As a Matter of Social “Justice” [p.4]

The Ongoing Chess Match in Ukraine [p.12]

Catch 22: A “Checkmate” For The West [p.14]

Illegal Immigration [p.18]

The Ukraine and Current, Russian Aggression: A Primer [p.10]

Spring 2014

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NVC Review

Nikita Chirkov – Editor in Chief

Nikita Chirkov was born and raised in the Russian Federation. At the age of 12 he and his family moved to the United States for better economic and polit-ical freedom. Chirkov is a frequent competitor in national and international essay tournaments, where his work receives awards and recognition. In 2012, Nikita came in second in the national douglas Rogers essay contest, and his work “degrees of Statism” was published online by Saint Vincent College. he was also invited to be an honorary student panelist at the ISI convention on Social Justice in 2014, and is a weekly contributor to Intercollegiate Review. Chirkov is now a sophomore at trinity University in San Antonio, and is the vice president of the trinity College Republicans. his majors are Political Sci-ence, International Studies, and Russian.

Travis Wentworth – Marketing Director

travis Wentworth is a junior at trinity University majoring in both Russian Studies and history. his independent research focuses on Russian and east-ern european topics, and his interests include the history of Imperial Russia, Soviet Russia, and post-Soviet Russia. he also is a scuba instructor, and enjoys teaching wounded warriors how to dive. he also has a published e-book avail-able on Amazon Kindle, titled “tips to Becoming a Better diver.”

Alec LaFaille – Assistant Editor

Alec LaFaille is a Senior at trinity University in San Antonio, tX majoring in european Studies, Middle eastern Studies, International and Comparative Politics, and Russian. Born in dallas, tX in 1992, he has also lived in Saint Petersburg, Russia and spent time in turkey. Alec’s primary interests lie in National Security issues and Foreign Policy, having written numerous, aca-demic papers on the politics and policies of Russia, Iran, and Syria.

Cylee Gutting - Featured Author

Cylee Gutting is a current student studying Political Science with an emphasis on Media Analysis in tempe, AZ. Born and raised in a rural community in Missouri, he was selected to be apart of the Leadership Scholarship Program at Arizona State University. his experience within the organization and com-munity has given him the opportunity to in focus on public policy on the local, state and federal levels. he was recently chosen to be a opinions feature in the state’s largest newspaper, The Arizona Republic.

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AS A MATTER OF SOCIAL JUSTICE~4~

ThE UkRAInE And CURREnT, RUSSIAn AggRESSIOn: A PRIMER

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ThE OngOIng ChESS MATCh In UkRAInE~12~

CATCh 22: A “ChECkMATE” FOR ThE WEST

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ILLEgAL IMMIgRATIOn: PAThWAy TO CITIzEnShIP OR A gATEWAy TO IMPRUdEnCE

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ILLEgAL IMMIgRATIOn SOLUTIOnS: ShIFT In PRIORITIES ~19~

PREPARE TO bE dUMbFOUndEd - ThE TRUE InTEnT bEhInd bIRThRIghT CITIzEnShIP

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LEgISLATIng COndITIOnS – ThE gEndER WAgE gAP MyTh~21~

ThE nExT gEnERATIOn OF EdUCATIOn: SChOOL ChOICE 2.0~22~

It has been a long time now, and things have changed. Though, sometimes the years past seem like a blink of an eye – a minuscule spark within a room of to-tal darkness. No longer do I see the starving families, struggling to survive in the surreal project of a gran-deur utopia. There are not as many beggars – eighty year old WWII veterans, sitting on the side of the freezing street, still wearing their medals of honor that were now lightly peppered with the crystallized breath that fell upon them occasionally, in between the gusts of unforgiving Baltic winds. There are no more lines to get milk on Sunday mornings; an event that drew together the entire Bogotirsky Prospekt, with families and children awaiting patiently as the milk truck ap-proached its weekly scheduled stop. I no longer live in a one bedroom apartment, with a total of six fami-ly members sharing three generations between them, rationing food and other general necessities just to make it to the next month. Yes, times have changed. In my attempt to make sense of the inelucta-ble conditions of the day, I remembered listening to a short story my great grandmother told us once. It took place in a village outside of Moscow, where she grew up with her large family. The family had some livestock – a cow and a few chickens. her father was a reliable farmer, and could feed all of his children with-out having them starve. however, one day, the Soviet soldiers stormed the house, forced everyone outside and took all their livestock away in front of the 8 cry-ing children. I remember asking her “why would they do such a horrible thing? didn’t they know you would starve?” to which she calmly replied with “they said it was done as a matter of social justice”. As a Russian born immigrant, I find it difficult to venerate the modern application of the concept of social justice. The voluminous history of my country is filled with too many pages stained with blood and too many chapters written in ink of gruesome despo-tism – all in the name of this “grandiose” idea. how-ever, there is a monumental difference in the manner in which the problem exists in different societies. In America, the concept of social justice is alien to its

