Despite increases in military and civilian personnel to Afghanistan, the United States is losing the battle of perceptions. But the Coalition’s information operations can be improved.
Hobbes’ work was designed to make the analysis of politics more scientific. Machiavelli was a man of action; he worked, primarily, as a civil servant of the Florentine Republic. It is this difference in methodology, which ultimately underlies the differences in political beliefs of these two people.
Ahmadinejad’s rise to power in 2005 resulted in an emboldened Iranian foreign policy and a heightened international response. A vast majority of Iranians are opposed to foreign sanctions against the country, yet a considerable number of them derive a tacit sense of satisfaction from seeing them imposed as it challenges, and thus might awaken, an establishment they have desperately, but vainly so far, sought to reform.
The threat posed by extreme terrorism to the United Kingdom is both serious and ongoing, specifically since the catastrophic events 9/11 and 7/7. Security and liberty are both essential to modern democracy, but they do not hold equal value. Thus, security should be given greater weight than liberty in order to secure the state and prevent future terrorist attacks.
Freedom of expression is the core of a healthy media, a fundamental human right, and vital for a democratic structure. Lack of information can, at any stage of a conflict, make people desperate, restless and easy to manipulate. The potential of the media in conflict and post-conflict situations remains a net positive, and has been sadly underutilized to this point in time
Marxism has not, since its original formulation, considered IR and its concepts worthy as an object of study in its own right. Therefore, over 150 years after the publication of his major treatises, there is a sense that Marx’s project needs to be revised to account for this world of states.
Many countries use national security as the pretext for violating human rights, but why should Iran single out the Baha’is for this kind of persecution? Since President Ahmadinejad came to power in 2006, the situation has worsened for the Baha’i community in Iran. Recently, more shocking news surfaced about the demolition of houses in the province of Mazandran in the north of Iran. But this was not an isolated event. In 2007, six Baha’i houses were set on fire and more recently, almost 50 houses have been demolished.
The media can be a highly useful tool for agencies and individuals involved in development projects. It can be used to raise awareness of the problems they are working to overcome, to apply political pressure, and to gain financial or material support. Unfortunately, at times the way that the media and the way that development projects function often come in to conflict, especially for corporate news outlets
There a palpable sense of both exuberance and excitement in recent developments in gender and international politics. Though I use the word gender, this still tends to end up meaning women; I wonder why this is, especially as scholarly texts distinctly and convincingly explain that gender is not just about women. And though this is surely true, the idea doesn’t seem to stick, or at least stick where we want it to.
The state is understood to constitute the primary institutions holding sovereign authority. States, however, are no longer standing alone on the hill of sovereignty, which other actors have come to the climb, claiming their own sovereignty vis-à-vis the state.
The international community must accept Iran’s nuclear program. This is not a desirable admission, nor is it a triumph for anyone, lest the Iranians themselves who would better receive the funds spent on their own faltering economy. Yet, it must be seen within the deterrence paradigm, and as such, no realistic threat to anyone. If we are to accept that Iran is a rational actor wishing to survive and prosper, then we must accept that it is aware that using its nuclear arsenal would be suicide.
“Bite me” is the dismissive nickname that General McChrystal’s staff officers gave Vice President Joseph Biden, admittedly a frequent subject of mockery in the US because of his many gaffs and his desperate attempts to regain a long lost y…
Not a stone’s throw from where we do our grocery shopping, I heard the BBC describe the opening of the Summer Olympic Games. I say ‘heard’ because, in those grim days, South Africa’s isolation meant that major sporting events — what w…
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