...factor, which involves faster information access and easier international activities, and demographical factor, which involves different characteristics and resources in different areas. According to the Essentials of International Relations by Karen A Mingst, theory is a set of propositions and concepts that seek to explain phenomena by specifying the relationships among the concepts. So theory of international relation is a set of propositions and concepts that seek to explain international relation phenomena by specifying the relationships among the concepts. Therefore the theory of international relationship is important to analyze political events and their background. For example, behind US attack to Iraq, there were issues of terrorism, Saddam Hussein as an individual, democracy, and weapon. Moreover using the theories of international relationship, individuals can explain why Iraq refused to comply with international demand initially; its strong nationalism, history of being controlled by western colonialist, and its leader’s augmented power by standing up to the west. Aside from analyzing political events and the background why certain events occur, the theory of international relation is important in terms of building...
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...himAnarchism Core themes: against the state Prefer a stateless society in which individuals manage their affairs by voluntary agreement. However it is based upon the assumption that human beings are moral creatures, instinctively drawn to freedom and autonomy. Therefore its efforts have been directed more towards awakening moral instincts rather than analysing the system of state oppression. Anarchism has a dual character as it overlaps with both socialism and liberalism because of their end goals of a stateless society. It can therefore be interpreted as ultra-liberalism or ultra-socialism. Anarchist supporters are united by a belief in anti-statism, utopianism, anti-clericalism and economic freedom. Anti-statism; * Authority is an offence against the principles of freedom and equality whilst oppressing and limiting human life. * Endorses absolute freedom and unrestrained political equality * Authority damages and corrupts those who are subject to it and those who hold it. * Since humans are free and autonomous creatures, to be subject to authority is to be diminished * To be in authority is to acquire an appetite for control and domination * The state is a sovereign body that exercises supreme power over individuals. It is unlimited and restricts behaviour, thinking, activity and economic life. * The state is compulsory and individuals are subject to it because of where they are born. * The state is a coercive body whose laws are backed...
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...Running Head: POLITICS Politics: Howards Government [Victoria University] Table of Contents Thesis Statement 1 Introduction 1 Discussion 1 Political Culture 3 Economic Rationalism 4 Social Conservatism 7 Conclusion 8 References 9 Annotated Bibliography 11 Politics: Howards Government Thesis Statement The changes brought by he Howard’s government in social, political, and economical landscape are substantially different from previous regimes and tend to move away from welfare state to free market system. Introduction This paper discusses the changes that have been brought by the 11 year era of 25th Prime minister of Australia, Mr John Winston Howard. This era saw economic expansion that is characterized as longest in the history of Australia. Howard’s policies, practices, philosophies, and decisions have been widely debated specially over the issue of abolishing welfare system, treatment of asylum seeker after the 9-11, and such. This paper discusses the changes in the era of Howard and its consequences. Discussion The 25th Prime minister of Australia, Mr John Winston Howard, was born on July 26th; 1939.he is the longest serving prime minister of Australia after Sir Robert Menzies. His era of Prime Ministership started March 11th, 1996 and ended in December the 3rd 2007. After 1980, it was the first Federal victory of coalition of the National Parties and liberals. The first terms was 1996 to 1998, the...
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...International Security Lecture 1 March 30th, 2015 The politics of security knowledge What is international security? We could start thinking about the security council of the UN But also about the invasion of Afghanistan (chapter 7 UN in order to secure the international security) We can also think about security in terms of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. This was a unilateral act of war, but sure it can also mean other things We can think of the national security agency, the agency in charge of spying all the signals and communications to a certain extent. What’s interesting about the NSA, it is seen as a threat to the security of the privacy. Lately, with the reports of the UN development programme, we start talking about HUMAN security (not military security, but rather the security of individuals, having a livelihood that’s acceptable). Whether security is international or not, it can be a rather confusing word The protection of values we hold dear. We search for it, we pursue it, we achieve it, we deny it to others. * what is to be secured? Is it the security of states? Or individuals? * What is the actual threat that we’re facing? Primarily to be dealing with military threats, or are there other types of threats we are facing. Essentially contested concept A concept that ‘inevitably’ involves endless disputes about their proper uses on the part of their users – Walter Gallie There can be ambiguity (one persons freedom-fighter is the other’s...