founding; while in the Soviet Union, the same concept was an essential structural feature from day one. Con-sequently, while the Soviet society was sculpted by so-cial justice through a blueprint drawn by Karl Marx, the American society is being infected by this ideolo-gy in direct contrast to positions of classical liberalism held by her Founding Fathers. The problem in Amer-ica is also increasingly alarming due to the nature of the infection. If social justice was a weak trend with a life span of a few years then it would be incapable of bypassing the constitutional firewalls designed to suc-cumb the pressures of factious movements. That not being the case, the support for social justice has grown to such a degree that it now threatens to replace the wisdom of the American founding altogether. In order to prevent this ideological catastro-phe from consuming yet another country that is now so dear to my heart, I propose an approach that is per-haps the most reliable of all when it comes to ques-tions of fundamental magnitudes; that is, an appeal to historical experience.

AS A MAtteR OF SOCIAL JUStICeby Nikita Chirkov

April 2014 - Editor in Chief, nikita Chirkov, discussing “As a Matter of So-cial Justice” on a panel for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in Scottsdale, Arizona.

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After all, even in Federalist 20 the Framers observed that “experience is the oracle of truth.” It is an oracle that’s capable of showing the path from the despot-

ic darkness into the liberating light – all we have to do is open our minds and listen. The concept of social justice, in its most original form, is a concept that is full of wisdom and exceptional in-sight. It was introduced to us by Plato, who firmly believed that the parallel between a well-bal-anced soul and the well-bal-anced city must be sharply vis-ible in a society that seeks to establish justice. Consequent-ly, just as elements of the soul must follow their proper func-tions to sustain ordered har-mony within an individual, so too must the citizens of a just society labor according to their best ability to sustain a harmo-ny of the whole city – “A city is a soul writ large.” however, this beautiful concept of social justice was sabotaged, hijacked

and corrupted. The evidence of this ideological crime is best seen by examining the evolution of the general rule of justice that states “to each his own”, to a fa-mous Marxist slogan: “From each according to their ability, to each according to their need”. however, be-fore we indulge ourselves in the negative, let us first take a look at the justice that has brought us liberty and freedom. Classical liberalism was the concrete founda-tion upon which much of America was built. Within this foundation was a mixture of two critical elements: religion and property. Very few great authors have ob-served the role religion played in early America with as precise an effect as Alexis de tocqueville. “Religion is the cradle of liberty”– wrote tocqueville, thereby establishing an observation of the most important ne-cessity for a flourishing nation of freedom. Without religion, liberty is liquefied and formless. It appeals to no standard shape but the shape that is set as a standard by men themselves. henceforth, justice that produces liberty is justice that must originate from the pillars

constructed by its highest form; whether it be divine, or philosophical in nature. Societies that choose to reject the application of religion as a teacher of mo-rality often do so while paying the ultimate price. In such societies, there is nothing but human law to keep the liberty of its citizens from tempting a desire to do harm to others. Russian author dostoevsky famously argued this position in Brothers Karamazov – “where God is not, everything is permitted.” The irony created by such an adverse effect on a society is of the most grotesque kind; for one must truly wonder how the mechanism of justice evolves to justify the utterly un-just. Luckily for America, her justice is of the sort that cradles liberty, not tyranny. When observing the American court system, tocqueville writes another passage that sums up the relationship between the Ju-deo-Christian moral teaching, and justice: “While I was in America, a witness who happened to be called at the Sessions of the county of Chester (state of new york) declared that he did not believe in the exis-tence of god or in the immortality of the soul. The judge refused to admit his evidence, on the ground that the witness had destroyed beforehand all the confidence of the court in what he was about to say.” The second crucial element of American justice is the protection of private property. For the Founders and the Framers, this was the most important role of government. When the problem of diverging interests and factions confronted these enlightened statesmen, they wrote a memorable response that has since be-come the most famous work on the ideological nature of the Constitution – Federalist 10. In it, James Madi-son touched on the importance of private property to the new American government:

“The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government. From the protection of different and unequal faculties of ac-quiring property, the possession of different degrees and kinds of property immediately results…” however, there is yet another message in Federalist 10 that is wholly relevant to the question of social justice.

