Russia/Ukraine Links (Hayden Groves)
1.) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09668136.2019.1684447 2.) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56720589 3.) https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/conflict-ukraine
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Showing posts from February, 2022
Thucydides’ Discussion of Power
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Thucydides, an Athenian historian and general recounts the expedition against the island of Melos. In his narrative, Thucydides includes details regarding the siege of Melos and the power dynamics that are still relevant to international law to this day. Before the battle, Athenian and Melian representatives met to consider the Athenian terms. In short, Athens wanted to rule over the island of Melos with little resistance and wished to do so in a non-conflictive fashion. However, this did not go as planned because there was no guarantee of the Melian people’s safety and instead chose to resist. Attempting to avoid the death of soldiers, and the loss of time and resources, Athens then issued an unconditional surrender decree, threatening the Melian people with death, destruction, and enslavement if they did not comply with the original non-combative terms. Relating this scenario to modern international law in regards to power classification and examples, it is obvious...
The Importance of Both Soft and Military Power in Modern International Relations
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James Nespole Power is the thing that defines all relationships between people and states. Establishing power is extremely important for a state, as it allows the state to prosper and be protected. However, there is much debate amongst political theorists pertaining to how power should be established and what constitutes a state's power. I argue that military power and soft power are equally important in defining and establishing a state's level of power. Realist political theorist John Mearsheimer argues that a state's power is essentially solely their military power. This way of thinking about establishing power basically means that any relations between two states is only because one state has the ability to inflict violence upon the other state. I would argue that the Mearsheimer and other realists' way of thinking about power as just military might is outdated. In today's society international organizations, such as the Uni...
Latin American view on Du Bois reading
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Throughout the reading Of the Culture of White Folk, Du Bois lays out many reasons for his distaste for International Relations, as well as his critique of European and white society as a whole. While many scholars during the time, especially those from America and countries throughout Europe would have disagreed with the view of international relations, many Latin American countries and scholars would have agreed with Du Bois in his claims that the “international relations” employed by the white man during this time was not only catastrophic to countries and cultures at the time but continues to have a lasting effect on these countries. The first major claim that Du Bois makes in his article is that Christianity as a religion is a major failure, which can be seen when the article states, “A nation's religion is its life and as such white Christianity is a miserable failure. Nor would we be unfair in this criticism: We know that we too have failed as yo...
Morganthau, Zvobko, and Loken Related to bell hooks
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Tickner's critique of Morgenthau’s six principles of political realism based on feminist theory and Zvobgo and Loken’s argument of why race matters in international relations very strongly relate to the ideas in bell hooks’ Theory as Liberatory Practice . In hooks’ argument, she looks at how theory has historically been defined in a white patriarchal society and works to disregard the ideas of women and non-white people. She argues that what people consider to be “valid” theory is actually just the theories that support the system that benefits white men. Theory in itself is a broad concept that can be used in many different ways to arbitrarily support certain ideas. Zvobgo and Loken bring this idea back to international relations by arguing that it “privileges theorizing over historical description and analysis”. By using theory instead of analyzing history, people are able to justify racial imperialism by using theoretical concepts that favor weste...
Applying Modernity to Dubois
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After reading W. E. B. DuBois’s Of the Culture of White Folk, I realized that concepts from my Integrated Perspective’s class titled “Modernism and Crisis” would help deepen and further explain what DuBois meant in his writing. The main principle behind “Modernism and Crisis” is that deep crises emerge in societies because of modernity, or the development of objects and beliefs into a more modern version. Dubois speaks on this concept most directly on page 436 when he states, “Laboriously the Middle Ages built its rules of fairness–equal armament, equal notice, equal conditions. What do we see today? Machine guns against assegais, conquest sugared with religion…all this with vast applause at the superiority of white over black soldiers!” (DuBois 436). The distress and frustration that Dubois feels is exactly why modernism is so closely related with crisis. Because, as things advance and become more modern, the disparity between the people who have access to these modern adaptatio...
Why Race Matters in International Relations
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Why Race Matters in International Relations was one of the readings that we had discussed in class which stuck out to me because of how relevant it is today, and how the authors connected past events to current events. The author discusses the crucial impacts that International Relations has historically had on people of color, but also articulates the point that international relations scholars are broadly discriminated and unequally treated throughout the field of study. I concur with Zvobgo’s and Loken’s opinions on racial prejudice in the scholarly world, and would argue Eurocentric views in nearly all scholarly fields of study have impacted scholars and students in the educational system today. Not acknowledging issues with race and culture in the studies of international relations creates further issues for people of color not being recognized and creates more of a boundary between white scholars and scholars who identify as people of color. American politics is curre...