Free Essay

Ir Theories

In:

Submitted By giuliaba
Words 1207
Pages 5
In the last century, the United States of America have undoubtedly achieved the position of “indispensable nation” in the world. *9 As a matter of fact, not only the U.S. has the most vibrant global economy, but it also is the country with the most fervent devotion to liberty, and last, but not least important, the most powerful military. Therefore, the world looks at the U.S. as a good example, as a big, influential country offering countless opportunities, and handling a lot of decisional power. In fact, because of many military interventions in other countries, like Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. has the commonly accepted reputation of being the “world’s policeman”. However, is the task of policing the globe as not profitable as it looks? What is it that really pushes the U.S. to intervene? This research argues that nothing comes without a price, or better that the U.S. acts in other countries’ affairs in order to achieve very tangible profits. Even though the declared reason of intervention is often that of protecting human rights, or saving innocent lives, there might be something “more valuable” to it. For instance, the presence of natural resources, like oil, on other countries’ soil, might be the real reason behind U.S. military decisions. The research question opposes the cases of Rwanda and Iraq. Both countries faced a very serious humanitarian situation, however we see U.S. intervention in Iraq, but not in Rwanda.

Research Question

“Why would a democracy like the U.S, where respect for human rights has long been a central component of foreign policy, intervene in a country like Iraq, where human rights have been violated, and genocide against the Kurds has been committed, but not do the same elsewhere, like in Rwanda that has seen one of the most ferocious genocides in history? What is it that pushed the U.S to take proactive steps towards remedying a determined situation in a country rather than another?”

Theory

The U.S did not invade Iraq to intervene in response to human rights violations, but rather did so for a more lucrative purpose. The official given reason of U.S intervention was Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD)*a, however due to the lack of evidence that such threat actually existed, many argue that what caused the U.S to intervene was the presence of vast reservoirs of oil. As a matter of fact, *1 Iraq ranks fifth in the list of the ten biggest oil reservoirs in the world. Furthermore, *3before the 2003 U.S invasion, Iraq's domestic oil industry was fully nationalized and closed to Western oil companies. A decade of war later, *2 the U.S expect to gain very lucrative oil deals from Iraq worth billions of dollars in the coming years. The reason for this is that now Iraq’s oil resources are largely privatized and utterly dominated by foreign firms, such as Shell, BP, and the American ExxonMobil*b. Moreover, according to a White House press release dated November 30, 2013 titled, "Joint Statement by the United States of America and the Republic of Iraq Higher Coordinating Committee”, “Iraq is one of the largest oil exporters to the US, and has plans to raise its overall crude oil exports to 3.3m barrels per day (bpd) next year”, meaning U.S is definitely a large share of the market*b. Iraq’s alleged possessions of WMD and Saddam Hussein’s campaign against the Kurdish population were just false motives to push for a U.S intervention on Iraq’s territory. On the other hand, Rwanda’s genocide was unstopped. The ferocity with which the ethnic majority called “Hutu” exterminated the minority of “Tutsi” shocked the whole world. *4Even though the United States and the United Nations were aware of the preparations for massive slaughter, they failed to prevent and stop the genocide. The U.S did nothing to help the Rwandan emergency and denied international aid by refusing to acknowledge the genocide. Why didn’t the U.S intervene in this case? According to “The Guardian”, “The US had just pulled American troops out of a disastrous peacekeeping mission in Somalia the year before. The Clinton Administration had vowed never to return to a conflict it couldn't understand, between clans and tribes it didn't know, in a country where the US had no national interests.” *c For these reasons, there was nothing valuable enough to persuade the U.S in an intervention in a poor African country, with no relevant natural resources. In fact, *6 Rwanda has no upstream oil industry, and it needs to import oil from Kenya and Tanzania. Therefore, this leads us to argue that the main motive for the U.S intervention in Iraq rather than Rwanda was the presence of oil, and not the violation of human rights.

Hypotheses

Null Hypothesis

H0 = The presence of natural oil has no influence in the U.S intervention

Alternative Hypothesis

H1 = The presence of natural oil leads to more U.S intervention

The independent variable is the presence of natural resources, specifically oil, while the dependent variable is U.S military intervention.

