POLS170 Blog Group 0402

     Recently there has been large debates regarding the implications regarding the possibility of the United States potentially pulling out of the World Trade Organization. While some politicians and economists supported this idea and have argued that it would be beneficial for the US to leave this organization, the US would have to face some serious consequences that would be hard to bounce back from, not only domestically, but globally since other countries could potentially be positively affected if this deal were to go into effect. The debate is still ongoing, but the consequences and risks of this action, especially during an economic crisis from the covid-19 pandemic, are too great to ignore and continue to be in pursuit of departing from the World Trade Organization.       There are several strong arguments that support my claims that leaving would present more bad than good. First, the US being involved in the world trade organization adds gre...

The Wealth of Nations, written by American colonial economist Adam Smith, is an ancient novel that is still relevant to modern international economics. In the novel, Smith discusses the origin of capitalism and how capitalism is rooted in mercantilism, a system designed to maximize exports and minimize imports for an economy. True mercantilism focuses on the total advantage of monopolizing the manufacturing of certain goods or services. This perfect system brought forth the ideology behind comparative advantage versus absolute advantage. While absolute advantage describes a country’s ability to produce more units of a good than another country using the same quantity of resources, comparative advantage represents the ability to produce a good at a lower opportunity cost than another country. Behind the economic theory of comparative advantage was British economist, David Ricardo. Ricardo is given credit for the creation of the logical system to maximize economic efficiency while simult...

After former President Donald Trump’s many threats to leave the World Trade Organization (WTO) during his presidency, much debate has taken place over whether or not the United States should remain in the WTO. However, it is in the United States’ best interests to remain in the WTO because the agreements within the WTO protect American exporters from trade barriers like tariffs, the WTO provides the US with a forum for settling disputes with foreign countries, and the US would forfeit a substantial amount of their power over the world's economy to China. Over the last few decades, exports have become an increasingly large part of the American economy. This can be mainly attributed to trade agreements made in the WTO that have been favorable for the US. For example, since the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was adopted and then turned into the WTO, according to Daniel Griswold, “...the average level of global tariffs levied against U.S. exports has dropped sharply ...

  In Susan Strange’s article Finance, Information, and Power, she articulates how the global economy “...has been achieved by bringing together national financial systems into one global system” (Strange 260). However, Strange is quick to point out that there are consequences of this unification, one being “...for the customers, whether they want to put funds into the system (i.e., sell) or whether they want to borrow from it (i.e., buy)” (Strange 260). Utilizing Strange’s clarification about the consequences of engaging in the global financial system, Jamaica is an excellent example of a country that suffered heavily from its inclusion in the global economy and has experienced difficulty regulating its national economy and debt.  After Jamaica received independence from Great Britain in 1962, they were left with intense structural issues that created economic problems. Needing time to build their infrastructure, Jamaica took out loans from the IMF, hoping that the capital wo...

As early as the late 18th century great minds such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo have come up with the idea that free trade would help that world. The argument behind free trade would be that all resources could be produced exactly where they were found or mined, and this would be the most efficient and cost effective way to get resources around the world. Furthermore, if all countries relied on other countries for specific resources, this would cause less conflict in the world as many countries would be dependent on others for quality of life. Despite all these benefits of free trade, how come the world has not shifted into a system of free trade? While free trade comes with a lot of advantages for many people around the world, the disadvantages of free trade outweigh the benefits it creates.  The first argument against free trade is that it creates job loss. Although there are some arguments about this disadvantage, it is easy to see how people could lose their jobs from free...

  The New York Times debate over the need for the International Criminal Court is very relevant when considering the blatant war crimes that Putin is currently committing in Ukraine.  The debate is centered around how there are multiple issues with the ICC that need to be addressed and the ICC often falls short of being able to fully do their job.  The issues that were brought up were the lack of due process, the need for more local enforcement, and the legal vacuum.  What the debate does not address is how nations, such as Russia, China and the United States, are not members of the ICC.  Trying to fix the issues of enforcement are difficult to do when the world superpowers are not held to the same standards as the rest of the world.  Russia is clearly committing war crimes in the Ukraine right now and the United States has a history of committing war crimes around the world.  Besides the lack of ability to prosecute nations, such as Russia and the...