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When writing Federalist 10 some 61 years prior to the publication of the Communist Manifesto, the Framers considered equality as a possible solution to injustice caused by natural human division. Needless to say, they found this approach incompatible with human nature:

“There are again two methods of removing the causes of faction: the one, by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests… The second expedient is as impractica-ble as the first would be unwise. As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed.” Therefore, the American model of justice was de-signed to operate upon these founding pillars. With faith, human norm would not be held as the highest standard, changing rapidly with every breath of wind that comes across the face of civilization. With protec-tion of private property, no citizen was stripped of his liberty and individual interest for the sake of achiev-ing equality and uniformity. This was the view of jus-tice that prevailed during our founding. This was the heart of a nation that once inspired the entire world. however, just like no real heart can beat for eternity, the existence of any nation is by no means perpetual. historical experience, if we still choose to listen to its teaching, can easily demonstrate a case in which the view of justice is entirely reversed; and un-fortunately for me and my family, this type of experi-ence was not just felt by reading a history book. The view of social justice upon which my homeland was established took an opposite position to each end every element of justice envisioned by the American founding. Private property, which was so dire and cru-cial for diversity of mankind, was stripped from ev-eryone as a matter of necessity. This was due to the central position of Marxism, which Karl Marx articu-lated in Chapter 2 of the Communist Manifesto: “the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.” Just as Framers viewed private property as a first object of protection, Marx sought to achieve justice by viewing property as a first object of elimination. While individual property was the target of Marxism, equality was its deadly weapon. to submit

an individual to a uniformity of interests and thoughts and in the next place equalize his conditions of living – such was the goal of the Soviet totalitarianism, and other tyrannical regimes that preceded it. Russel Kirk made this similar observation in 1989: “One can trace far back into antiquity the fallacy that justice is identi-cal with equality of condition; for human folly is as old as human wisdom.” Lastly, there is a question of religion. In the Soviet Union, the idea that justice is ordained by a set of laws above humanity was bluntly inconceivable. A major reason for this position lied in the quest for to-tal power of the totalitarian government. If, after all, the people were allowed to believe in a higher authori-ty they would no longer only answer to the state. Con-sequently, the total state became a total tyrant; and the murder, starvation, and political genocide of millions was perceived as a matter of social justice of which the government was the sole judge. Yes, things have changed. The major differ-ence between America and my former homeland is simple: Russia already made the colossal mistake that eradicated liberty from the veins of its people, while America is making that mistake as I write these very words. The Judeo-Christian tradition is left nearly de-fenseless against modern secularism; the government continues to prey on private property as it grows in scope and size; and the equality of condition is steadi-ly constitutionalized one Supreme Court decision at a time. It may be true that a farmer and his family are safe now, and the heart of this magnificent society still beats with liberty and freedom… But history is a “gal-lery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.” Will we be ready for a time in which the state will storm our homes, and take our food, and starve our children… as a matter of social justice? The future is ours for the making.

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The Ukraine and Current, Russian Aggres-sion: A Primer

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The Ongoing Chess Match in Ukraine

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Catch 22

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Photo Credit: Christiaan TriebertLink: https://www.flickr.com/photos/christiaantriebert/12463809553/

With all that’s going on in eastern europe and especial-ly Ukraine, I feel it necessary to include a quick primer into the history of the region and the principles guiding Russian President Vladimir Putin as he maneuvers this escalating crisis. In doing so I hope to provide you, the reader, with a better and more complete un-derstanding of the ideas, per-ceptions, and stakes at play.

The Beginning

Where better to start this prim-er than with the beginning? As we all know, the seat of Russian government in the Modern and Cold War eras has been Mos-cow. Some know and remem-ber from their world history classes that the tsarist Russian capital was Saint Petersburg. What many do not know how-ever, is that Russian history begins in Kiev. As the generations ground on, Kievan Rus’ (pronounced: “roo-ce”) as it is referred to, was sacked by the Mongols’ Golden horde. during the time Russia was under the control of the Mongols, Moscow rose to power, eventually pushing the Mongols out and ex-panding their influence across the land. With this influence came a society based on the laws and or-

der created by Moscow. Those that did not submit to these laws–anar-chists, rapists, murderers, thieves, and general dissidents and degen-erates–fled from Moscow’s grow-ing grasp, becoming what we know today as Cossacks, settling in the border regions of early, Moscovite Russia where laws didn’t exist. The Ukraine is among these border lands.

Russia Has Had Many Plagues…

When I studied in Russia, my his-tory professor once quipped “Rus-sia has had many plagues. First it was the Mongols, then the Poles, and then the Swedes. And next the Germans in the two World Wars. And now it is the Americans; my congratulations to you.” We all laughed at the time, but it’s an im-portant lesson in the Russian men-tality. After pushing the Mongols

The Ukraine and Current, Russian Aggression: A Primerby Alec LaFaille

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out of Russia, Moscow’s expan-sion brought it into conflict with the Poles to their west. The initial war was a bloody one, and Russia prevailed, dramatically expand-ing its territory. however, border skirmishes occurred on and off for many years. Moscow soon realized that it needed a standing force to

deal with the Poles and pro-vide a buffer between any in-vading force and the Russian capital. Rather than funding a new army however, Mos-cow chose to forcefully re-cruit the Cossacks sitting on the borders. In exchange for protecting Russian borders, the Cossacks were allowed to maintain their autonomy and their culture rather than be-ing exterminated by the Rus-sian army.