In order to test these hypotheses three different kinds of data would be needed:

-Countries where there is oil, and we see U.S intervention
-Countries lacking oil, and the U.S still intervened
-Countries where there is no oil, and no U.S intervention

As we have seen, the U.S. often intervenes to solve humanitarian issues in other countries. However, in the past the U.S. did so in some countries, leaving other ones to be victims of their own fate. We brought up the cases of Iraq and Rwanda, arguing that there was intervention in the former because of the presence of oil, while the U.S. had no interest in the latter because of its lack of natural resources. This theory was supported by many different examples, and sources. However, this is just a hypothesis, and in order to confirm it, we would need an extensively larger set of data, such as other examples of countries, beside Iraq, where the presence of oil was followed by U.S. intervention, instances of countries lacking oil where the U.S. still intervened, and lastly, cases of countries without natural resources nor U.S. intervention. The cases of Iraq and Rwanda alone are not enough to support our alternative hypothesis, but they are just enough to make us question the role of the U.S. in the world, and the reasons behind each intervention.

*Works’ Cited Page: * *1 Top Ten Oil Reservoirs Countries http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/world-top-ten-oil-reserves-countries-map.html * *2 http://www.globalpolicy.org/political-issues-in-iraq/oil-in-iraq.html * *3 CNN http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/iraq-war-oil-juhasz/ * *4 http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/genocide/genocide_in_rwanda.htm * *6 http://www.mbendi.com/indy/oilg/af/rw/p0005.html * *a http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=12552 * *b http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/12/2011122813134071641.html * *c http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/mar/31/usa.rwanda * *9http://www.cfr.org/united-states/americas-destiny-police-world/p5559

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Ir Theories

...Theories of International Relations Third edition Scott Burchill, Andrew Linklater, Richard Devetak, Jack Donnelly, Matthew Paterson, Christian Reus-Smit and Jacqui True Theories of International Relations This page intentionally left blank Theories of International Relations Third edition Scott Burchill, Andrew Linklater, Richard Devetak, Jack Donnelly, Matthew Paterson, Christian Reus-Smit and Jacqui True Material from 1st edition © Deakin University 1995, 1996 Chapter 1 © Scott Burchill 2001, Scott Burchill and Andrew Linklater 2005 Chapter 2 © Jack Donnelly 2005 Chapter 3 © Scott Burchill, Chapters 4 and 5 © Andrew Linklater, Chapters 6 and 7 © Richard Devetak, Chapter 8 © Christian Reus-Smit, Chapter 9 © Jacqui True, Chapter 10 © Matthew Paterson 2001, 2005 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright...

Words: 132890 - Pages: 532

Premium Essay

Ir Theory

...On September 6th 2007, President Bush met with Hu Jinto, China’s president to discuss such issues as tainted food, Iran, climate change, and individual freedom in China. This is an interesting deliemma of sorts between International relations theory, and shows some underlying motivators behind America’s talks with China. While the idea of having talks with another country, instead of simply going to war with them, is a liberalist idea, the notion of defending investments and protecting domestic ideals is a realist one. One of President Bush’s main points in his talk with President Hu was that of the faulty Chineese products, but this only masked what were perhaps Bush’s real intentions for the meeting. Human rights and freedoms for the Chinese people was the real adgenda. America has always taken the position that the kinds of lives we lead and the freedoms we enjoy could work for everybody. But it is almost the very opposite. In a liberalist world (that is one dominated by liberalist policies and consequently “the west”) Samuel Huntingdon points out in his Essay The Clash of Civilizations, that conflict will arise because of culture clashes. It has been evident throughout history that China has had a turbulent past with many rebellions and has had a need for a strong government. Having a strong government wracked with past revoloutions leads to a cutback of civil rights and personal freedoms, promoting realist ideals. Enter president Bush, leader of one of the most powerful...

Words: 466 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

Why No Non-Western Ir Theory in Asia

...Assessment 1 Reading: * Preface: “Why is there no non-western IR theory in Asia: Reflections on and from Asia”; * Conclusion: “On the possibility of a non-Western IR theory in Asia”. A Consideration of IR Theory in (East) Asia: Main Points, critiques and discussion Report By J.R Brown Submitted 06/08/2013 This two-part essay is a collection of papers collated after the completion of the workshop entitled “Why is there no Non-Western IR theory: Reflections on and from Asia.” It conception arose out of Amitav Acharyas’ realisation about the concerning gap between his academic speciality (Third world and Asian security) and International Relations Theory (IRT). His co-author Barry Buzan felt similarly after his various work in and around Asia led him to realise how little asia-specific IRT development was taking place. Acharya and Buzan stipulate their overall purpose as that of stimulating “non-Western voices to bring their historical and cultural, as well as their intellectual, resources into the theoretical debates about IR”. Their opening (and decidedly founding) question is ‘What is the possibility of a non-Western IRT in Asia?’ which they answer through a critical examination of their collective findings. It is important to note that they stipulated forcefully within their discussion the important note: “We are not....concerned with identifying or advocating an Asian school of IR......which would involve constructs (Asian values, Asian Way etc...

