As US President Barack Obama outlined his ambitious vision of a world without nuclear weapons, this essay proposes to analyse whether nuclear disarmament is indeed a more serious policy option today than at the dawn of the atomic age in 1945 or at the height of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.
Junio Valerio Palomba provides an alternative insight on the nature of private military and security companies and their activities. Specifically, he demonstrates how recent changes in the organization and structure of the market for force – such as the disappearance of combat operations – can be interpreted and explained through the theoretical lens of legitimacy.
On September 16, 2007, the issue of private military firms exploded out of the dry confines of academic debate and into the public consciousness as bright, bloody pictures blanketed the newspapers and television networks that had long ignored the subject. Seventeen Iraqis had been violently killed and more than twenty others wounded while they went about their business in Nisour Square, in the heart of Baghdad’s once fashionable Mansour District.
In the aftermath of the banking crisis, many commentators are calling for new global regulation regimes. This essay argues that prudent banking supervision on the national level can be considered more effective than global alternatives, and is able to prevent national banks from establishing risky business practices. International regulation efforts, by contrast, have proved damaging.
An analysis of Thomas Hobbes’ the ‘Leviathan’ will focus on introducing the importance of the state of nature as an image of life without government. By using contemporary examples, the aim is to illustrate how states behave in the international paradigm in terms of ensuring self-preservation.
Francisco de Vitoria, a theologian of the 16th century and core writer of the Renaissance, questions our understanding of international affairs and, thus, International Relations as an academic discipline. He leads us to think about the ambiguity of the norms of the contemporary international system, and of international law.
Whilst disciples and collaborators such as Hedley Bull, Robert Jackson and Brian Porter speak of Marin Wight as a seminal thinker and erudite scholar, others such as Alan James claim that his influence on the discipline is limited. This paper proposes to assess Wight’s impact on the study of International Relations.
This paper will show that the implementation of ballistic missile defence systems is a threat to international peace and security. It will examine of the concept of ballistic missile defence, the cases for and against its implementation and the current realities that are of consideration and its role in international peace and security.
This essay argues that the early Kant largely followed the domestic analogy when describing the state of nature between individuals and states – directly affecting his views on coercion. The mature Kant however incorporated all the level of analysis into his writings and transcended but did not entirely abandon the domestic analogy.
The following essay will present an evaluation of the just war theory using the 1st Gulf war as a case study. The intervention reveals a number of issues regarding applying just war theory to contemporary conflict.
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