  I found the article by D eGuzman provided the reader with the most persuasion, because while the international criminal court has faced some backlash in recent years for seeming ineffective in attempting to disband international criminal cases, the author has pointed out that is in a relatively new institution that has been working to adapt their work and institutional designs in order to become more effective. The author notes that it is not a surprise that it has not been able to overcome political realities, since it has only been established since 2002. In fact, she argues that they have been able to accomplish in the short period of time since then. I find this most persuasive given the fact that most people are unaware of how much effort it takes to put these trials into effect.  The International Criminal Court has been able to gain the support from most of the worlds states, which has been beneficial but the reliance on state and actor cooperation has made for many ...

When it comes to the arguments on the International Crimes Court, I think the article presented by Daniel Abebe is the most convincing to me. After reading the article presented right before it, (the article by Anne Marie Gotez), it seemed that maybe the best way to fix the problems within the ICC would be to give them more funding and allow them to give more financial aid to the victims of these war crimes. Furthermore, she said that the funding for this program had been below a million and it was not enough for the ICC to function effectively. However, after reading the article presented by Abebe it stated that since 2002, the ICC has spent over a billion dollars. If in 20 years they were able to spend this mass amount of money, then there is no way that they are being underfunded. Moreover, Abebe states that the funding for the ICC is over 100 millions dollars a year, which is an incredible quantity of money for people to be asking for more money to be pumped into the system. Abeb...

  After reading the 6 positions on the ICC from the readings, M. Kamari Clarke’s stance regarding the fact that justice is necessary within the ICC and not just a strict adherence to law was the most persuasive opinion because she points out the fact that violence doesn’t occur in a vacuum, and there are usually systemic influences that are the true causes of such issues. The problem that Clarke dictates about the ICC is that “...we have oversold judicial solutions to address these structural problems.” She articulates how supporters of the ICC see it as an institution that could solve all of the world’s problems through judicial actions, but there are actions that the ICC simply can’t accomplish. When considering Kenya, Clarke emphasizes that there are deeply ingrained systems of oppression, violence, and inequality that have revealed themselves in Kenya’s political system. Since these systems have existed within Kenya for years and have solidified themselves as ingrained in the c...

  James Nespole      After reading the six positions on the ICC posed by the academics from the reading, I found the argument of Ted Galen Carpenter to be the most persuasive. Carpenter’s main argument is that the problems with the ICC go beyond the Uhuru Kenyatta case, which include causing dictators to latch onto their power when presented with prosecution and clear and obvious violations of due process within the ICC, which is a staple in the American legal system, thus, the US should continue its noninvolvement.  Carpenter claims that one major issue that is often ignored by ICC supporters is that threatening to prosecute dictators creates an incentive for them to further hold onto their power and increase the brutality of their regime. I think this argument is valid because a dictator who has engaged in an assortment of human-rights violations isn’t going to just surrender themself to the process of international law. They will fight with whatever power t...

The most persuasive argument made for how to fix the International Criminal Court is to empower national and regional courts.  The point that Elena Baylis is making is that the court is unable to fully complete their entire caseload and they were never supposed to be the first responders to international crimes.  One of the issues that almost all of the people make is that the court is hurt by political issues that make it difficult to prosecute crimes against certain nations.  They also do not have the financial resources to take care of all of the human rights violations and atrocities that take place all over the world.  It makes sense that a court that does not have ample resources would not be able to solve cases that span the entire world.  There are also many nations, such as the United States, that do not take part in the International Criminal Court.  The idea that the International Criminal Court could serve as an oversight organization for loca...

  Within the realm of international politics, there is a mutual understanding in regards to how to handle the most destructive and deadly weapon created in history: the nuclear bomb. The term that defines this shared theorem is referred to as Mutually Assured Destruction or MAD. The MAD principle explains why we have never had a nuclear war in the last century due to the Second Strike Capability that countries possess when nuclear weapons are used against them. When a country is attacked by nuclear weaponry, before annihilation, they may use their own nuclear arsenal against the country that attacked them first, thus the reason why the term is known as the Second Strike Capability. There are other strategies that prevent this destructive war and these strategies are indicated as Deterrence and Compellence. The act of deterrence refers to preventing another party from undertaking an action through coercion. On the other hand, compellence is the act of forcing another party to undert...