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... The War on Terrorism: The War in Afghanistan. It was this state of chaos and confusion from which extremist governments like Taliban and fanatics like Osama bin Laden emerged. 86). similarly, their policies about marriage, divorce and other legal proceedings are also derived from their religion (Aronoff, p. He wanted to give back Germany its past glory and respect in front of the world, and for that he wanted to create more living space for Germans and thus he conquered the surrounding German speaking areas and created hatred among the leaders of those countries. This is the only way to co-exist peacefully in today’s world. This is important because it is seen in the past that attempts to bring democracy and socialism in the Arab world have failed so badly that it has made the people of the Arab world to denounce these ideas altogether. This attack is important not only because of how widespread it was; but it is also important because of the way it changed the course of the West towards Islam. With that, the West needs to incentivize the Muslim world to adopt democracy and liberalism so that they see the benefits of these systems themselves. ISLAM AND THE WEST – AN INTRODUCTION Islam and the West are different entities in many ways, but because of the globalization in the world; we see that there is an increasing interaction between these two entities, which becomes a reason for conflict in many situations. Modernization, liberalism and globalization are appreciated...
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...Latin America & Caribbean Studies 16 December 2013 FARC: Terrorist Group or Freedom Fighters? The ever-on going debate regarding whether or not the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) are terrorist or freedom fighters has not yet been settled, after careful evaluation it is very clear. According to Webster's dictionary, a terrorist is “someone who uses the deliberate creation and exploitation of fear to promote political change.” All terrorists commit violent acts. A freedom fighter is “one who seeks political change for their people and use violence only as a stirrer.” So how can we differentiate the FARC in order to know if they are actually helping or hurting the country of Colombia? Colombia today is in a major crisis. Guerrilla groups, approximately 20,000 guerrillas in arms and only 7,000 to 11,000 paramilitary members, control large areas of the countryside. The government has no legitimate monopoly of force and is extremely weak; it does not and cannot effectively protect its citizens. Colombia has been in tumult with the Marxist-Leninist group called FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) for almost fifty years. The FARC was founded in the 1960s, but its roots are found further back from the Violence. From 1948 to 1958, supporters of the Liberal and Conservative parties fought a civil war that killed some 200,000 people. The horrific violence of the period was only nominally about partisan politics. Mainly rural, Violence was...
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...between 1945 and 1972 came to an end. The dispute is fuelled, especially, by the islands’ rich fishing grounds, proximity to vital shipping lanes, and probability of oil reserves (Lohmeyer, 2008). While Japan argues that a survey of the Islands has found them to solely belong to them, China claims that documentary evidence indicates that they belong to China and were taken as part of Japan’s imperial conquests. The US has no official position regarding the islands but they are included in the US and Japan’s Treaty of Mutual Security and Cooperation, which ensures that any attack on the island would require the USD to aid Japan. The Government of Japan bought three of the remaining disputed islands from private ownership, triggering a wave of anti-Japan protests in China (Lohmeyer, 2008). In this case, the ESCAP and the ARF should be involved in trying to resolve the issue, even though the conflict has not degenerated into war because the liberal international theory seems to relate best to the situation. What regional and international organizations would or should have involvement? Why? ESCAP, or the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the pacific is the UN’s regional arm for the Pacific and Asian region. Its establishment was meant to encourage its member states, of which China and Japan are part of, to cooperate economically (Niksch, 2010). Because China and Japan are major trading partners, keeping the peace between them and attempting to resolve the Senkaku/Diaoyu...
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...proliferation, Instability in the MiddleEast, Oil supply uncertainty) Of all the political risks covered, the Iraq/Middle East threat has the greatest likelihood of triggering the other major threats. Thus, the worsening of the Iraq/Middle East situation poses the gravest threat to the growth and stability of the world economy. If the situation in Iraq further deteriorates, the threat of sectarian violence spreading in the region increases and instability results. By this threat alone, this is a serious risk. However, the chain of events it could trigger is more significant. *Increasing incentives to join terrorism The conflict in Iraq and the Middle East, where civilian lives were lost and impoverished makes it easier for terrorist groups to attract new recruits. Destruction of lives and property, as well as the resulting chaos could popularize anti-US/Western sentiment. Also, joining terrorist groups could also be an escape from the difficulty of surviving in the ongoing chaos. The threat of this new wave of terrorist activities could result in a more unsecure world, where asymmetric warfare could break out in different regions. *Worsening oil supply uncertainty As the Middle East region accounts for more than half of the world’s oil reserves, with Saudi Arabia alone accounting for 25%, the effect of an unstable Middle East directly leads to a more uncertain oil supply for the world. Over the recent years, the number of attacks on oil-producing infrastructure...