Over the years, the Cossacks in Ukraine worked as a buf-fer during Russia’s many con-flicts with Poland, Sweden, and Germany–three of the plagues on Russia. however, there were also a number of times in which the Ukrainian Cossacks rose against the Russian empire and had to be put down. due to these up-risings, Russian leaders over time began looking for alter-

native methods of buffering against foreign invasion.

The Hoofbeats of the Mongols

Standing as one of the few, if only, nations to be conquered and then self-liberated, Russians have a unique perspective on politics. As a stereotype, they’re even more ob-sessed with power than the Brits. There’s a reason for this. The Mon-golian invasion was an especially

traumatic experience for Russia, and since then, the Russian nation as a whole has sought the raw pow-er to prevent a foreign invasion of their soil, or at the very least, the power to prevent their being con-quered ever again. And they’ve succeeded. Russians often note that their leaders are constantly chased by “the hoofbeats of the Mongols”–that all of their decisions and ac-tions are made with the threat of being conquered in mind. For the tsars, this meant political marriag-es, the greatest land army in the world, and using the Cossacks to provide a buffer against foreign in-vasion. The Soviets saw their solu-tion in Stalin’s paranoia with purg-es, state controlled society, and the creation of multiple satellite states surrounding, and controlled by Russia and the Russian military. And now Putin is putting similar safeguards in place to ensure the security of the Russian Mother-land.

Russia’s Wild, Wild West

So now, let me paint a picture. Fol-lowing the end of the Soviet Union, Russia was invaded by Western So-ciety and capitalism, but it was not conquered. Coming into power in the year 2000, Putin quickly iden-tified the new tools at his disposal for securing Russia: Russian mili-tary might and the global economy that Russia had just entered using the oil, gas, and energy industries which were beginning to be de-veloped at the time. Ask anyone what makes a global superpower, and everyone will include “mili-tary strength” on the list. War with Chechnya provided Putin the per-fect reason for strengthening the Russian military, which he has continued to strengthen for many

years now. today, the two most formidable militaries, standing on equal footings, are the US armed forces, and the Russians.

Putin followed this up by engaging in the global economy, working to dominate energy markets across the globe. This has had a num-ber of benefits for Russian secu-rity which we are seeing everyday in the Ukrainian crisis. Over the years, Russia has come to dominate the european energy trade; provid-ing the eU with most of the energy which it uses. Because of this, the entirety of europe has their hands tied when trying to coerce Russia. At the onset of the Ukrainian Cri-sis, the eU refused to slap Russia with sanctions for this very reason, thus Russia has successfully im-mobilized immediate threats from europe.

however, even this is not enough for Russia; they still want that buf-fer zone, which is why Ukraine has become so important for Russia in recent months. With the public cit-ing desires to annex old Russia for cultural reason, the Russian gov-ernment seeks to annex old Russia for geopolitical gains. In keeping Ukraine as close as possible to Rus-sia, the Russians once again gain a physical buffer against europe. This explains Putin’s response to Ukraine’s desire to join the eU. had Ukraine joined the eU, eu-rope would have been on Russia’s doorstep, a very uncomfortable prospect for a country which has endured countless wars with their european neighbors. And so Putin utilized the strength of the Russian economy to create a satellite nation out of Ukraine, though with the Crisis raging, the Russian military is picking up the slack.Ph

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during his annual televised four hour question and answer segment, Russian President Vladimir Putin revived a word from Russian history that has stirred a new debate amongst those covering the Ukrainian Crisis- “Novorossiya.” This term he used, refers to the once Imperial Russian occupied region of current eastern and Southern regions of Ukraine, during the late 1700s into the early 1800s. This term has feared many to believe that Putin is seeking to return Russia to its more powerful grip of Imperial or Soviet Russia- a fear which has been reflected in acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr turchynov. The fear of the Novorossiya- or “New Russia,” is that Putin will move towards a land grab which many believe began in the Crimean peninsula. Spec-ulation is fueled by the idea that Putin could grab eastern and Southern Ukraine, and thus continue onto other former Soviet satellites and Imperial Rus-sian territory. Such speculation has already motivated the United States to begin deployment plans of some 20,000 soldiers to Poland and various other NAtO al-lies along Russia’s border. The truth however, is that Vladimir Putin is actually a very intelligent man, who makes all of his moves as though it were a game of chess. to assume Putin would simply invade eastern Ukraine and the rest of eastern europe for that matter is extremely naïve. Putin would not conceive such a notion, as he knows doing so would not be optimal for any cam-paign he would wish to launch. In reality, Putin will analyze all that is happening, and just as a pawn slides across a chess board, slowly make his way to his ulti-mate goal. While it might not be an extreme advance-ment, it is the small steps that will be taken, that are of great concern. In regards to the “easter truce” as it is now being known by our counterparts of worldwide me-dia, the attacks early Sunday surely discredit any prog-ress that came of the Geneva Agreement. While no one had formally said “it’s off,” all sides have taken a publicity hit from one another on whether or not what occurred was a direct violation of the agreement.

