The debate between free traders and environmentalists has led to the introduction of numerous innovations to the environmental provisions of the multilateral trading system. It has further led to the development of the concept of sustainable development, which aims to forge a balance between economic development and environmental protection.
The Chinese reaction to U.S. BMD and space security policy has emphasized the crucial importance of dialogue and economic engagement. Conscious of history’s rising powers being profoundly threatening and violent, China has been keen to stress its ‘peaceful rise’ as a ‘responsible great power.’
Great powers rarely make great multilateralists. The United Nations owes a lot of what it is today to the United States. It was the US that breathed life into the UN with its power and resources. Despite being one of the biggest advocates for the UN, why has the US been ambivalent towards it?
Politically, the EU is far off from being a cosmopolitan polity. This comes down to the fact that political participation does not cross borders. State sovereignty still plays a crucial part in the make up of the EU. Yet, there is a fundamental issue here. Increased democratic functions would need to occur before ever the mildest of David Held’s proposals could become reality.
The development of international institutions is one of the most admirable efforts for the achievement of world peace that the world has ever seen. It possesses many of the qualities of the liberalist ideal, however, it has not fulfilled its aim to make the international community a more peaceful place.
The European Union does not currently have a strategic culture, but it is in a process of creating one and putting it into practice. But the real question is whether the European Union has the capacity to transition from a civilian to a strategic actor, by developing a concrete strategic culture and a higher level of autonomy for the EU regarding security and defence issues
The fact that the debate over whether Islam and human rights discourse are compatible is an example of how states in the Middle East continue to go through a transitional phase in regard to reforming laws and policies which infringe upon peoples rights. Post election violence in Iran and Iraq suggests that there is still a long way to go in terms of securing peace in security in the region.
In four books from 1997 to 2008 Zbigniew Brzezinski outlined a comprehensive American foreign posture around the geopolitical grail of Central Asia. Since 1945 the United States has been largely defined as the first non-Eurasian thalassocracy to prevail in the Great Game, yet for how long?
Although the race for nuclear weapons created a very tense atmosphere during the Cold War, it was also an effective means to maintain stability because both superpowers had the incentive to avoid using their weapons knowing it would lead to their mutual destruction. Such conditions and incentives do not exist in either unipolar or multipolar systems. Bipolarity is therefore stable thanks to the balance of military power that exists between two superpowers.
In his book ‘Paradise and Power’, Robert Kagan states that since the falling of Soviet Russia, the apparent cracks between American and European psyches have become more apparent. As such, questions have been raised as to whether US-EU ideals were ever on the same axis.
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