The West, Islam and Modernity
The relationship between West and Islam is more relevant than ever. The terrorist attacks in the US and Europe at the beginning of the new millennium, seemed to confirm the ideas expressed by Samuel Huntington and Francis Fukuyama. However, critical engagement with such issues requires a deeper understanding of West, Islam and Modernity, avoiding essentialist definitions of single sets of well-defined and separated ideas.
Postcolonial Theories as Critique and Challenge to ‘First World-ism’
The critiques of postcolonial feminists and critical feminisms have contributed epistemic, knowledge frameworks, and material insights into hegemonic power relations, and in particular global violence. Such theorizations have raised questions about the ‘geopolitical’ in order to transform IR’s contentious emphasis on geographical and territorial realms of power
Contradicting Norms of Secession in the Balkans
Ethno-nationalism has become a potent force in international and domestic politics. Gradually, norms have developed favouring a right of self determination for national groups seeking self-government.
Contemporary Conceptualizations of Women in Conflict
This paper examines the conceptualization of women in contemporary counterterror conflicts. It analyzes in which ways constructed gender dichotomies as the beautiful soul and the just warrior are reinforced and manipulated by political elites focusing on the case of Afghanistan. The paper’s core is the (re)construction of women as victims by politicians, namely the Bush administration.
What are the contradictions implicit in the idea of a global civil society?
‘Globality’ can hardly be achieved if it does not embrace at least the majority of the Earth’s population. While global civil society may be a reality as an occurrence that has no precedent in history, this does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that global civil society is ‘global’ in the way it is envisioned by its most ardent supporters.
Operation Iraqi Freedom and the Obsolescence of War
One of the last major books about war in international relations is paradoxically a book forecasting the end of the object it analyses. Retreat from Doomsday: the Obsolescence of Major War by John Mueller was released in 1989 and has become a classic reading making the author one of the most influential authors on the topic of war.
Western Depictions of Children and the New Imperialism
The human rights discourse has become a paradigm in international relations, with the transition from the international system to an international society. A vital aspect of that paradigm is the differentiation between adult and child, which has also been primarily instituted by the West. The supremacy of this definition has served the supremacy of the West in the human rights question.
Economic Development and Democratisation in the Middle East
There is an incompatibility between the purpose and mode of Middle Eastern economic development to date and the fraught efforts towards forms of democracy across the region. Additionally, the importance of certain economic developments to specific actors has successfully outweighed the importance of democracy in the region, and will persist in doing so for the foreseeable future.
World Risk Society and the Response to Terrorism
This paper will analyse how the concepts in Ulrich Beck’s Risk Society are influencing the War on Terror. Moreover, it will examine their practical enforcement, the way in which they pose serious threats to the international law system and how this contributes to the shaping a new domestic order in those states where they have being applied.
The Political Realism of Thucydides and Thomas Hobbes
The Realist school of thought in International Relations has claimed both Thucydides and Hobbes as two of their intellectual forefathers and in doing so has suggested that the core beliefs and views of these two political thinkers can be classified as Realism. Although the key realist ideas can be found in both authors, there are significant differences that need to be addressed.
