The power politics of multi-lateral engagement
Super-powers can be selective in their multi-lateral engagements. That is their problem. Middle-ranking powers cannot, that it is theirs.
Non-Intervention, or Responsibility to Protect?
In recent decades, the realities of globalization and growing interdependency make it impossible to turn our backs on large-scale Human Rights violations and Crimes against Humanity committed in foreign countries.
On the ‘War on War’ in Modern Geopolitics
The unilateral projection of peace could become a potent political lever and a game changer in international relations, yet ‘peacefare’ and a ‘peace arsenal’, including confidence-building measures and a conflict-quelling capability, have seldom been looked into.
The Role of the Economic Elite in Mexico’s Democratic Development
A widely held middle class critique of Mexico’s governing institutions is that politicians are accountable only to the private elites and do not respond to middle and lower class needs. Indeed, with a history of oligarchic-type rule and pervasive government corruption, private sector elites have consistently been major players in Mexican politics.
Is the Growing Criticism of the International Monetary Fund Justified?
The IMF is an international organisation that causes much debate. The neo-liberal ideological agenda, the control of the policy agenda by wealthy countries, and the conditionality attached to the loans it provides, all form the basis of worthy criticism.
Universals in a World of Difference: Human Rights in Sri Lanka
The international community is fixated on the protection of human rights, and sees only one route to do this: the expansion of liberal democracy. The interest in propagating these models produced the conditions for conflict to break out in Sri Lanka.
Do IGOs Decrease the Possibility of Conflict?
Whether international institutions can promote and achieve a more peaceful world is a question that is being examined more and more in the study of international relations. Literature about this issue has further developed over the last 50 years, as the world has seen the rise of new international organizations and the integration of old ones.
Does a positive definition of liberty inevitably lead to an excuse for tyranny and totalitarianism?
As an essay regarding political theory may seem a little out of place on e-International Relations. However, what world leaders, individuals and administrations as a whole, regard ‘freedom’, ‘equality’, ‘justice’ (and the like) to mean, has vast effects to both domestic and international affairs.
Parallels between the Bush Doctrine and Obama Administration Policy
The election of Barack Obama as president in 2009 was thought to be the symbolic end of the Bush doctrine and its associated neoconservative underpinnings. This essay however seeks to challenge this notion by examining the parallels between the Bush doctrine and the policies of the Obama administration.
Child Reconciliation in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone
The systematic inclusion of children in the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission process was unprecedented in the history of truth and reconciliation initiatives. Given the country’s history of child involvement in the war as both victims and perpetrators, it was especially important to include children in the post-conflict peacebuilding processes.