While the agreement did in fact state that protesters in eastern Ukraine were to lay down arms and surren-der, none of the pro-Russian activists complied. how-ever, what resulted was an armed attack at a pro-Rus-sian checkpoint in Slavyansk, which all sides blame one another for. The Ukrainians deny any accusations against them, and state that Russia set it up as a mo-tivation to mobilize the military into eastern Ukraine in the defense of “ethnic Russians.” The United States shares a similar, less public view as Kiev. Yet the Russian Federation has two concepts as to what could have happened. The first, that an attack on these ethnic Russians was provoked from the Kie-van government, or a terrorist organization known as the “Right Sector.” The other idea is derived from the fact that reported to have been found in possessions left by the attackers, were numerous $100 bills in US currency. This suggests that perhaps the United States could have been behind the attack on the pro-Russian protesters. however, the truth is that US currency is used in such a high volume internationally, that to blame the United States as paying these individuals would be a faulty accusation. to put it into the context of Cold War history, we went through such extreme measures to ensure no US equipment or weaponry made it into Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion that it would be highly unlikely the United States would make a mistake by giving these attacks some-thing that would trace directly to the United States. If anything, such an overt display of US currency should be suspicious by itself. however one cannot simply point the blame at Russia, as that is not Putin’s style. he too would not produce something that would di-rectly be tied back to the Russian Government. Regardless of who exactly is to blame- whether it had been the Ukrainian Government or that of Rus-sia’s, it must be noted that this will have a new effect on the Crisis. despite the joint agreement which oc-curred prior to the easter weekend, the pro-Russians in eastern Ukraine dug in. They did not lay down their arms and surrender to the Ukrainians, and this should be a sign that they in fact are set to fight.

The Ongoing Chess Match in Ukraine by travis Wentworth

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If Ukraine decides to continue with the “Anti-terror Operations” they began last week, this will likely lead to a bloodier outcome than before. Such bloodshed would provoke Putin to increase support for the pro-Russians. however, as noted above, he will not do so directly. What will likely happen is that the pro-Russians will maintain their course of controlling these govern-ment buildings, and not yield any sign of surrender. Should the Ukrainian military intervene and continue their operations, these pro-Russian activists will be-come a sort of armed militia, leading to further combat between both sides. Another important note to make is that should this occur, not every city occupied is 100% pro-Russian. Therefore there would be internal conflict in the cities, on top of the Ukrainian confrontation. Therefore, violence would be further amplified. however, these militias will fight relentless-ly and the possibility of a revolution is likely, leading to the feared civil war many have been speaking of. Should this occur, eastern Ukraine will rise. While it is near impossible to draw out the exact boundary lines, it can be assumed that the dnieper would serve as a natural point of reference for much of it. Thus, much of the “Novorossiya” of Imperial Russia would likely return. Whether or not Odessa (which was part of the original Novorossiya) would join this split, is hard to

predict based on historical and cultural reasons. how-ever, as referenced in our March 27th post, transdni-estria would likely seek to join this movement towards Russia. Once these regions have split, Russia will likely recognize them right off the bat, and Putin’s next moves are far too unknown at this moment to even guess. What would change all of this though is if the Ukrainian government was to grant each of these pro-Russian occupied areas a referendum, and respect their decision based on the outcome. On the likelihood that these areas would lean towards joining Russia, Kiev would thus have to acknowledge this choice, and let it happen. to do so, is far from possible, and, there-fore, we are in the stalemate that is currently ongoing. If Kiev decides to adhere to the wishes of these pro-Russian activists, a diplomatic option would yield something Ukraine does not wish to see. however, if such a vote is not granted to the activists, and force is taken, blood will be shed, and the pro-Russian’s killed will be seen as martyrs. Regardless, the Ukraine that once was, is albeit gone. Once this conflict is over, no matter the route it shall go- the outcome will not be the same Ukraine that began protests in Kiev’s Indepen-dence Square in November. Gone is the old Ukraine, as we welcome the New Ukraine- or if Putin has it his way, the Novorossiya.

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Catch 22: A “Checkmate” For The West

