusive interviews and editorials by leading international figures along with expert staff analysis of critical international issues. We have featured commentary by 43 Presidents and Prime Ministers, 4 Secretaries-General, 4 Nobel Economics Prize laureates, and 7 Nobel Peace Prize laureates.
Inspired by our growing high school readership around the world, we created the Harvard International Review Academic Writing Contest to encourage and highlight outstanding high school writing on topics related to international affairs.
Congratulations to all Spring 2025 medal winners on the quality of your submissions!
Gold Medal
Yueqi Wang. The Affiliated High School of SCNU. “The Invisible Conglomerate: Southeast Asia’s Borderless Cybercrime Empire”
ZOU Xingtong. The Webb Schools. “Sand Cartels: Illegal Dredging in Southeast Asia and Coastal Displacement”
Jang Ho Yoo. Korean Minjok Leadership Academy. “The Intellectual Property (IP) Rights on Marine Genetic Resources (MGRs)”
Edward Lee. Bergen County Academies. “From Violence to Vitality: Medelln Parques Bibliotecas and the Future of Urban Resilience”
Katie Kim. Deerfield Academy. “Girls In Karachi and Mumbai Just Wanna Have Fun: How Fulfilling Women Right to Joy Can Create Resilient Cities”
Yunlong Dong. Choate Rosemary Hall. “The Global Environmental Footprint of Artificial Intelligence”
Joanna Choi. Korea International School. “Digitizing Sovereignty, Guarding the Ocean”
Zhao Minxing. Beijing Royal School. “The Challenge of Urban Resilience Under Low Fertility Rates: A Case Study of East Asia and Northern Europe”
Yuelin Li. Wei Ming Scholl Nanshan Campus Shenzhen. “From ‘Female Issue’ to Social Issue: A More Considerate Urban Plan in the Face of Gender Inequality”
Sungjay Cho. Korea International School. “A Blueprint for Resilient Cities: Singapore Approach to Urban Mobility”
Lifu Tian. Canyon Crest Academy. “Aging Populations and Urban Crises”
Junseo Choi. Phillips Academy Andover.“Seoul's Unthinkable Option: Navigating Nuclearization Under a Trump Return”
Jeewan Hong. Korea International School. “Small Islands, Big Seabed: How Pacific Sponsors Are Shaping the Global Commons”
Tomiris Abylkairova. Haileybury Astana. “From Compassion to Controversy: How Stray Dog Policies Reflect National Identities and Influence Global Perceptions”
Sammy Zhiyue Song. Concordia International School Shanghai. “Gaps in the Law: Tackling Online Sexual Crimes in South Korea”
Changce Piao. The Affiliated High School of Peking University. “Ethnic Tourism and Cultural Resilience of Yanbian's Urban Development”
Ruiqi Li. Shenzhen College Of International Education. “Migrant Labor in the Middle East: The Hidden Cost of Desert Dreams”
Rachel Ning Li. SHSID. “Mental Health Education as the Pillar of Urban Resilience: The Importance of Adolescents’ Mental Well-being in City Development”
Jianing Zhang. Shanghai Datong High School. “Priced Learning: the Impact of China's Shift to Privatized Education”
Yimeng Chen. The Lawrenceville School. “A Nation at a Crossroads: Renewing Guatemala’s Democracy”
Yang Tian. Beijing 101 Middle School. “Limited Resources but Unlimited Possibilities: How Singapore Leverages Innovation to Achieve Urban Agricultural Resilience”
Yunjia Zhang. Huafu International. “When the Water Rises: Rethinking Urban Flood Resilience and Equity”
Silver Medal
Austin Zhang. St. George's School. “Hydropolitics in the Horn: Ethiopia and Egypt Fight for the Nile”
Yuening Ping. Georgia School Ningbo. “Whose City? Urbanization, Displacement and the Remaking of Cultural Identities”
Ansel Choi. Seoul Scholars International. “Beneath the Surface: The Geopolitics and Vulnerabilities of Undersea Cable”
Yeji Son. American School of Guatamela. “The 21st Century Gold Rush: Unpacking South Korea 2025 Gold Market Crisis”
Jonathan Tom. Bergen County Technical High School - Teterboro. “Soggy Problems, Spongy Solutions: Sponge Cities for Urban Resilience”
Taesung Kim. Korean Minjok Leadership Academy. “From Pawns to Power Brokers: Strategic Neutrality and the Reordering of World Finance”
