This past year, of the 43 Stubborn Things I penned, those touching upon migration and displacement were most read.

2024 was a busy year for international affairs, to say the least. It was the year of elections, with more than one billion citizens across 74 countries going to the polls. The year also saw, sadly, the first anniversary of the war that began when Hamas attacked Israel, and the second anniversary of Russia’s brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

But there were countless other foreign policy developments that often didn’t make it to the front page, which is why I chose them for Stubborn Things. 

In Africa, malaria was successfully eradicated in Cabo Verde, while illegal mining, known locally as galamsey, posed significant challenges in Ghana. In Asia, Tibetans faced displacement and forced relocation, while illegal scam dens generated billions in revenue in Burma. And in Latin America and the Caribbean, the spotlight was on Haiti as it struggled with political turmoil, a worsening humanitarian crisis, and increasingly destructive gang violence.

But this year’s most-read blog posts centered on one thing: migration. More than 10,000 people read “Migration: This Time It’s Different,” where I noted that 2023 was the first time ever where the majority of “irregular migrant encounters” at our southern border involved individuals coming from countries beyond Mexico and the Northern Triangle. And while visiting a migrant reception center near the Darien Gap in Panama, I saw for myself signs in English, Arabic, French, and Mandarin—many languages for the many different source countries of migrants and asylum seekers making their way north to the United States. 

Another piece on migration flows to the US focused on our northern border with Canada received more than 5,000 views. The border with our northern neighbor is the largest land border in the world, and in 2023, 85% of all land border encounters with terrorist watchlist individuals reportedly occurred along this border. In FY2024, the number of terrorist screening encounters dropped slightly overall, yet 87% occurred across the northern border. 

The full archive of the year’s blogs are below. Who knows what our 2025 blogs have in store? I invite you to subscribe to get my weekly Stubborn Thing updates straight to your inbox.

January

• Breathing India's Air
• Debt Distress on the Road to “Belt and Road”
• Migration: This Time It’s Different
• Informed Views in Gaza

February

• Humanitarian Need and Response Patterns
• Our Environment: All Isn’t Lost
• Moscow’s Aggression, Moldova’s Defiance
• Ukraine: Anniversaries and Reflections

March

• Malaria Elimination Proof of Concept?
• Migration: The US Has More Than One Border
• PEPFAR: Looking Back, Looking Ahead
• Women, Poor Testing, Poor Health

April

• NATO, Article 5, and 9/11
• Ukrainians Stirred, Not Shaken
• Trade? What’s That?
• Numbers in Motion, Children in Motion
• Press Freedom, Human Freedom

May

• Clash of Perceptions in Gaza
• Haiti’s Democratic Cupboard Is Bare
• Africa’s Natural Resources for Africans?

June

• The Numbers Behind the International Criminal Court
• Mexico’s Historic Elections—and Political Violence
• The Power of China
• Ukraine Looks Forward as It Fights On

July

• Independence Day Reflections
• Averting Our Eyes in Sudan
• Born Free in South Africa
• And After Free Trade?

August

• Leaving Afghanistan Behind

September

• Stealing HOPE From Haiti
• Fallen From the Front Page: Plight of Tibetans
• Venezuela: More Than Mere Numbers
• Scamming From Burma

October

• Protecting Children From Polio. Or Not.
• October 7 and the "Wider War"
• Where Have all the Peace Corps Volunteers Gone?
• The Real Reason Putin Targets Schools?
• China and Russia: Quietly Going Steady?

November

• Real Localization in US Foreign Policy
• There's Mining, Then There's Galamsey

December

• Colombia’s Cocaine Moment of Truth
• Not-So-Renewable Energy in Zambia
• Haiti: Where the Descendants of Slaves Paid the Descendants of Slaveholders