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In light of the ongoing developments in Ukraine, I find it crucial to take a step back and re-view the geopolitical forces that generate the winds of diplomatic change across the face of the globe. Indeed, much has been said on the topic of “democracy” (or the lack thereof) within the blueprints of reform upon which the new Ukrainian administration came to pow-er. Much has also been said of the possible course of de-velopment in the Ukrainian region, and the forces that shape the events from the shadow of Putin’s political power play. Both the former and the latter angles of an-alytical focus are, undoubtedly, crucial when it comes to understanding the situation in Ukraine. however, there is yet another important motion in global pol-itics which an international observer cannot ignore. This crucial motion was identified and underscored by none other than Vladimir Putin himself: “the outcome in Ukraine” he maintained “will strictly be dependent on the action of the United States”. Of course, Vladimir Putin can afford to appeal to American superiority because he knows the inescap-able dilemma that is facing the West now; that is: push Russia too hard and risk its economic diversification toward China; push Russia too softly and risk losing control over a vital geopolitical swing state (and possi-bly other crucial eastern european territories). For all intents and purposes, the situation resembles a “check-mate” from which any move from the West will result in a loss of the geopolitical battle. Undoubtedly, this su-perior advantage did not fall into Putin’s hands by luck or mere accident – for even the most strict critics of Putin are likely to admit that he has worked quite dili-gently on each and every move. however, I am not here to sing praise or admire the brilliance of Putin’s consis-tent performance in the international arena. Quite to the contrary, I believe it is time to analyze the options of the West and examine the nature of the “checkmate” with which we are presented. There may, after all, be an alternative to this seemingly inescapable situation. to begin, let us briefly examine the two moves which are available to the West. First, suppose that Vladimir Putin’s actions receive a relatively passive response from the international community. There are no seri-ous sanctions, statements, or warnings that are aimed at stopping the Russian advancement into Ukrainian territories. The resultant of such a weak response would be a theoretical expansion of the Russian sphere

of influence and an undisturbed energy partnership between Moscow and the eU. Consequently, the west-ern powers would lose the geopolitical influence over an important region but maintain a hope of undoing the foundation for the Russo-Chinese energy coop-eration. Second, let us suppose that America and her allies do respond with the necessary diplomatic or military force, and slam Russia with serious economic sanctions. This would result in an immediate attempt of energy diversification, and push the Russo-Chinese relations to an accelerated convergence. This outcome is also not desirable to the West; after all, a strong eco-nomic coalition between Moscow and Beijing may well produce a bold improvement in a series of other strate-gic and political ties between the international heavy-weights. Indeed, there seems to be no easy escape from the “checkmate”. however, what if I told you that there are actually two more scenarios in the strategic standoff? One of these scenarios should be easy to visualize – US is following it right now. In this situation, the West chooses the worst possible course of action: it neither defends its inter-est in eastern europe nor dismantles the foundation for the Russo-Chinese cooperation. This is a direct re-sultant of an administration that doesn’t seem to know which alternative to choose. It is as if a child takes too long to pick between two trains at the opposite sides of the platform, and sees them leave the station altogether.

With this in mind, the only other remaining course of action has to be a choice of realistic pragmatism. In-deed, Russia has already announced its plans for de-veloping natural gas pipelines into greater Asia. Matter of fact, the project even has a name “energy Strategy 2020”. With little history of success in slowing down this diversification effort, the West needs to accept the fact that the time for preventing the close Russo-Chinese relations has run out. Realistically, stopping or even de-laying the “energy Strategy 2020” plan would require nothing short of a miracle (and most international re-lations analysts tend to not believe in those). Therefore, the response of the West ought to be a straight-forward one. We can do little in manipulating global shifts in the energy strategy of the Russian Federation – but we can do a lot in defending our geopolitical interests in eastern europe. There ought to be no reason as to why the Obama administration is ignorant of these circum-stances, and it must – to put it rather bluntly – get on with it.

8 NVC Review

US POLITICS

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Illegal Immigration: Pathway to Citizen-ship or a gateway to Imprudence

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Illegal Immigration Solutions: Shift in Priorities

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Prepare to be dumbfounded — The True Intent behind birthright Citizenship

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Legislating Conditions – The gender Wage gap Myth

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The next generation of Education: School Choice 2.0

Illegal Immigration: Pathway to Citizenship or a Gateway to Imprudence by Nikita Chirkov

(First published by Intercollegiate Review)

Rarely a day goes by that an ordinary American is not reminded of some monumental contribution of the illegal workforce to the American society. Indeed, listening to such noble descriptions of illegal aliens makes one feel rather minuscule and unworthy of any sort of praise. While you, my beloved bourgeoi-sie, bathe in capitalistic material loving occupations such as doctors, lawyers, and businessmen – this su-perior working class of immigrants does, as the fa-mous cliché puts it, the “jobs that you won’t do”. More often than not I am tempted to leave the argument right there and then – after all, rebuking demagoguery of this sort requires a bit of disdain to-ward the more logically oriented reasoning to which one may be inclined. however, the problem arises in what happens next. The argument goes on to say that: a) Illegal immigrants come from poor countries with low standards of living; b) therefore, they deserve a pathway to American citizenship despite the fact that they immigrated illegally. Ladies and gentlemen, demagoguery is one thing, but an insult to logic – the most benevolent and eloquent form of human reasoning – is quite an-other. There is no feasible circumstance under which “b” logically follows the “a”. There are plenty of legal, honest, and law abiding immigrants (such as myself) who came to this country after doing every-thing possible to respect its legal procedures in the field of immigration. Furthermore, many of us come from countries in which conditions are even more severe and intolerable than those in Latin America. We do not, however, use that as an excuse to disregard immigration law; and we wait our turn in line to receive our visas and green cards. how disgustingly arrogant and selfish would it be if I, fed up with the poverty and oppression in Russia, left to live in another country, disregarded that country’s immigration statutes, and in the next place claim that I deserved to be its citizen! Would not that type of treatment of illegal immigra-tion incentivize more of it? Therefore, I firmly state that a pathway to citizenship is, to borrow from the dictionary of the left, “offensive” to any honest legal immigrant who patiently waited in line from the very beginning, and paid respect to the laws of immigration of a country which they sought to call their new home.