Yifei Leng. BASIS Bilingual School Guangming. “The Cocoa Cold War: A New Global Order”
Xiaoyu Zhou. Georgia School Ningbo. “From Warships to Wordings: Manila’s Peaceful Rebellion in the South China Sea”
Hannah Choo. Korea International School. “Looking Down as a Path Forward: The Potential of Underground Spaces to Solve Urban Pressures”
Judith Huang. Kent School. “Unwelcome Spaces: Hostile Architecture in Brazil and Beyond”
Junwoo Park. Korea International School. “Assessing the Impact of Central Bank Digital Currencies on Traditional Finance Systems: A Policy and Economic Perspective”
Tong Shiqian. Veritas Collegiate Academy. “Shenzhen’s Hidden Challenge: Urban Villages and Housing Resilience”
Amy You. Stevenson School. “Türkiye's Mediation Diplomacy in the Russia-Ukraine War: Recasting Global Influence”
Dana Yoo. Gyeonggi Suwon International School. “K-Chip Water War: The Sustainability Crisis in South Korea Semiconductor Cluster”
Yoonsun Jung. Korea International School, Jeju. “From Boom to Balance: East Asia Capitals at a Demographic Crossroads”
Yufan Wang. Magee Secondary School. “Vanishing Cure: Preserving Antibiotics in a World of Rising Resistance”
Kyle Hwang. Mercersburg Academy. “The War Against Wildfires Wages On: Hempcrete as a Building Alternative to Combat Fires in Melbourne, Australia”
Si Eun Park. Singapore American School. “Smart Cities, Stalled Dreams”
Yuning Zhang. Shanghai Pinghe Bilingual School. “Medieval or Modern? Building Wooden Cities for a Sustainable Urban Future”
Yung-Chen Hsieh. Pacific American School. “Divided Waters: Transboundary Tensions over the Mekong River”
Bowen Hu. International Department, The Affiliated High School of SCNU. “A City Within a City: Can Dharavi Survive Its Own Redevelopment”
Jianuo Zou. Culver Academies.“Building Urban Resilience Drop by Drop: The Case of Dubai”
He Ni. Great Neck South High.“Iran Quiet Pivot: How an Underreported Treaty Signals a New Global Order”
Jiayan Zhang. Torrey Pines High School. “Revital Healthcare Pioneers African-Made Solutions Amid Global Supply Chain Shifts”
Jain Kim. Korea International School, Jeju Campus. “Balancing Cultural Preservation and Urban Growth: Seoul Cultural Urban Regeneration and Transformation”
Jinho Kim. North London Collegiate School Jeju. “Aging Cities, Shrinking Healthcare Workforces”
Liang Xiyu. Harrow International School Hong Kong. “Urban Equity: Breaking Down Gender Barriers on City Streets”
Soyul Bae. American School Foundation. “Selective Healthcare: How Mexico niversal?System Excludes Indigenous Communities”
Harvard Law. Saint Francis High School. “From Crisis to Catalyst: How Refugees Transformed Two Unlikely Cities”
Leopoldo Vazquez. Tecnolgico de Monterrey. “Cities as a Brand: The Economics Behind Urban Cool”
Yushen Du. UWC Atlantic. “Crowding the Orbits: The Global Stakes in Outer Space”
Huanshu Yan. Beijing 101 Middle School. “Tokyo's Anime Industry: Cultural Industry for A More Resilient Urban Future”
Shuyi Chen. Elite Preparatory Academy. “Digital Leviathans: Rethinking Power in the Age of Platform Sovereignty”
Eric Su. St. George's School. “Balancing Ties and Tensions: How Brazil Is Redefining Its Place in a Changing World”
Junyi Seo. Seoul Academy. “Circuits of Power: Vietnam Electronics Industry and the New Geopolitics of Supply Chains”
Cao Xin Yu. The Taft School. “Bangladesh’s Quiet Revolution: How Girls’ Education Became a Catalyst for National Growth”
Siwoo Lee. St Albans College. “When Growth Outruns Governance: Urban Cybercrime and Effective Policies”
Ran He. Veritas Collegiate Academy. “Sand Empires: The Gritty Prosperity and Peril Behind Asia’s Economic Boom”
Elena Lee. Daegu International School. “Patents at Sea: Privatizing Deep-Sea DNA and Restoring the Commons”
Catherine Kim. Chadwick International School. “Securing the Blue Frontier”
Ciana Tzuo. Horace Mann School. “Out of Sight, Out of Airspace: Who Pays for the Mess in Space?”
