Imagined Boundaries? The Legacy of the Cold War on Today’s ‘War on Terror’
The echoes of the imaginary geographies associated with the Cold War undoubtedly underpin many of the geopolitical phenomena that typify the current ‘War on Terror’; inherent to the geopolitical discourses of both eras are binary distinctions; distinctions between good vs evil, us vs them etc, all stemming from a firmly rooted ‘conflict of ideologies’
Third Party Intervention in Ethnic Conflict
This essay is concerned with the motivations that drive states to intervene, and argues that their actions are never wholly disinterested. The scope of this essay will be limited to interventions which third-parties have justified on humanitarian grounds, looking in particular at the case of the NATO intervention in Kosovo in 1999.
British Diplomacy and Iranian Angst: British Iranian Relations, 1973 -1979
The Iranian pre-disposition to distrust the British has been referred to widely in both primary and secondary sources, yet has not been rigorously analysed in either its manifestations of effects. This essay will examine the effect of this cultural trait on the last six years of the reign of Mohammed Reza Shah, and on the conduct of British foreign policy during that period.
Belonging to the West: The Early Stages of the Greek Civil War
Any research on the Greek Civil War should have three levels of analysis: the international, the regional, and the national. These three terms could respectively be translated into the fragile relationship and power balancing among the Allies; the spread of communist regimes in the Balkans; and the internal struggle for the modernization of the political system, the constitutional issue, and the conduct of free elections.
The 1989 Tiananmen Challenge
The 1989 Tiananmen event presented the strongest challenge to the CCP’s monopoly of power. Although the CCP still hold dominance in Chinese politics, the influence of the media and the high number of participants and methods used by the protesters were all factors contributing the high level of reaction from CCP leaders.
European Colonial Politics and the Roots of the Holocaust
Whilst the German experience in South West Africa is significant, the wider phenomenon of imperial domination is the greater contributory factor to the genocidal Nazi mentality. An ethos of thought and norms developed in the colonies which created the potential for totalitarian domination and mass extermination in Europe, culminating in the catastrophic events of the Holocaust.
The Industrial Revolution and a Newtonian Culture
The intellectual environment of the Chinese and Islamic empires appears not to have been fit enough to be the first civilizations experiencing an industrial take off. The absence of a Newtonian culture may in this regard contribute to a better understanding of why these great civilizations were not the first to industrialize.
The collective memory of WWII in France
This essay shows how, over the past six decades, collective memory of the Second World War in France has been centrally implicated in, and influenced by, wider socio-political debates relating to the nature of French national identity. The discourse will be structured in a manner which engages with the primary vectors of French memory regarding ‘les annes noires’.
Who wanted to go to war over Korea in 1950?
‘To want’ is a strong word. This essay argues that an unqualified desire for war can hardly be attributed to Stalin, Truman or Mao, albeit with differences in the way and degree to which this is true for them individually. A concise historiography of the Korean War is followed by a tripartite analysis of the motivations the characterized the three leaders’ decision-making in the crucial years and months leading to the Korean War.
Enduring Rivalry? A Case Study of the Conflict in Kashmir
This case study will start by presenting the origins and causes of the conflict in Kashmir. After presenting an assessment of the relative failure of attempted conflict resolution process, the study will look at the main obstacles of conflict resolution, emphasizing mutual nuclear capability and domestic constraints. In conclusion, it will draw on relevant theory to examine why conflict resolution is still on-going.