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Illegal Immigration Solutions: Shift in Priorities

by Nikita Chirkov

(First published by Intercollegiate Review)

In my previous article I have briefly summarized the points of absurdity upon which the immigration policy of the left is constructed. In this work, I am determined to continue the discussion by examining the first of several possible answers to the illegal immigration problem. After all, criticisms without solutions are like books without conclusions. There are no easy answers to complex questions; how-ever, there are plenty of easy tools with which the answer can be efficiently derived. experience, as has been observed for centuries, is exactly the type of tool by which even the most complex, seemingly unsolvable problems find their logical ex-plication. It would, therefore, be intellectually criminal of me not to mention (if only briefly) the dilemma that clearly pre-sented itself after my unfortunate encounter with this peda-gogue of truth. My move to America eight years ago was a dream that owes much of its actualization to a staffing company that my step father ran at the time. The concept of the business was simple: relieve the massive shortage of medical personal in America by providing a large pool of sophisticated and qual-ified foreign nurses to the understaffed hospitals. There was, however, one factor over which the company had no control – availability of visas. At the time this did not seem like a prob-lem; after all, any rational government would be eager to alle-viate a shortage in a particular labor market by a healthy flow

of professional legal immigrants. Shortly after the 2008 election, the company had over 130 medical professionals ready to come to United States – every single one of them was denied a visa. The government has successfully shut down a job creating company while denying America over a 130 highly qualified professionals. however, here comes the punch line – the same evening after the company got the news, the left was actively campaigning for amnesty and pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens. In other words, those who are doctors get a “no” and those who “do jobs we won’t do” get a “yes”. Where in the world are our priorities? Consequently, allow me to make one rational and simple proposition – let’s make legal immigration easier and illegal immigration harder. Let us properly position our priorities such that the incentives work in our favor, and discourage illegality while encouraging legality. Logical, elegant, and precise – how about that for a start?

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Prepare to be dumbfounded - The true Intent Behind Birthright Citizenship By Nikita Chirkov

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(First published by Intercollegiate Review)

Suppose, for the purpose of an introduc-tory thought experiment, we imagine four different families. The first family is a family of former African slaves who were granted citizenship by the 14th Amend-ment. The second family consisted of a european married couple who came to see New York with a tourist visa; soon after their arrival, the pregnant wife goes into labor and gives birth to their child. The third family is a family of Russian immi-grants who overstayed their visa and had a child four years later. Finally, the fourth family grows after two illegal immigrants from Mexico have a child born some-where in texas. Now the question – which family is subject to the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment? (“All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States…”)

to complete my trilogy of articles on the subject of illegal immigration, I decided to address this crucial question the answer to which seems obvious to most of us. If your answer to the hypothetical example is “all of the above” then you would be completely wrong. Matter of fact, ac-cording to the intent of the Citizenship Clause there is only one family which would be able to receive birth-right citizenship – the family of former African slaves. They were, after all, “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States as a result of the 3/5th compromise and other constitutional provisions which gave them some legal standing.

In a forgotten testimony to congress, the author of the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment Senator Ja-cob howard explained:

“This amendment which I have offered is simply declar-atory of what I regard as the law of the land already, that every person born within the limits of the United States, and subject to their jurisdiction, is by virtue of natural law and national law a citizen of the United States. This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers ac-credited to the government of the United States, but will include every other class of persons”.

henceforth a key question follows: If illegal aliens are not subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Consti-tution, then where does Congress derive the power to give them birth right citizenship? The answer is sim-ple – nowhere. Ph

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Legislating Conditions – The Gender Wage Gap Myth by Cylee Gutting

The so-called War On Women is back in national head-lines. President Obama made the claim in his State of the Union address that women only earn 77-cents of what men earn. This figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but when used this way, is mislead-ing and disingenuous. The only “war” that strikes me is the Washington’s Leftists annual propaganda cam-paign and expecting women to fall for sensationalized, phony statistics.

The 77-cent claim from the BLS report is simply, the difference between the average annual earnings of men and women. The report does not take into ac-count that not all work is equal. Work can be different in skill, quality, experience, etc. When you take into account education, marriage and children, and a little bit of ‘common sense’, the data seems to make more sense.