Seah Jin. Saint Paul Preparatory Seoul. “Sub-Saharan Africa's Ascent: From Colonization to Globalization”
Shenglan Liu. Shenzhen Senior High School. “From Technocentric Urbanism to Humanistic Resilience: The Absence and Reconstruction of Caring Ethics in Resilient Cities under Natural Disasters”
Yijia Huang. Shanghi United International School, Wanyuan Campus. “Lithium and the Green Colonialism: Unveiling the Environmental Cost of Clean Energy”
Yihe Wang. The Macduffie School. “The City that Eats Itself: Urban Agroecology”
Luxi Zhang. Shenzhen Middle School. “Unpredictable Weather, Unaffordable Coffee, Unavoidable Choices”
Xintong Chen. Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy. “When the East Meets the West: The Evolution of Liberal Arts Education in Singapore”
Fan Yingmao. Zhejiang Hangzhou High School. “From Fans to Force: BTS’s ARMY and the New Global Activism”
Shaorui Dai. Shenzhen Foreign Language School. “The Price of Breath: Patents, Power, and the End of Medical Commons”
Jialing Chen. International Department, The Affiliated High School of SCNU. “From Metals to Green Cities: How the Electric Vehicle Industry Reshapes Global Resource Governance”
Bronze Medal
Jiahe Lou. Hangzhou Xiaoshan NO.11 High School. “Aquifers Without Borders: A New Model for Drought and Conflict Solutions in East Africa”
Lingxi He. Beijing National Day School. “Infrastructure Development and Urban Resilience on the Tibetan Plateau”
Haohang Yu. Beijing Haidian Kaiwen Academy. “Copenhagen's Climate Resilience: How Tåsinge Plads Pioneered Urban Flood Adaptation”
William Choi. Dulwich College Seoul (DSC). “Strategic Statecraft in the Shadow of China EV Empire”
Ivy Kim. Miss Porter's School. “South Africa Steps into the Gap: Normative Power in a Multipolar Era”
Ruoxi Wang. Beijing National Day School. “A New Player in the Power Game: Rwanda's Emergence from "Failure"”
Ziqi Tang. Miss Porter's School. “Living with Water: Dutch Innovations in Climate-Resilient Urban Design”
Xiaoxuan Xie. Ningbo Xiaoshi High School. “Rain, Retained: Sponge Cities and the Art of Flood Control”
Charlie Hui.Westwood High School. “Powering Its Future: The Political Tightrope India Walks for Energy Security”
Jimmy Li. Montgomery Bell Academy. “Invisible Currents: Groundwater Governance in Urban Africa”
Yuanqin Yi. Shenzhen College of International Education. “Jakarta Sinking, Nusantara Rising: Will Indonesia’s Plan to Build a New Capital City Save Its Old One?”
Ruomu Ni. The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China. “Beyond the Pitch: Soccer as a Strategic Tool for Emerging Nations”
Zixin Qiu. Glenlyon Norfolk School. “Mexico’s Super Peso: Challenging Dollar Hegemony in a Multipolar World”
Ryan Hansen. Shanghai Soong Ching Ling School. “Indigenous People in the Arctic: From Consultants to Decision-makers?”
Natalie Jiang. The Episcopal Academy. “The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: When One Country Refuses to Share”
Kayden Kwon. SSI. “Vehicle to Grid: The Future of Urban Power Storage”
William Yan. St. Albans School. “Corporate Cities: The Double-Edged Influence of Business Giants on Urban Futures”
Rhodes Larson. AEON School. “Nuclear Ubiquity: The New Nuclear Arms Race”
Daniel Shen. Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School. “Courtroom Geopolitics: How South Africa's ICJ Case Marks a Shift in Global Order”
Yuanxi Yao. Shenzhen Middle School. “The Coldest Legal Flashpoint: Global Powers Compete for Arctic Leverage in Svalbard”
James Tan. Appleby College. “Who owns the stars? The Commercialization of Space and International Law”
Ziyu Su, Zihan Su. Beijing No.4 High School. “When Nature Calls and Toilets Do Not: Effective Solutions to Public Toilet Shortage”
LIN Xuanhao. BASIS International School Hangzhou. “What Do We Learn from the Struggles Saudi’s Megacity Now Faces?”
