In some cases the international community has exacerbated obstacles to DDR through arms sales to war-torn societies, budgetary constraints, or neglect of ex-combatants.
This essay determines the effect of National Missile Defence (NMD) is primarily destabilising. However this has to be put in the wider context of relations between the US, China and Russia – for the destabilising effect of NMD is very much characterised by how it is used and what kind of policy it is a part of.
Gender is one of the most crucial aspects of individual identity and it is closely linked to ideas of war. Elshtain’s ‘Just Warriors’ and ‘Beautiful Souls’, her portrayal of the ideal gender types for western society, make clear the war roles that each of us is encouraged to aspire to in peace-time society. Patriarchy refers broadly to rule by men and can be seen almost universally. In this essay I will examine the patriarchy of the international system and the international relations theory that serves to reinforce and recreate the male-dominated nature of this system.
Callaghan cannot take the blame for the economic instability he inherited. Callaghan held successes throughout his term in office, inflation fell from 16% and 24% the two previous years before he took office, down to nearly 8% in 1978. Whilst he was successful to an extent, there were clear failings; his premiership is tainted by the decision not to go to the polls in the autumn of 1978, and the IMF crisis which is seen to be a blot on his economic record
This essay argues that whilst the destructive power of the atom bomb is significant, its contribution to stability in the latter half of the twentieth century is not. Indeed, it seems more likely that the contribution of nuclear weapons was to make a “long peace” seem less inevitable than it in fact was.
Ever since the so called ‘interparadigm debate’ in the 1970s and 1980s, the discipline of International Relations is perceived to be characterised by a series of paradigms. Even though a range of post-positivist theories have sprung up in recent years, leading some scholars to proclaim the post-positivist era, positivism is likely to remain the dominant paradigm in the discipline.
The egoistic passions and self-interests of states, in terms of military, economic and diplomatic power, marked the increasing number of UN peacekeeping operations after 1990.
Realists maintain that the nature of International Politics is a constant, at times blood thirsty, struggle for power in an anarchical environment. The occurrence of fundamental change, such as the end of power politics, a self-interested human nature, and the threat of war, in the nature of International Politics is considered flawed. Realists provide evidence for this by pointing firstly to the consistency of human nature, the structure of power, and thirdly to patterns in history.
Framing infectious diseases as an existential threat entails a whole series of consequences. Some of them concern the nature of the diseases, which are increasingly presented and perceived as a menace to peace and stability rather than a simple but serious medical condition. Others are related to the way these diseases should be treated and by whom, with an increasing role acclaimed both by state and international actors.
Hobbes’ work was designed to make the analysis of politics more scientific. Machiavelli was a man of action; he worked, primarily, as a civil servant of the Florentine Republic. It is this difference in methodology, which ultimately underlies the differences in political beliefs of these two people.
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