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...In what ways is foreign policy a problem of identity and alterity? Foreign policy is in every way a problem of identity and alterity because identification of the “foreign” exists at the very core of every decision making process in foreign policy. Foreign policy is defined as the strategy or approach chosen by the national government to achieve its goals in its relations with external entities (Hudson, 2008). It should not be understood as a bridge between preexisting states with secure identities. Rather, foreign policy is concerned about the establishment of the boundaries that constitute the state and the international system. There is a dichotomy here between the Self (the state) and the Other (the international system) (Campbell, 1998). In this context, the concepts of identity and alterity are inextricably tied together because defining oneself necessarily entails an “othering” process where one’s identity is built on what it is not, rather than what it is. In essence, identity is built on alterity. Furthermore, it is pertinent to note that the identity of a state is more than just something that is derived from a process of contradistinction. It is not a stable, single unitary “I”. It is a condition that has depth, is multilayered, possesses texture and comprises many dimensions. (Campbell, 1998) The identity of the state is also constantly in flux, being shaped constantly by both external and internal forces. With the process of globalization, the divide between...
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...Review: The Battle of Algiers Gillo Pontecorvo was a director way ahead of his time. He directed two anti-colonialism in the 1960, when most of the movie-going audience was probably comfortably numb to the plight of the Third World. He created a film genre (anti-colonialism) that while at first controversial would eventually become a mainstream source for modern classics. He was one of the first directors to take on the challenging subjects of terrorism and torture, in an era where the preferred treatment of the historical film was sterilization, not realism. Pontecorvo portrayed women realistically, not as an idealized pieces of scenery. Most important, Pontecorvo achieved the admirable feat of creating films that accurately reflected historical accuracy and cinematic excellence. And he did all this while advancing a political thesis. In The Battle of Algiers (1966) Gillo Ponetcorvo uses factual content extrapolated from the history of the Algerian War to demonstrate a historical lesson: to defeat an ideologically entrenched, locally supported underground nationalist movement, you must employ measures (suppression of civil liberties, police brutality, military aggression, and eventually torture) that while crucial to winning battles against underground networks (like the FLN in Algiers) in the short run, these counter-insurgency actions will ultimately serve to bolster the opposition to authority in the long run. Eventually, as Pontecorvo's coda suggests, the tactics of the...
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...The representation of terrorism, Islam and Muslim identities on popular US series Homeland Introduction Images of Muslim and Islam have dramatically increased in the media coverage as well as popular culture ever since we have entered the “post-9/11 era”, as Elizabeth Poole observed. (2008:81) The shocking real life images from the horrifying terrorist attack in September 2011 has triggered various interpretation on the discourse of what it means to be Muslim and the image of Islam and its culture in the western media, and still have profound influence even after more than a decade and ongoing. Apart from the coverage on news media, TV entertainment, especially TV dramas also provide a powerful outlet for the popular prevailing discourses on Muslim and Islamic culture, which compare to news reports, leaves a more vivid and graphic impression on audience with its discourse and narratives. The proposed subject I am going to study is revolved around the representation of Islam and Muslim identity in the popular US TV drama Homeland. (Showtime, 2011) Homeland (Showtime, 2011) has been arguably the most successful TV series focusing on the theme of counter-terrorism and national security across the Atlantic since 2011, following its predecessor 24 (Fox, 2001) developed by the same producers. When asked what made the show distinctive compared to its predecessors, Damian Lewis, who played as Sgt Nicholas Brody, the male lead in Homeland replied, “We feel a bit differently...
