Essays

Who wanted to go to war over Korea in 1950?

Anna Costa • Aug 18 2011 • Essays

‘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.

Are multi-national federations viable?

Sebastiaan Debrouwere • Aug 18 2011 • Essays

Through a normative-theoretical exploration into the raison d’être of multinational federations and their modus operandi under various circumstances, this is essay will advance the thesis that viability of any federal model is ultimately conditional upon an explicit recognition and stimulation of a civic federal identity[

Living in the shadows: lesbians in India

Sweta Madhuri Kannan • Aug 18 2011 • Essays

Lesbians in India are conspicuous by their lack of visibility in mainstream society. If one were to accept the Indian government’s stance concerning sexual minorities, lesbians would simply not exist. This report proposes explore the issue of ’lesbianism’ in contemporary India.

Contractors in the “War on Terror”: Enabling Global Military Deployment

Mark Erbel • Aug 18 2011 • Articles

What has begun as the “War on Terror” and is now a series of “overseas contingency operations” could in fact only go on in the global fashion that it did for almost ten years now because of the services provided by several hundred thousand contractors. In short, private contractors serve as enablers of this decade-old war, much like they have become enablers of most major Western militaries.

The Realist School of Thought: An Analysis

Dimitrios Mavridis • Aug 17 2011 • Essays

Classical realists explain international politics by focusing on human nature and, apart from Carr, they perceive power as the ultimate goal of states, like Mearsheimer. For classical realists anarchy is not the primary focus when explaining different state policies. Hence, classical realism remains more of a foreign policy guide than a theory like the one Waltz wanted to introduce.

Enduring Rivalry? A Case Study of the Conflict in Kashmir

Anders Knut Brudevoll • Aug 17 2011 • Essays

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.

The Journey of Cultural Globalization in Korean Pop Music

Tom Dixon • Aug 17 2011 • Essays

Changes in the production and consumption of pop music have shown the Globalization of Culture in its most effective form. Changes in the Korean pop industry illustrate a process whereby ‘foreign’ pop music is internalized, adapted and then pushed back into the wider world as a new style of pop which has been culturally filtered.

Why has the demobilisation of combatants proved so difficult? The Colombian paramilitary experience

Maite Vermeulen • Aug 16 2011 • Essays

The demobilisation of combatants during or after conflict is a crucial step towards achieving sustainable peace. This essay draws on the case of Colombia to illustrate the difficulties that this task poses.

Postcolonial Discourses and ‘Sex Tourism’

Ros Williams • Aug 15 2011 • Essays

Sex tourism has become a significant contributor to the income of the tourism industry in recent years. Yet, how have we come to define it? In what ways has postcolonialism assisted in constructing our understanding of it? And, how might we extend the application of postcolonial discourses to assist in developing that comprehension?

The Cuban Missile Crisis: The Importance of Power and Knowledge

Tom Thornley • Aug 15 2011 • Essays

Theorists conceive of knowledge and its relations to reality differently. Knowledge of the world is ‘reality’, yet this ‘reality’ is socially constructed through discourse. Looking through the Realist lens, the Cuban Missile Crisis becomes an affair of two rationally acting Great Powers locked in a power struggle owing to the inducements of a bipolar anarchic international system.

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