China’s growing influence in the international system is receiving a lot of attention, both positive and negative. In some quarters, China’s ‘rise’ is complete. This growth is especially felt in North East Asia. Therefore, the Republic of Korea needs to take great interest in China’s future role on the regional and global stage, concerning it’s relations with its northern neighbour as well as their close cooperation with the US.
Economics have a profound influence on defence policy regardless of country. One merely needs to observe the debates on expenditure today for a look at how even a superpower like the United State’s armed forces is constrained by defence budgets. While the same holds true for the UK, it has been more noticeable since 1945 with Britain’s declining power and prestige.
As Turkey readies sanctions against Syria, there is some confusion as to how one best reads the relationship between these two neighbors. Until this year, the government of Turkey led by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) appeared friendly with the Assad regime, and has spent the recent months diplomatically urging Bashar Assad to curb his violent crackdowns against protesters.
The strength and spread of cultural interactions between different governments and different people’s will reduce the likelihood of war between nations. As globalization takes its seat as the world’s ruling party, the international system will become a single yet vibrant meeting place.
Since Poland gained its independence in1989, economic development and modernization has been a driving factor for reforms. As EU at the time was closely associated with democratic stability and the prosperity enjoyed in Western Europe, membership became a vital step in the pursuit to attain Western level of welfare and prosperity.
The echoes of the imaginary geographies associated with the Cold War undoubtedly underpin many of the geopolitical phenomena that typify the current ‘War on Terror’; inherent to the geopolitical discourses of both eras are binary distinctions; distinctions between good vs evil, us vs them etc, all stemming from a firmly rooted ‘conflict of ideologies’
There are 170 recognized ethnic groups in the Russian Federation and recent years have seen a number of conflicts between the Federation and regionally-based secessionist groups. One possible mechanism for preventing or resolving these conflicts is consociational democracy but it may not be sufficient to restore confidence in the Russian state among ethnic minorities and it may entrench ethnic divisions.
The fight for women’s suffrage in Switzerland dates back to the 19th century. Yet, it may seem surprising to learn that women, in one of the oldest modern democracies in Europe, lacked the right to express their voice on national matters well past the middle of the 20th century.
Since the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the development sector has been engaged in debate concerning the failures of the NGO response. NGOs have destructively transplanted a parallel system of governance, often being caught up within an aid worker bubble which has stood between the Haitian state and its citizens and thus undermined the symbiotic nature of their social contract.
A lack of cooperation between agencies, ignorance in dealing with the methods of fund-gathering and fund-moving measures, and the implementation of contradictory policies have resulted in a system in which the West cannot find a comprehensive strategy to curb the financing of Islamic terrorism.
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