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The Cold War and the Policy of Brinkmanship: An Expanded Reading in the Greatest Game of Tension

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By: Roya El Media - Lojain Borhan – Inspired by the book “The Cold War and the Policy of Brinkmanship” by Dr. Fatin Ahmed Farid Ali The Cold War was not a conventional war fought on battlefields, but rather a prolonged period of political, military, and ideological rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, lasting from the mid-1940s until the early 1990s. It was a struggle for influence over the international order, where both superpowers sought to expand their spheres of control without engaging in direct large-scale combat. Central to this tense global climate was the policy of brinkmanship — a strategic approach in which nations pushed dangerous confrontations to the edge of open conflict, believing that demonstrating readiness to go to war would compel the opponent to back down. I chose to write this article to shed light on how brinkmanship influenced the course of the Cold War and shaped modern international relations. By revisiting this period, I aim to help rea...
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A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: A Revolutionary Canvas of Identity and Rebellion

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By Roya El Media - Lojain Borhan On May 20, 2021 , during a quiet moment in class, my English teacher handed me a book — A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce . She gave it to me as a reminder — a reminder of something she saw in me before I fully saw it in myself: a passion for writing. That day, between the lines of a modernist novel and the hum of the classroom, she introduced me to something far greater than just a book — she introduced me to myself as a storyteller. At the time, I didn’t realize I was holding one of the most revolutionary works of the 20th century — a novel that would echo through my creative path, challenge my ideas about identity, and stir something deep in my artistic soul. In the ever-expanding gallery of literary masterpieces, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man remains a bold and complex self-portrait — one that does not seek admiration but rather introspection. First published in 1916, the novel is both a deeply personal coming-of-...
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Between Obsession and Awakening: A Reflection on The Zahir and Aleph by Paulo Coelho

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By: Lojain Borhan - Roya El Media  Some books don’t simply tell a story—they stir something hidden beneath the surface. The Zahir and Aleph by Paulo Coelho are not ordinary novels; they are inner landscapes disguised as journeys across countries, memories, and moments. These works speak to a quieter kind of longing—the kind that doesn’t scream for answers, but quietly aches for understanding. The Zahir explores what happens when love turns into attachment, when absence becomes louder than presence, and when freedom becomes the ultimate act of love. It questions the illusion of control that often hides beneath the word “care,” and invites a deeper reflection on what it truly means to let someone go. Aleph dives into the unknown spaces of the soul—the lives lived before, the wounds carried silently across time, and the chance to confront them in moments of stillness and truth. It is not a story about the past, but about healing the present through remembering. Forgiveness is not ...
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The Canvas of Me: A Reflection on Balance, Growth, and Rediscover

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By Roya ElMedia – Written by Lojain Borhan Originally submitted as a school assignment on December 22, 2019 – Revisited and expanded in 2025 This reflection began as a high school assignment, written in Grade 11, on a quiet December afternoon in 2019. What started as a simple classroom task gradually unfolded into something deeper: a personal exploration of identity, pressure, and the quiet desire to reconnect with the self. At the time, life moved quickly. Between school demands, extracurricular activities, volunteer work, and the silent need to excel, it was easy to fall into a pattern of constant performance. Each task completed, each box checked, gave the illusion of success—yet something essential remained missing beneath the surface. That day, the act of writing became a pause. A moment of clarity amid the noise. Words emerged not to impress, but to express. Honest, simple, and slightly unsure, yet they carried the early seeds of awareness. In those lines, one truth stood ou...
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Stress and the Power of Compassionate Support

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Reflection by Roya ElMedia - Lojain Borhan Originally written on December 22, 2019 – Grade 11.  Revisited and expanded in 2025. I wrote the authentic model of this piece after I was in Grade 11, on a quiet December day that invited a mirrored image. Back then, I nevertheless found myself attempting to find solace in a world that frequently felt loud, rushed, and overwhelming. Writing has become my manner of creating a feel of things, of slowing down the noise to listen to what actually matters. Years later, as I revisit those phrases with greater enjoyment, greater softness, and greater understanding, I understand the message nevertheless holds: that pressure is a part of being human; however, so is compassion. And while we feature every different light through our storms, we start to heal in ways we by no means idea possible. This mirrored image is both a go-back and a continuation. A reminder to my more youthful self—and all of us—that we are now no longer supposed to undergo lif...
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The Roya List – July 2025

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The culture I watched. Chaos, I welcomed. Silence, I questioned. I didn’t know June would become a month of confrontation. Not the kind that makes headlines or floods the streets with slogans and defiance. No, this confrontation was subtler. Quieter. It happened on my screen. In the early hours when the world blurred between sleep and survival, when my thoughts were too loud for rest, and the only comfort I could find was in discomfort itself. I didn’t plan it. I wasn’t searching for politically charged stories. I wasn’t intentionally curating a cinematic syllabus. But the titles found me — almost as if they knew I needed to be unsettled. Not to be angry for the sake of rage, but to be shaken out of the numbness that sometimes comes with too much information and not enough reflection. And that’s what these films did. They weren’t escapism. They were engaged. They were not meant to soothe, but to stir. And in a world where everything begs to be scrolled past, skimmed, or for...
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