Chen Cong Ling. Mercersburg Academy. “From Control to Charisma, Propaganda to Pop Culture: China’s Soft Power Renaissance”
Yuna Seung. Seoul Foreign School. “From Pharmacy to Power: India Path to Global Influence”
Zixin Gao. Shenzhen Middle School. “Space for Sale: Law, Equity, and the Future of the Moon”
Ethan Wang. Torrey Pines High School. “Mars, the Space Frontier for International Competitions on Earth”
Kevin Cai. Groton School. “BRICS Presidency and Domestic Racial Inequality: Is Brazil Global Justice Just Lip Service?”
Jiahao Liu. International School of Boston. “Vienna: A Case Study for Modern City Design”
Mengqi Han. Beijing No.2 Middle School. “Krill Overfishing and Geopolitical Tensions: Can Global Stewardship Balance Ecology and Self-Interest?”
Yuxuan Zhang. Prince of Wales Secondary. “The Sand Mafias Stealing the World’s Coastlines”
Jiale Liao. Basis Interntional School Park Lane Harbour. “BYD and the EV Power Struggle: Global Trade, Tariffs, and the Race for Technological Dominance”
SeoJin Huh. Daegu International School. “The World Is Not Your Oil Refinery: Recontextualizing Global Governance of Oil As A Global Common”
William Seo. Daegu International School. “The New Nuclear Era: Which States Will Shape the Global Renaissance?”
Andre Wang. Torrey Pines High School. “Urban Mobility and a National Vision: Why the U.S. Trails in High-Speed Rail Development and Why We Should Reconsider”
Andy Yi. St. George's School. “Trouble for Timber: Why Trade Wars Gridlock Resource Management”
Jay Yoo. Seoul International School. “Balance the Bloc: Turkiye Strategic Neutrality”
Paris Wang. Harrow International School Hong Kong. “A Clean Gap: How Electric Vehicle Batteries Threaten to Entrench Developmental Inequality”
Li Xuan Shu. Xian Liangjiatan International School. “Overfishing, Pollution and Ocean Acidification: Japan and South Korea’s Stewardship of the Global Ocean Commons”
Zhen Yu. The RCF Experimental School. “When Space Becomes a "Dumping Ground": The Orbital Debris Crisis and the Awakening of a Community With a Shared Future for Mankind”
Ethan Rana. Shanghai American School Puxi Campus. “The BRICS Gambit: Decentering the West’s Economic Order”
Ziyan Sun. Veritas Collegiate Academy. “Hainan’s Island Urbanism: Lessons in Resilient Development”
Tzu-Chen, Lin. Pu Tai Senior High School. “Semiconductor Sovereignty? Taiwan’s Rise in a Changing Global Order”
Haocheng Lu. Tsinghua High School Daoxianghu School. “Resilient Cities and Urban Futures-- Kigali's Recovery Blueprint”
Ruiqing Chen. Xian Liangjiatan International School. “The Influence of High-Intensity Exam-Oriented Education on the Mental Health of Chinese Adolescents and Urban Futures”
Ryan Hang Tsz Yeung. Chinese International School (CIS). “Olivine: How A Simple Mineral Can Revolutionize Carbon Capture”
Sejoon Min. Chadwick International School. “Reclaiming the Narrative: The African Union as a Geopolitical Actor”
Ka Kwan Jackie Yang. Victoria Shanghai Academy. “Rethinking Space as a Shared Global Commons”
Chung Hon Yang, Runlin Yang. Harrow International School Hong Kong, Wellington College International Shanghai. “Climate Finance: Innovation For Our Shared Climate Future”
Ziheng Zhao. Beijing National Day School. “The Disappearing "Land of Great Numbers": China's Declining Birth Rates and Impacts on Urban Economic and Social Resilience”
Junxin Gu. Huili School Shanghai. “Silicon Dreams: Africa’s Promise and Perils in the Global Semiconductor Race”
Ryan Kim. Seoul Foreign School. “The Invisible Conflict in the Atmosphere”
