The Korea Crisis and China’s Policy
China’s mild response to the March 2010 sinking of South Korean navy warship Cheonan has frustrated many people. It has not joined the United States, Japan, and South Korea in openly condemning Pyongyang and threatening punitive measures. What explains China’s fence-sitting on this issue? What is China interest on the Korean peninsula?
The World(s) of IR: continental perspectives
The case of continental Europe is special in several ways and contains several intriguing paradoxes. It is a continent that has produced some of the most prominent contemporary social theorists – e.g. Jürgen Habermas, Pierre Bourdieu and Niklas Luhmann – but the insights of their social theory has not really been ‘translated’ into IR theory in any comprehensive or structured fashion.
Collateral Damages of Smart Sanctions on Iran
The prospects for democracy, socio-economic development and conflict resolution will be suffering if the West continues to rely on punitive measures. Despite all frivolous claims, the diplomatic route has not been exhausted. Indeed, we are far from it. Since the core problem remains the “security dilemma” in the region, it would be wise for the West to call upon Israel to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
Guerrilla Diplomacy for the 21st Century: Rethinking International Relations in a World of Insecurity
Diplomacy can help make the world a better place, but it has failed to adapt to the imperatives of world order management in the 21st century. It has been sidelined, under-resourced and marginalized by governments almost everywhere. If this is to change, grand strategy will have to be reconsidered.
Channeling “Nixon Goes to China” in the Middle East
In order to avoid losing ground in a geopolitically pivotal region of the world, the US must be bold. Today, Iran and the increasingly confident Shia of the Middle East are playing a central role in shaping what the region will look like a generation from now. The US must be able to adapt to the shifting sands and not cling rigidly to yesteryear’s policy prescriptions.
Science Diplomacy at the heart of international relations
Science should ideally provide the basis of non-ideological environments for the participation and free exchange of ideas. However, science has been, and will continue to be, used for political gain with the express aim of furthering a particular ideology and proving its superiority. Despite the negatives, science diplomacy has been effective for many years and led to coalition building and conflict resolution.
How NATO and Russia are Shaping the Future of European Security
The kind of conventional military brinkmanship going on at the common NATO-Russia border is not good news. A phenomenon not seen since the frostiest Cold War periods. If the last East-West confrontation offers a cautionary tale, it is that the situation urgently needs to be de-escalated, before worst-case scenarios become self-fulfilling prophecies.
China Rising: Friend or Foe?
As a power such as China come to rise, it can at its discretion take the role of a rival, a partner, or disguise itself and ultimately be both. Therefore, an emphasis on human rights through public diplomacy and positive interaction with both China and the international community may be the key that opens the door to building positive relations between the United States and China in the future.
Threat Morphing in Cyberspace
Much has been written about cybercrime, cyberterrorism and cyberwarfare, but very little has been written about how, and why, these evolving threat categories differ from their real-world analogues. This is unfortunate, because the differences between the threat categories mean that the laws and strategies devised to deal with real-world threats are often ineffectual in dealing with cyber-mediated threats.
Whither French Foreign Policy: same horns, same dilemma?
From the beginning of the twentieth century France’s foreign and defence policy has been impaled on the horns of a dilemma: whether to seek a European or a transatlantic solution to her security problems. Since coming to power in 2007 Nicolas Sarkozy appears to wish to embrace both routes in equal measure. If French history is anything to go by he may not be able to sustain that position for long.
