In a time of globalisation and complex interdependence, drawing upon on the ideas of past influential thinkers and adapting these concepts to current circumstances is beneficial to aid a better understanding of our contemporary world.
For a long time, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were viewed predominantly as socially and morally progressive organisations. Yet, this dominant perception of NGOs as do-gooders has been challenged in recent decades – especially after 9/11. This essay focuses on two of the many potential challenges to the political claims of NGOs: the inequality in the world polity and regressive globalisation.
The UN, while far from flawless, is of paramount importance and relevance for maintaining national security and the worldwide protection of human rights.
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.
Release from colonial rule has not benefited Sierra Leone. Ironically, it is the government’s responsibility to provide its citizens with good living conditions; in Sierra Leone, it is this same government that plays a key factor in pushing them into deeper poverty.
While progress does have a role in ‘On Liberty’, it is significantly less than the role of liberty. Used to underpin Mill’s argument, progress is treated as a value-laden principle, erected to justify liberal ideology.
This essay will argue that an actor’s identity is integral in understanding global politics today, with identity helping to shape and drive an actor’s interests as well as their interpretation and response to events. Moreover, identity is critical to how other actors respond to them and their actions.
Donors are distributing foreign aid, to certain poor countries only. The most prominent justification for this policy action is as the statement suggests, ‘the prospects for aid being most effective are the poorest’ in these countries. This paper will ascertain how donors have come to reach this development policy, by analyzing the evolving theories and trends of aid. However it will also suggest that the justification, on which the current policy agenda is set, is not founded upon robust assumptions.
The question of ‘who governs?’ is problematic. We must, therefore, start our inquiry of power with a question of ‘how?’: how is power exercised?
Power is pervasive; it belongs to no-one. Its main medium of control is surveillance. Bentham’s Panopticon is, on the whole, a suitable analogy for Michel Foucault’s conception of power. It encompasses the essence of Foucault’s work on power, though it does not represent it in its entirety.
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