International History

An assessment of Gaddis’ suggestion that MAD secured a ‘long peace’

Seamus Peter Johnstone Macleod • Nov 2 2011 • Essays

This essay argues that whilst the destructive power of the atom bomb is significant, its contribution to stability in the latter half of the twentieth century is not. Indeed, it seems more likely that the contribution of nuclear weapons was to make a “long peace” seem less inevitable than it in fact was.

The Dreamboat That Ran Aground: U.S. Policy Towards Venezuela 1955-1960

Christy Quinn • Oct 30 2011 • Essays

The US experience in Venezuela helped nuance its wider policy towards Latin America by challenging the reliance on free market economics. While the Eisenhower administration chose to re-emphasise democratic values in order to combat rising Communist radicalism, practical support for democracy proved to be limited.

Is Marxism Dead?

Joe Jervis • Oct 26 2011 • Essays

Marxism has been at the forefront of political thought ever since Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto in 1848. Although principles of Marxism can still be seen in Western left-wing politics today, the theory of Marxism as set out by Karl Marx is dead.

Power in the Modern Age

David C. Weinczok • Oct 18 2011 • Essays

Political and economic power must be recognized as being inextricably linked. As hegemony grew in its sophistication over the centuries, economic power has complimentarily entrenched itself in ever more embedded and socialized ways into political life, while political power continues to provide the essential structure for the evolving regime of accumulation.

A Critical Examination of the Role of Political Thought in the French Revolution

Samuel Bullen • Oct 12 2011 • Essays

Political ideas played a large role in the French Revolution. However, it is impossible to say that it is the only, or indeed the major cause of any of the events that happened during that time. While politics did play a part that shouldn’t be underestimated, it was by no means the only factor in explaining the events of the French Revolution.

Imagined Boundaries? The Legacy of the Cold War on Today’s ‘War on Terror’

Alexander Ward • Oct 2 2011 • Essays

The echoes of the imaginary geographies associated with the Cold War undoubtedly underpin many of the geopolitical phenomena that typify the current ‘War on Terror’; inherent to the geopolitical discourses of both eras are binary distinctions; distinctions between good vs evil, us vs them etc, all stemming from a firmly rooted ‘conflict of ideologies’

Third Party Intervention in Ethnic Conflict

Thomas Houghton • Sep 16 2011 • Essays

This essay is concerned with the motivations that drive states to intervene, and argues that their actions are never wholly disinterested. The scope of this essay will be limited to interventions which third-parties have justified on humanitarian grounds, looking in particular at the case of the NATO intervention in Kosovo in 1999.

British Diplomacy and Iranian Angst: British Iranian Relations, 1973 -1979

Hugo Jackson • Sep 14 2011 • Essays

The Iranian pre-disposition to distrust the British has been referred to widely in both primary and secondary sources, yet has not been rigorously analysed in either its manifestations of effects. This essay will examine the effect of this cultural trait on the last six years of the reign of Mohammed Reza Shah, and on the conduct of British foreign policy during that period.

Belonging to the West: The Early Stages of the Greek Civil War

Panagiotis Bakalis • Sep 1 2011 • Essays

Any research on the Greek Civil War should have three levels of analysis: the international, the regional, and the national. These three terms could respectively be translated into the fragile relationship and power balancing among the Allies; the spread of communist regimes in the Balkans; and the internal struggle for the modernization of the political system, the constitutional issue, and the conduct of free elections.

The 1989 Tiananmen Challenge

Miriam Dornan • Aug 25 2011 • Essays

The 1989 Tiananmen event presented the strongest challenge to the CCP’s monopoly of power. Although the CCP still hold dominance in Chinese politics, the influence of the media and the high number of participants and methods used by the protesters were all factors contributing the high level of reaction from CCP leaders.

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