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...4 Anonymous Hacktivism and Contemporary Politics Christian Fuchs 1. INTRODUCTION It is Friday, August 6, 2012, on the Internet. Sixty-seven years earlier, on August 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped the first atom bomb on Hiroshima. One hears a song by Trey Parker: "America. Fuck yeah. [. . .] So lick my butt and suck on my balls, America, fuck yeah! Whatcha' gonna do when we come for you now? (. . .) McDonalds, fuck yeah! Wal-Mart, fuck yeah!" Pictures of cats that look human are accompanied by the request, "I want to start a collection of my fetish catboys so post moar!" There is a link to a live cam on Times Square. One also finds an image showing a burning American flag that is accompanied by the logos of McDonald's and images of a can of Mountain Dew, the Statue of Liberty, a guitar player and a screaming bear. "You should kill yourself, fucking AMERRRICCAAA, you little fag- got." A rapper writes a new song and says that the first few minutes of the discussion in his thread will become part of the song. There is a story about a brother who tries to seduce his sister, but it turns out that his sister is a large arthropod. There is a thread with images of female but- tocks, accompanied by an announcement that one of the portrayed girls receives prank phone calls. One sees a picture of a couple having oral sex accompanied by the text "PORNO FUCK YEAH!" as well as a picture of a drunk sleeping man accompanied by the text "buddy passed out after 11 Coors...
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...Have Western liberal democracies effectively responded to challenges to their power? In your answer, refer to at least one internal and one external challenge. Introduction In 1989 political scientist Francis Fukuyama declared “the end of history.”[1] Despite his language, Fukuyama was not an apocalyptic religious fundamentalist awaiting the rapture, but rather, he saw with the collapse of the Soviet Union the ultimate and final triumph of liberal democracy. Fukuyama draws on Marxist and Hegelian interpretations of the narrative of history as one of progress, in this case with its apex at the liberal democracy best represented by the United States of America. The triumphalism of this context may seem naïve in a post-9/11 world, but it should be seen in its original context of the decades long cold war between the US (and its allies) and the Soviet Union. These two sides came to represent an ideological conflict rather than a purely physical one, between liberal capitalist democracy and authoritarian communism, between free enterprise and central planning. Liberal democracy emerged victorious economically, politically and, Fukuyama would argue, philosophically. However, Fukuyama would be hard pressed to defend his near-eschatological optimism today, and Marxist critic Terry Eagleton has said that “the End of History is at an end.”[2] Rather than the comparatively monolithic opposition it experienced in the 20th Century, today the political dominance of liberal democracy is...
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...America and the World University of Phoenix There were a many causes of the Cold War and the United States feared the rise and spread of communism throughout the world. The Soviet Union’s Government, along with many communist governments, did not want the people of their country to have a voice and think for themselves. They were not allowed the the luxury of being able to vote and electing who they wanted as their leader. The United States had a completely opposite approach and did not want governments that were in opposition to democracy and freedom of choice. People in the Soviet Union did not have freedom of speech and the press was not allowed to print anything freely without severe repercussions whereas the United States does have a free press. The immediate causes leading to the cold war was conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States at the peace-time conferences. The conflict was intensified after President Truman declared the Truman Doctrine and launched the Marshall Plan.” President Franklin Roosevelt believed the Soviet Union was going to start setting up a freely-elected parliamentary government, but he died before that ever happened. President Harry Truman became President and did not believe that the Soviet Union would honor the agreement and set up elections up in Eastern Europe. The United States exploded the Atomic bomb successfully and Truman also figured the United States could have a stiff attitude towards Russian expansion into...
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...Clash of Civilizations In 1993 Samuel Huntington wrote an article titled “Is there a clash of civilizations”. The thesis was very much born in the context of the end of the cold war. The idea of “clash of civilizations” suggests that twenty-first century global order will be characterized by growing tension and conflict between rival cultures or civilizations, as opposed to the political, ideological or economic conflict of old. Huntington furthermore argued that the world was split into 9 different civilizational orders, and the West would clash with all of them, but in particular it would clash with the Islamic world, Japan and Russia. The realists have given little attention to the issue of identity or cultural politics. They focus on the behavior of states. However the liberals have recognized this thesis to some extent. Huntington’s view that the West would clash with the Islamic world was vindicated after the September 11th terrorist attacks, neoconservatives looking for a response distanced themselves from Huntington’s rhetoric. Neoconservative George W Bush was keen to emphasize that not all Muslims were to blame for 9/11, and indeed it was just a tiny minority of extremists holding the Islamic world back. Whereas Huntington had argued that the Islamic world was hostile to western ideas of liberal democracy, George W Bush ignored this insight and fought two wars to try and bring democracy to the Middle East, ignoring Huntington’s claim that there would be a backlash...
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