  James Nespole      After a nearly two decade campaign in Afghanistan that spanned over four presidencies, the Biden Administration finally removed American troops from Afghanistan. The Biden Administration believed that the Afghan Government would be able to hold off the Taliban for 30-90 days, but the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, fell to the Taliban in just 6. Many have criticized Joe Biden and his administration’s decision to leave Afghanistan and his method of doing so. However, although Biden’s procedure for removing American troops was both sloppy and disorganized, it was time for the US to leave Afghanistan.  As aforementioned, the US’s departure from Afghanistan was a sloppy mess that was widely publicized and ultimately reflected poorly on both the Biden Administration and US as a whole. As stated by Grossman, “Chaos at Kabul’s airport as people try to get out, helicopter evacuations from the U.S. embassy that bring back memories of the fall of S...

  After reading Thucydides’ “The Melian Dialogues” from The History of the Peloponnesian War , I discovered that the Melian’s reaction to the Athenian’s attempt at subjugation reflected the mindsets of two philosophers I had discussed in another class: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Frantz Fanon. Gandhi and Fanon present ways to combat oppression and colonialism that oppose each other. However, they assist in explaining the mindset of the Melians and why they did not surrender right away. After reflecting on both methods and looking at the outcome of the war between the Melians and the Athenians, it is apparent that having more of Gandhi’s passivity and level-headedness would have assisted the Athenians with the best outcome, despite it being majorly unfavorable for the Melians.       The Melians are struck with disbelief when the Athenians refuse to accept their extension of neutrality and friendliness because it would make them seem weak. The Melian’s state, “...

  Analysis on Grossman Reading  Grossman states that all political acts that occurred in Afghanistan were wrong and led to more widespread issues for both Americans and the Afghan government. After the United States withdrew military support from Afghanistan, the Afghani Government collapsed. The Afghan government was not strong enough to stand on their own, thus depending on nearly twenty years of military support from America. In this case, the Taliban taking over would have most likely occur at any point and time when US troops had been pulled out. The question here is wether this was the right thing to do. In my opinion, yes. Billions of dollars had been spent and American lives had been lost in the fight of preventing terrorist regieme's, which is a war that is close to no end. One of the main initial reasoning for providing troops was to spread democratic values and support, but this had not been accomplished. This may have helped provide that in the short term, but th...

  Kyle Lionetti In 2012, Kenneth Waltz and Colin Kahl both produced separate articles on whether or not they believed that Iran should be allowed to get nuclear weapons, or if the United States, the EU, and Israel should continue to try and prevent them from doing so. Whether you agreed with Waltz (Iran should be allowed to get the bomb) or Kahl (Iran should not be able to get the bomb) from this reading, recent events in the world should change public opinion and shift everyone onto the side of Waltz. In the past week, Russia has invaded their neighboring country of Ukraine and sent in a large invasion force to try and take the capital as well as many other important cities. As Vladimir Putin and Russia continue to send more troops into Ukraine, more sanctions have been placed on Russia to try and prevent them from succeeding in their military endeavors. Furthermore, the same countries that have placed sanctions on Russia have come to the aid of Ukraine. However, this aid does...

  Rich World, Poor World , by Mick Moore is a perfect example of an American writing a piece that attempts to explain why parts of the world struggle with extreme poverty and lack of stable government without properly taking into account the role that countries like England, the United States and other European countries have played in creating this situation.  In his article in the Boston Review, Moore critiques State-Building , a book written by Francis Fukuyama.  The purpose of the book is to look at why certain states have failed.  Moore and Fukuyama are British and American respectively and both of them are attempting to explain why non-western states have failed.  There is a brief mention of the cause of these issues being due to imperialism by England and the United States, but at least in the article this is referred to as “p owerful and rich foreign countries, the international institutions they have created, and the rich markets for natural resources...