Qingxiang Liao. Shenzhen College of International Education. “The Green Heart of the West: How Chengdu's Park City Strategy Underpins China's Ambition in the Southwest”
Yixing He. Macleans College. “Reshaping Global Energy Security: BRICS+ and the Quest for De-dollarization”
Starry Yang. The Baldwin School. “Chloe Cheung, Hong Kong, and China: The Struggle for Freedom”
Wang Mei Sum. The Taft School. “A Threat to Ecosystems and Traditions: Deep Sea Mining in Papua New Guinea”
Feng Han. Beijing National Day School. “Stitches of Power: How Developing Nations are Dressing the Future”
Olivia Cheng, Amber Deng. Taipei Fuhsing Private School. “Aging in Place, Planning Ahead:Zuozhen’s Rural Innovation as a Model for Urban Resilience”
Xingle Jiang. Tsinglan School. “Bits for Bucks: Malaysia’s Growth of Sustainable Data Centers”
Cynthia Su. QSI International School of Shenzhen. “The Future of the European Green Deal: Balancing Climate Ambition with Realpolitik”
Xiaoang Huang. Beijing International Bilingual Academy. “From New Mexico to Bouyei: Combating Urban Flooding through Indigenous Wisdoms”
Selinna Huang. Shenzhen College Of International Education. “The Idol Economy: How K-Pop Drives Labor Exploitation and Global Gender Discipline”
Chuye Huang. Guangdong Country Garden School. “Functional Cooperation vs. Alliance Confrontations The “De-NATOization” Security Experiment”
Li Haotong. Veritas Collegiate Academy. “Silent Struggles over Submarine Cables”
Boxi Liu. The Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University. “Cities Undampenable: Venice’s and China’s Approaches to Urban Resilience”
Benjamin Oh. Singapore American School. “Lessons from Bolivia War on Water: How Privatization of Water Contest the Right to Water”
Kaiyan Liu. Shenzhen Middle School. “At What Cost? The Unspoken Trade-Off Between Development and Disease”
Xu Chujun. Basis International School Guangzhou. “The Future of Urban Development in Response to the Growing Incidents of Climate-related Disruptions in the Asia-Pacific Region”
Shiran Zhou. Beijing Haidian Kaiwen Academy. “Circular Cities or Green Illusion? Rotterdam’s Waste-Recycling Boom and the Global South’s Struggle”
Yintong Chen. Shanghai Starriver Bilingual School. “The Future of Arctic Resource Management”
Yu Xuan Richard Li. Fairmont Preparatory Academy. “The Hidden Hunger Highway: How Shipping Containers Starve Millions”
Hung Cheung Wang. Canterbury School, CT. “Will Section 301 Measures Once Again Strike the World’s Second-Largest Economy?”
Mira Anmeng Lu. Milton Academy. “Silicon Diplomacy: Taiwan’s Chips and the Balance of Global Power”
HanZhe Xu. Beijing 101 Middle School. “The Covid-19 pandemic in Africa and the connection of resilience cities & urban future”
Cheuk Ki Adrian Yu. Hong Kong International School. “Global Blueprints for Earthquake Resilience”
Jessie Xiong. Shen Zhen Hong Kong Pui Kiu College Longhua XinYi School. “Is Our Electric Grid Protected Against Massive Solar Flare?Are We in Existential Danger? Is it Time to Join Efforts and Resources?”
Greg Shafir. The Awty International School. “Circular Cities: Building Self-Sustaining Urban Ecosystems for the Twenty-First Century”
Qingyi Zhu. Shanghai American School Puxi Campus. “From Ice to Infection: The Biohazards Released by Melting Polar Ice Caps”
Runpu Ding. Emma Willard School. “Resilient Cities and Urban Futures”
Kun Xiao, Bowen Yao. Glenelg Country School, St. Michael's College School. “From Rentier State to Resilient Economy: Rethinking Ecuador Development Paradigm”
Eliana Carson. Nansemond-Suffolk Academy. “Adapting Cities: Powered by Innovation”