Resources are strategically invaluable economic and political tools. It is the unquestionable human thirst for black gold, and other vital resources such as water and minerals, where global capitalism, post-colonial kleptocracy and the disenfranchised insurgent will meet in an unpredictable and volatile new paradigm.
Traditional approaches to international relation, such as liberalism, realism, and realpolitik, have failed in Somalia. As policymakers determine what to do about Somalia, they should consider employing faith-based diplomacy jointly with traditional military operations and Track I diplomatic efforts.
On the basis of Euro-American Feminist and popular discourse on Muslim women in the west, Islamic Feminism seems to be somewhat of an oxymoron. Likewise for many Muslims the label Feminism is often construed as a Western project, carrying with it historical and ideological baggage.
Following 9/11 and more recently the Arab Spring, the relationship between Islam and politics has faced renewed attention. In contemporary Islamic states, religion theoretically guides the exercise of political power but in practice it is used and employed as a tool of realpolitik.
Marxism has been at the forefront of political thought ever since Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto in 1848. Although principles of Marxism can still be seen in Western left-wing politics today, the theory of Marxism as set out by Karl Marx is dead.
The US experience in Venezuela helped nuance its wider policy towards Latin America by challenging the reliance on free market economics. While the Eisenhower administration chose to re-emphasise democratic values in order to combat rising Communist radicalism, practical support for democracy proved to be limited.
In the McCarthy era of the 1950s, anti-Communism created an atmosphere of fear which allowed political actors to accrue greater powers over the American population. This unusual situation was permitted as the public were manipulated by people with political interests into believing the USA had entered into a state of emergency in order to safeguard national security.
Predator drones, first developed in 1995, have been widely utilised during the Global War on Terror due to their ability to provide surveillance and combat capabilities for a relatively low cost and without risk to the human operator.
The general consensus in the literature and the media is that the US is losing the ‘war on drugs’. Rates of consumption in the US have remained roughly the same over the last ten years and the drug trade remains a multi-billion dollar industry run by a complex international network.
Despite the euphoria that accompanied the toppling of Felix Dzerzhinsky’s statue in Lubyanka Square in August 1991, the power of the KGB, now the FSB and the SVR, has not declined. True reform of Russia’s security services, despite some early intent, has not happened.
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