Essays

Of Food Aid and Altruism – The Human Security Paradigm in Theory and Practice

Annette Kufner • Jan 22 2010 • Essays

Fifteen years after its first official promulgation, the human security paradigm requires analysis and evaluation, particularly in respect to its implications for the politics of international food aid.

Chinese Nuclear Policy in the Post-Cold War Age

Neil Braysher • Jan 21 2010 • Essays

Chinese nuclear policy serves their grand strategy aimed at maintaining a calm international strategic environment. China’s nuclear policy is inherently defensive and, excluding proliferation concerns, practically benign. However, one should remember that this does not mean it isn’t based on self-interest.

Separate but (Un)Equal: Gender Segregated Bus Lines of Jerusalem

Julie Duggan • Jan 19 2010 • Essays

There is a tendency to equate the metaphor of travel and mobility with emancipation and the ability to move freely between cultures or continents. This work examines the implications of gender segregation in Ultra Orthodox communities of Jerusalem, by looking more closely at women’s experiences of the journeys made (both actual and allegorical) between the public and private spheres.

What is at Stake in the Third Debate and Why does it Matter for International Theory?

Dell Marie Butler • Jan 16 2010 • Essays

The ‘postpositivist’ challenge to the ‘empiricist-positivist’ orthodoxy is often considered to be international theory’s ‘Third Great Debate’. This essay investigates whether a new consensus might provide an unproblematic ‘resolution’ to the debate, or if it might (re)create practices which do violence to those silenced.

The Rwandan Genocide: The Guilty Bystanders

Bernard-Alexandre Merkel • Jan 14 2010 • Essays

Each time genocide occurs, the world cries out ‘never again’. So why does no one stop these atrocities once they begin? Why are they simply ignored until they “resolve” themselves? This essay will be seeking to answer why the humanitarian intervention failed to prevent the genocide in Rwanda. It will focus on three main possible reasons why the intervention failed.

One Person’s Terrorist… Another Person’s Freedom Fighter?

Mareike Oldemeinen • Jan 13 2010 • Essays

This work will point out that although maybe not wholly applicable, the truism that ‘one person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter’ is useful in some respect, as it draws attention to important issues that have to be considered when attempting to define the concept of terrorism.

Disputed Lands: the Rise of Pentecostalism in Latin America

Naomi Conrad • Jan 12 2010 • Essays

The religious story of Latin America under Hispanic rule has long been one of Catholic religious hegemony and dominance. This essay explores the role of the progressive Catholic Church with the end of authoritarian rule in Latin America. It assesses the role that the rise of Pentecostalism played in this decline.

The Chinese Communist Party’s Treatment of Ethnic Minorities

Jocelyn Leung • Jan 10 2010 • Essays

To consider the CCP’s treatment of its ethnic minorities, one must recognise that the relationships between those in central authority and those isolated in the peripheries are constantly in flux, with each side’s actions incessantly influencing and constraining the others’ future moves. This paper considers arguments that posit successes and mistakes in the CCP’s treatment towards its ethnic minorities.

Hegemonic Stability Theory and the 20th Century International Economy

Rahul Prabhakar • Jan 8 2010 • Essays

The theory of hegemonic stability does not explain the failure of the interwar and the success of the post-1945 international economic orders. Domestic influences upon international monetary cooperation in major states were a crucial determining factor in the global economic stability or lack thereof in the interwar and post-WWII periods.

Why Did the Soviet Union Invade Afghanistan?

Daryl Morini • Jan 3 2010 • Essays

The Soviet intervention in Afghanistan was a costly and, ultimately, pointless war. However, exactly why the Red Army wound up in direct military conflict, embroiled in a bitter and complicated civil war—some 3,000 kilometres away from Moscow—is a point of historiographical uncertainty. Little known and appreciated for its significance, the Soviet-Afghan War was one of the turning points of the late Cold War.

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