Words: 1677 - Pages: 7

Free Essay

Operations Manager

...Nonprofit Activity Types The Internal Revenue Service tax code describes allowable purposes of 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations as serving religious, educational, charitable, scientific, and literary purposes. This broad definition encompasses a wide variety of organizations — from those conducting medical research to those providing free legal services to low-income families to those preserving historic sites. It also includes corporations and foundations founded to support such activities. We’ve organized a quick overview of categories and kinds of activities. Arts, culture, and humanities This category probably makes you think of museums and concert halls. You’re right, but that’s not all. They belong here along with these organizations: * Organizations and activities that further enjoyment and understanding of all kinds of arts * Media and communications organizations * Groups furthering the understanding of history and genealogy * Halls of fame * Historic preservation * Organizations offering services to artists, writers, and performers * Organizations for the training and education of artists, writers, and performers Did you think of heredity-based organizations (such as Sons of the Revolution or Daughters of the Confederacy)? They belong here, too — along with nonprofit circuses! Education You thought schools...

Words: 828 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Rounding and Truncation

...receive an A letter grade because the grade would be simply be considered: 89% A3: Tax Payment As previously demonstrated, applying rounding and truncation can have a dramatic effect on the end result. To further illustrate the impact of rounding and truncation on an individual’s bottom line let’s pretend that the United States government were to tax you at a rate of 27.8%. What this means is that that for every $1 dollar earned, you would be expected to pay 27.8 cents to the Internal Revenue Service. Since private citizens do not have anything smaller than a penny to pay their taxes and there are heavy penalties for underpayment, IRS tax forms require whole dollar amounts using the same rounding principals applied to the student’s grade in part A1, where partial dollar amounts above 0.50 cents are rounded to the next whole dollar (IRS 2011). We can see easily see from the following graph why the taxpayer would prefer to truncate their tax rate as truncation saves them nearly a full percent in taxes which equates to 8 to 10 dollars for every $1,000 earned. [pic] A3 Part B Examples: |Truncation |Dinner Plans...

Words: 981 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Busi 620 Qct 7

...Salvatore's Chapter 14: a. Discussion Questions: 12 and 15. b. Problems: spreadsheet problems 1 and 2. 12. What is the rationale behind the minimax regret rule? What are some less formal and precise methods of dealing with uncertainty? When are these useful? The rationale is to reduce the threat associated with business decisions and minimize the mistakes from those decisions. The miscalculations associated with each decision is calculated by subtracting the payoff from the maximum payoff under the same state of nature. The decision maker then determines the strategy with the minimum of these maximum regrets under any possible state of nature. Some of the more informal and less precise methods of dealing with uncertainty include the following: • The acquisition of additional information • Referral to authorities such as the Internal Revenue Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission to remove any uncertainty regarding their specific expertise • Attempting to control the business environment for their respective firms using things such as patents and copyrights. • Diversifying the product line as well as security holdings within the company’s portfolio 15. How does the adverse selection problem arise in the credit-card market? How do credit-card companies reduce the adverse selection problem that they face? To what complaint does this give rise? Adverse selection/negative selection pertains to a market in which unwanted...

Words: 617 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Lifestyle Auditing

...NAME: ADDRESS: EMAIL ADDRESS: TELEPHONE NUMBER: COURSE NUMBER: TITLE: INSTRUCTOR: DATE: INTRODUCTION Lifestyle auditing is the study of a person’s standards of living and uses this information to confirm whether it is consisted with their reported income. This involves the tax authorities conducting independent investigations on business trusts, individual tax payers and company. This is done to ensure that monthly living the monthly living expenses of the tax payer are consistent with his assets and income statements that what was declared. Lifestyle auditing is one of the critical tools used by the management in helping in the detection, prevention and correction of fraud and error on a timely basis. Life style auditing is a term that is used by forensic auditors to find out whether the lifestyle of an individual directly relates to their know income streams Lifestyle auditing is simply the putting together of various databases which give the management and also investigators a quick view into certain aspects of the life of an employee. The use of a life style audit will legitimately lead to the prevention and detection of fraud. HISTORY In the recent past, there has been an increase in corruption cases such as taxpayers colluding with tax collecting officials hence posing a great challenge to public service as the government cannot collect enough money to finance setting up of schools, hospitals and other infrastructure for...

