International History

The UN during the Cold War: “A tool of superpower influence stymied by superpower conflict”?

Nicola-Ann Hardwick • Jun 10 2011 • Essays

Rather than acting as a collective security system, the UN Security Council mostly remained divided throughout the Cold War and efficient UN action was often hindered by superpower conflict. Yet, undoubtedly the Cold War world was better off with the UN than without it.

Adolf Hitler’s account of the ‘Nation’ and ‘Nationalism’

John Cai Benjamin Weaver • May 16 2011 •

Hitler imagined the nation in purely ethnic terms, the German Volk with the Aryan core at the top of the genetic pool. However, nationalism is too thin an ideology to be Hitler’s only political thinking and he uses the ideas of Social Darwinism, fascism and militarisation to thicken out his personal ideology.

US Foreign Policy in Europe beween the end of the Cold War and 9/11

James Sloan • Apr 17 2011 •

The American-Russian relationship is best described as going from Cold War to Cold Peace, as articulated by the then Russian President Yeltsin. The 1990s essentially brought about a period in which the US sought to manage the uncertainties that the new world order was presenting.

Is Russia an Independent and Unpredictable Power?

Joshua R. J. Burge • Apr 11 2011 • Essays

Russia has made a concerted attempt to become an ‘independent regional power’ since the demise of Yeltsin, with limited results in Eastern Europe, but with greater success in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Russia’s behaviour has been entirely predictable. Nonetheless, as China looks set to challenge Russian power in Central Asia in the future, Russia’s response remains unclear.

Brzezinski on a U.S. Berezina: anticipating a new, New World Order

Idriss J. Aberkane • Mar 31 2011 • Essays

In four books from 1997 to 2008 Zbigniew Brzezinski outlined a comprehensive American foreign posture around the geopolitical grail of Central Asia. Since 1945 the United States has been largely defined as the first non-Eurasian thalassocracy to prevail in the Great Game, yet for how long?

The Limits of Economic Globalization

Angelica Loureiro • Mar 27 2011 • Essays

Since the 1990s, the phenomenon of globalization has been widely discussed. contemporary economic globalization is often exaggerated, and it can be argued that there are some current patterns that are more limited, less integrated, and less interdependent in comparison with 19th century economic globalization, especially the period from 1870 to 1914

Why was so much at stake in Cuba in 1962?

Nicola-Ann Hardwick • Mar 9 2011 • Essays

The Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 constituted a classic foreign policy dilemma between the United States and the Soviet Union and was one of the most dangerous confrontations of the Cold War. This essay gives an overview of the complexity of the thirteen-day crisis. It shows that the balance of power, the credibility of the two superpowers and the future of Berlin were at stake, and makes clear how close it actually came to a nuclear showdown.

Nation States: Stronger in Europe than Elsewhere?

Dumitrache Andrei • Feb 22 2011 • Essays

Europe has imposed its intrinsic identity and revolutionary social and political values and models worldwide, transforming many of them in global standards, shaping the lives of billions of people. It is within the European geographical space that a large number of the world’s greatest empires have developed and some of humanities most valuable technological, spiritual, cultural, economic or political advancements have been achieved.

Al-Qaeda and the success of US intelligence

Maciej Osowski • Feb 13 2011 • Essays

The year 1989 will remain in a global history as direct beginning of Soviet Union’s collapse which was finalized in the 1991. This year will also stay in world remembrance as a founding date of probably best known terrorist organization – Al-Qaeda. How well has US intelligence performed against this threat?

The Balance of Power: a Cause of War, a Condition of Peace, or Both?

Harry Booty • Jan 31 2011 • Essays

The theory of the balance of power, where the distribution of power is equally shared amongst the appropriate entities, is a concept crucial to the study of International Relations and of war. When studied in relation to the 19th century, we can see that it is a major part of both contemporary and modern literature, thinking and politics

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