Men, on average, tend to study and work in science and engineering fields, which, have a higher average pay of $30/hour. Only the Left will discredit women and their talent in those areas while failing to acknowledge that their interests often lie elsewhere. Women, on average, study and work in liberal arts and administrative fields which tend to have an average hourly pay of $15/ hour.

A 2012 Bureau of Labor Statistics report also showed that single women who have never married actually earned 96% of men’s earnings. When marriage and children are brought into the equation the data shifts, again. Women feel more inclined to take time off work, reduce hours, or quit altogether to spend time caring for children or other family members. Studies have shown that men are twice as likely to work more than 40 hours per week and women at only 35 to 39 hours per week. The tendency for a women’s interests to lean towards a hands-on approach to family and marriage influence them to search for jobs that provide greater flexibility, even at a lower pay.

The Left will be promoting seemingly pointless legis-lation known as the “Paycheck Fairness Act” during “equal Pay day” in an attempt to deceive and appeal to women, even though, logic and endless gender wage

gap studies do not support their claims. This legisla-tion perpetuates the image that women are oppressed and victimized, rather than working to empower and give them the ability to control their own American dream.

A Pew study this month also found that the average personal income for men has declined across the board for working class families while the average women’s income is still on the rise. With the family model shifting, and more men deciding to take time out of the workforce to focus on matters at home, we should expect to see another shift in the data that the White house will ignore. An annual report on the White house staff found that the average female em-ployee earns a median annual salary of $60,000, an 18% difference, from the male employees who earn around $71,000.

The White house called it an “embarrassment” for our country yet they cannot even execute the conditions they deem appropriate. It is utopian to believe that the work of two employee’s can have identical results. It is also unjust for a government to legislate conditions on the basis of “equal rights”. What else could we expect from such a lawless administration?

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The Next Generation of education: School Choice 2.0by Cylee Gutting

There is a rising tide in the United States where parents are seeking an innovative and 21st century approach to their child’s education. The declining quality of our failing public school system has parents worried and seeking alternative routes ensuring their child re-ceives the best education possible. A Stanford study on new educational approaches have shown that fo-cusing on student-centered learning programs effec-tively increases graduation rates while encouraging parents to be more involved in their child’s education. The Center on education Policy states that 48% of the taxpayer funded public schools could be classified as “failing” with the most severe being in low-income districts. The United States has always been known for it’s access to endless opportunities if you are willing to work hard, but many students in low-income dis-tricts do not receive the resources from a quality edu-cation to achieve these goals. Therefore cutting-edge student-centered programs mostly found in charter networks, private schools, and other non-government operated public schools are becoming more common. Our society understands that every child is unique and will learn differently, yet, we continue to put all of our eggs in the basket of the “one-size-fits-all” public

education system.

Currently there are 13,588 school districts in the cur-rent public school system where children are assigned to school based upon their zipcode. here we find the flaw, that a child who lives within a failing school dis-trict, has no option other than to receive an education of poor quality. Proponents of school choice believe a shift of how we fund public schools could have a major impact in efficiency. They believe education funding should follow the student rather than pump-ing funding to schools that continuously show poor results. Under this model, a child would be able to use a voucher program to attend a better school. Within that decision, parents are empowered and encour-aged to be involved in their child’s education to find the school that best fits their needs. The school choice conversation has presented many similar options through voucher programs, educational Savings Ac-counts, and charter school systems which encompass programs that shift the government funding from the school to the actual student.

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Arizona is a state that is leading the way for new and innovative approaches to education and which educa-tion policy analysts have named “School Choice 2.0”. They call it “2.0” because Arizona has empowered parents by giving them full control over the funds which the state would have used on the child in the

public school system. Parents who take advantage of this opportunity receive a restricted debit card to pay for educational expenses with the premise of parents understanding how to better spend the dollars used for their child’s education. This new system of an “educational Savings Account”, also known as empowerment Accounts, even have the ability to be rolled over into a savings account for college. Parents can use this funding to access online learning programs, tutoring services, and many other methods to cater to a child’s needs. Shifting the focus of funding to the student, rather than the administrative staff which has increased by 700%, would encourage schools to compete for students so that they can receive more funding. In addition, charter schools have found that without the government controlling how education fund-

ing is spent, they are able to increase pay for better quality teachers rather than basing it on seniority.

education policy expert, Andrew Coulson, has stud-ied the trends between education funding and per-formance from the 1960’s to the present. his policy analysis found that throughout the data there was no significant correlation between an increase in fund-ing and student performance. As usual, the political Left advocates for an increase in funding to the public education system and seems determined to continue down a declining path of more expensive and poor results. Proponents of school choice argue that failing charter schools will close rather than stay open and receive funding while not producing results. With a federal education budget of $600 billion, up 68%, and declining test scores, reform has to happen with the looming debt we have racked up. Let us be the gener-ation that steps away from the failing “cookie cutter” one-size-fits-all approach to the education of our fu-ture leaders. Most importantly, let us lead the way to taking children of low-income families out of failing school districts.

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