Words: 1269 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Modron Business Plan

...Modron Technologies, Inc. GM600 BUSINESS PLANNING SEMINAR KELLER GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT BUSINESS PLAN FOR: PREPARED BY: MICHAEL BARTHOLOMEW KHANG HUYNG ROLAND RIEGO HYUNG RYU GM600 Group B Page 1 Modron Technologies, Inc. TABLE OF CONTENTS Overview......................................................................................................................... 4 Mission Statement........................................................................................................... 4 Marketing Plan................................................................................................................ 4 Operation Plan ................................................................................................................ 5 Financial Plan.................................................................................................................. 5 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 5 MARKETING PLAN........................................................................................... 6 Opportunity ..................................................................................................................... 6 Product Description ........................................................................................................ 6 Product offering ....................................................................

Words: 13537 - Pages: 55

Premium Essay

Methods of Analysis S.W.O.T Analysis Strengths - Competitive Prices of Its Products. - Steady Growth in Its Market. - the Company's Reputation Had Been Built on Its Fast Service; It Frequently Supplied Paint to

...iv. S.W.O.T Analysis of Inner City Corporation Strengths - Competitive prices of its products. - Steady growth in its market. - The company's reputation had been built on its fast service; it frequently supplied paint to contractors within 24 hours. Weaknesses - Customers view Inner City as a company that negotiates on price and payment out of desperation. - His plant manager's only experience has been that of a painter. - Operating without management controls or financial controls. - Inability to pay suppliers on time - Poor condition of facilities - All records are processed manually - Inventory records are not kept. - Lack of proper delegation of authority. Employees take turns making paint and driving the delivery trucks. - Unskilled employees. Opportunities - Considering a purchase of a computer to organize the business and reduce needless paperwork. - Consultants who are able to quickly spot problems in business. - The production of color paints Threats - The slowdown in the housing market combined with the slowdown in the overall economy caused financial difficulty for the company. - Walsh manages the corporation today in much the same way that he did when the business began. - Walsh lacked on giving trust to other people. - Rumors abound that the company is in difficult financial straits, that it is unable to pay suppliers, and it owes a considerable sum for payment on back taxes. - Paint contractors are hesitant...

Words: 256 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Security Monitoring

...Security Monitoring In today’s business world an organization may consist of many different applications which require a certain level of risk assessment and security measures. Each application within the organization needs to be thoroughly reviewed in order to determine the associated risks and ways in which to protect against them. Another factor to be considered is that risk may vary between internal and external applications. There are many activities which can be incorporated into an organizations security plan which will help to mitigate possible risks and the loss that result from security breaches. It will be difficult for a company to achieve information security objectives without security event monitoring. Security event monitoring is derived from the general practice of monitoring activities that occur on a computer system. Security event monitoring involves recording information that represents activity and analyzing recorded information to identify and respond to questionable activities i.e.; possible security events Making Security Monitoring a Part of Your Best Security Practices. This first step would be to identify what exactly is considered questionable activity. While there is defiantly some level of activity which is considered acceptable the rules and boundaries must be clearly defined. An organization must take into consideration the applications to be used and the minimum level of security that can be used which will still...

Words: 927 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Business Law

...the Federal Communications Commission may not Answer Selected Answer: ignore the Administrative Procedure Act to streamline proceedings. • Question 3 1 out of 1 points The Federal Aviation Administration uses notice-and-comment rulemaking. The final rule in such a proceeding has binding legal effect Answer Selected Answer: unless a court overturns it. • Question 4 1 out of 1 points The Federal Aviation Administration uses notice-and-comment rulemaking. The final rule in such a proceeding is sometimes referred to as Answer Selected Answer: a legislative rule. • Question 5 1 out of 1 points The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) wants to seize certain documents of Mortgage Bank, Inc. Deciding whether it is permissible for the IRS to request or seize the documents depends on whether the documents are Answer Selected Answer: relevant. • Question 6 1 out of 1 points Independent regulatory agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission are Answer Selected Answer: outside the major departments of the government's executive branch. • Question 7 1 out of 1 points The Securities and Exchange Commission decides to create a new rule relating to the dissemination of material nonpublic information through corporate blogs, tweets, and Web sites. The first step is to Answer Selected Answer: publish a notice of the proposed rulemaking. • Question 8...

