The global financial crisis has so far failed to yield a second Bretton Woods agreement, as some had hoped, but recent calls for a new global reserve currency are beginning to excite the minds of politicians, financiers and scholars alike. Taking inspiration from the ‘bancor’ currency proposed by John Maynard Keynes in 1944, the governor of the People’s Bank of China suggested last month that the global monetary system would benefit from revamping the role of the International Monetary Fund’s special drawing rights (SDRs) to create a uniform global reserve currency.
Concerns that the pursuit of a low carbon global economy may lead to further deprivation in the developing world rest on a false assumption. ‘Low carbon life styles’ are already lived by the poor in the ‘South’. It is rich countries, accounting for most of the pollution, which face an unprecedented challenge in adapting their ways of life to allow human societies to survive on the planet.
Discussions on the role of the state have always involved a search for appropriate metaphors. “The taming of the Leviathan,” “the state in retreat,” and even worse, the “slim state” – between fitness and anorexia – are but a handful of examples. The most popular metaphor at present seems to be “the return of the lost Leviathan.” But this metaphor is misleading. The state is not returning from foreign exile.
In looking at the cases of Angola, Indonesia and Zaire it can be clearly demonstrated that though minerals are of significance they are only so because of political decisions. The discussion begins with an evaluation of the ‘resource curse’ argument looking closely at its empirical grounding and two main explanatory models: rent seeking and the rentier state. The robustness of this analysis is then questioned and the relationship of mineral resources and politics to the root of violent conflict is assessed through the use of detailed case studies.
Liberal fire-brand William Gladstone launched his election campaign to become British Prime Minister in 1880 during what was being described by contemporaries as the ‘Great Depression’. The ‘People’s William’ was elected primarily on the back of his promise to reverse the Conservative Party’s jingoistic, imperialist foreign policy under Benjamin Disraeli’s tenure.
One of the enduring features of Western strategic thinking over the past half-century has been to immediately write off one’s less powerful enemy, if the latter has been militarily overpowered. As the history of contemporary warfare suggests, very often this approach is couched on the realist thinking that a vanquished enemy is incapable of making a comeback.
Theory can never be detached from situational context. Far from even contemplating the possibility of bias-free analysis, I argue that any knowledge claim must always be inherently political in nature, capable of stimulating or withholding change in the social context in which the claimant is embedded. If this (admittedly divisive) assumption is correct, it seems the theorist, including the IR theorist, has two somewhat polar options. He can concentrate on and develop theory that ‘leads to analysis that is pro-status quo and amoral’, or alternatively he can concentrate on the critical evaluation of how we come to see a certain range of possibilities in the international arena.
The field of IR has been concerned about its scientific status for decades. This concern has led to a number of efforts to make the field “truly scientific” by adopting one or another philosophical and methodological stance: behaviorism in the 1950s, neopositivism in the 1970s and 1980s, and critical realism in the 1990s.
The United States is currently feeling the pinch when it comes to purchasing oil. Though there is research being done to find alternative measures, until then, the United States must continue to purchase oil abroad. One of its main exporters is Venezuela. Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, since coming to office has made it a point to undermine the United States and its influence in the Latin American region. Is there a possibility that Venezuela could potentially stop its oil exports to the United States?
This paper agrees with the opinion that trade is an essential tool, which helps developing economies industrialise. However by using case studies, empirical data and analysing the adopted polices of the successful developing economies, this paper will support the argument that the most successful developing economies, developed under a more protectionist environment. Having completed this evaluation, the paper will then look at the policy implications of the conclusions made.
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