Essays

The Realist School of Thought: An Analysis

Dimitrios Mavridis • Aug 17 2011 • Essays

Classical realists explain international politics by focusing on human nature and, apart from Carr, they perceive power as the ultimate goal of states, like Mearsheimer. For classical realists anarchy is not the primary focus when explaining different state policies. Hence, classical realism remains more of a foreign policy guide than a theory like the one Waltz wanted to introduce.

Enduring Rivalry? A Case Study of the Conflict in Kashmir

Anders Knut Brudevoll • Aug 17 2011 • Essays

This case study will start by presenting the origins and causes of the conflict in Kashmir. After presenting an assessment of the relative failure of attempted conflict resolution process, the study will look at the main obstacles of conflict resolution, emphasizing mutual nuclear capability and domestic constraints. In conclusion, it will draw on relevant theory to examine why conflict resolution is still on-going.

The Journey of Cultural Globalization in Korean Pop Music

Tom Dixon • Aug 17 2011 • Essays

Changes in the production and consumption of pop music have shown the Globalization of Culture in its most effective form. Changes in the Korean pop industry illustrate a process whereby ‘foreign’ pop music is internalized, adapted and then pushed back into the wider world as a new style of pop which has been culturally filtered.

Why has the demobilisation of combatants proved so difficult? The Colombian paramilitary experience

Maite Vermeulen • Aug 16 2011 • Essays

The demobilisation of combatants during or after conflict is a crucial step towards achieving sustainable peace. This essay draws on the case of Colombia to illustrate the difficulties that this task poses.

Postcolonial Discourses and ‘Sex Tourism’

Ros Williams • Aug 15 2011 • Essays

Sex tourism has become a significant contributor to the income of the tourism industry in recent years. Yet, how have we come to define it? In what ways has postcolonialism assisted in constructing our understanding of it? And, how might we extend the application of postcolonial discourses to assist in developing that comprehension?

The Cuban Missile Crisis: The Importance of Power and Knowledge

Tom Thornley • Aug 15 2011 • Essays

Theorists conceive of knowledge and its relations to reality differently. Knowledge of the world is ‘reality’, yet this ‘reality’ is socially constructed through discourse. Looking through the Realist lens, the Cuban Missile Crisis becomes an affair of two rationally acting Great Powers locked in a power struggle owing to the inducements of a bipolar anarchic international system.

EU counter-terrorism: security, justice, democracy and opportunity for all?

Jennifer Lang • Aug 14 2011 • Essays

The European Union (EU) has been engaged in the fight against terrorism as far back as the 1970s, triggered by attacks at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. The EU’s counter-terrorism plans call for the vigorous promotion of security, justice, democracy and opportunity for all. But to what extent have such aims proved compatible and consistently pursued?

Algeria: The Obstacles to Democracy

Brian Terranova • Aug 13 2011 • Essays

The past is present in Algeria. Although the country is an authoritarian state, it technically exhibits a civilian-run government led by an independent politician. Is there a chance for democracy? Not if Algeria can return to an effective authoritarian state as it was in the 1960s and 1970s because it will then be able to appease its population with education, jobs, houses, and rising living standards.

The CNN Effect and Somalia

Daniel McSweeney • Aug 11 2011 • Essays

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the influence of the media on the U.S. decision to withdraw from humanitarian operations in Somalia in 1994. The conclusion highlights the limits of the CNN effect as a theoretical framework for explaining media influence on foreign policy decisions. It instead emphasises the unique situational factors which influence policy.

India’s Nuclear Restraint and the Peaceful Nuclear Explosion

Tom Thornley • Aug 11 2011 • Essays

India’s nuclear trajectory does not match the realist logic that characterised many of the original nuclear powers. India has followed a uniquely Indian path towards nuclear development. By accepting the constructed-ness of foreign policy, it is possible to find explanations for India’s nuclear policy in the dominant understandings of Indian identity, science and modernity constructed primarily by Nehru.

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