Words: 997 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Accounting Technology Test 1 Review

...Chapter 1 1. What is the difference between Data and Information? a. Data: raw facts that describe the characteristics of an event that, in isolation, have little meaning b. Information: data organized in a meaningful way to be useful to the user 2. What makes Information useful? c. Data is often processed (aggregated, sorted, etc.) and then combined with the appropriate context d. Decision makers typically require useful information to make decisions e. Must be relevant and reliable 3. Define “Relevant” in the context of useful information. f. Predictive value (helps with forecasting the future). g. Feedback value (corrects or confirms what had been predicted in the past). h. Timeliness (available when needed or in time to have an impact on a decision). i. Information must be relevant to the decision maker j. Information is relevant only if it would affect a business decision k. Information is relevant when it helps users predict what will happen in the future (predictive value) or evaluate how past decisions actually worked out (feedback value). l. It is also relevant if the information is received in time to affect their decisions (timeliness). 4. Define “Reliable” in the context of useful information. m. Predictive value (helps with forecasting the future). n. Feedback value (corrects or confirms what had been predicted in the past). o. Timeliness (available...

Words: 1464 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Kroger Pestel

...3.0 PESTEL ANALYSIS 3.1 POLITICAL The company has no political pressures on it at present. The political framework of the country supports the Retailership businesses. Kroger took part in the campaign started by USO, which is a not for profit organization that aims to serve the US military troops and their families; this initiative was a collaborative effort by Kroger and P&G (WGSC org, 2011).   3.2 ECONOMIC The economic environment of the company is not performing up to the mark. The customers are increasingly cutting off their expenses by limiting the number of purchases and visits to the stores. The economic downturn has adversely affected the businesses and other operations in US. Kroger is no different from the other companies but due to its intense marketing and customer services strategies it has tried to maintained its position even in the period of recession. 3.3 SOCIAL Kroger is continuously trying to take part in the activities to promote the culture and social benefits to the people of country. Food safety is Kroger’s top priority. They have well-established, science-based practices in place to ensure that the food items sold in the stores are prepared and handled safely. Kroger recently began a new customer notification system for certain types of recalls. Using customer loyalty database, they are able to notify customers via register receipts about recalls of products they may have purchased. They use personalized communications to the customers (Kroger...

Words: 1011 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Dentist

...Dr. Roger Jones is a successful dentist but he is experiencing recurring financial difficulties. For example, Dr. Jones owns his office building, which he leased to the professional corporation that housed his dental practice (he owns all shares in the corporation). However, Dr. Jones recently received a registered letter from the Internal Revenue Service threatening to impound his business and sell its assets for the corporation’s failure to pay payroll taxes for the past six months. Also, the corporation has had difficulty paying its suppliers, owing one of them over $200,000 plus interest. In the past, Dr. Jones had solved similar problems by borrowing money on the equity in either his personal residence or his office building. Not surprisingly, Dr. Jones has grown weary of these recurring problems and has hired a local consultant for advice on how to fix his financial problems. According to the analysis of the consultant, the financial difficulties facing Dr. Jones have been caused by the absence of proper planning and control. Budgetary control is sorely needed. To assist you in preparing a plan of action that will help his dental practice regain financial stability, Dr. Jones has made available the financial information describing a typical month in the following table. [pic] .:. Benefits include Dr. Jones’s share of social security and a health insurance premium for all employees. Although all revenues billed in a month are not collected, the cash flowing into the business...

Words: 1404 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

China's Tainted Baby Milk Powder

...Unit 1 - Assignment #1 China’s Tainted Baby Milk Powder: Rumored Control of Online News 1. Yes, there was damage to Baidu.com’s reputation. The rumors made the company’s information appear unreliable. By the rumor of the company being paid off for both not disclosing information and by ad placements, in the way that paid ads are listed pages before unpaid ads. The placement of ads also gives way that companies could pay for ad placement. 2. Future reputational damage could force the company into bankruptcy if the public’s trust is completely lost. How the company is view could be measured by how my hits the site would continue to get. If the public believes the information is unreliable, the hits to the sight would decrease. If a decrease happens, it is highly likely that the need for the company will not continue to exist. Because of the rumors of the omission of information and ad placement, the public could question the reliability of the information that is on their site. Once the public’s trust is completely lost, recovery is difficult. 3. Baidu.com will have to overcome the rumor of how they were said to have accepted payments for withholding a company’s information from on-line searches. They will have to disclose all of their financial records. This is done in an effort to make the company financial activities as transparent as possible and display that they are confederate in their financial activities. This will aid the company in regaining...

Words: 1247 - Pages: 5