An Evaluation of the Prospect of Republicanism in New Zealand
New Zealand is a unique laboratory to observe republican dynamics and the direction of political change. In this regard, this essay provides an objective assessment of the notion of inevitability of a republic in New Zealand through analysing three variables of symbolic, economic and public in the republican deterministic argument.
Disempowered “Heroes”: Political Agency of Foreign Domestic Workers in East and Southeast Asia
Migrants have come to fill an essential role in the global economy, yet at the same time states are problematizing immigration as a challenge to its security, sovereignty, economy, and social fabric. States with high levels of outward migration celebrate their emigrants as new heroes for the profits they send to their home state.
Colonialism, Lebanon and the Middle East
Many of the recent uprisings in the Middle East have been in reaction to political systems and traditions which can be traced back to the colonial period. This is very much the case with the protests against Confessionalism in Lebanon. Although colonial rule has ended, its legacy continues in contemporary Middle Eastern politics.
Was the European student movement of the 1960s a global phenomenon?
The anti-conformist student movement was indeed a global phenomenon, even though there are still some sociologists that support the idea that the protests were only movements of university students, and small minorities of young people that had little to do with higher education.
Nuclear Proliferaiton in the Middle East: the Iran-Israel Problem
A nuclear Iran will go one of two ways. It will either have no obvious effect, the weapon won’t be used for fear of repercussion yet conventional wars will continue; a stalemate. Or, the Middle East will face the prospect of a complete breakdown as either Iran is pre-empted, Israel feels cornered by the likely arms race or technology is leaked; the only recourse available will be war.
Women’s Security in Afghanistan
This essay argues that neo-colonialist discourses were present within the U.S. at the time of the Afghanistan War and served to demonise and essentialise Islamic culture in general, whilst removing from debate the historical political landscape of Afghanistan. Such historical accounts are essential to understand the roots of women’s insecurity in the nation, which persist to this day.
The role of nationalism in Iran during the 20th century
Nationalism only really played a crucial role in Iran regarding the ever present spectre of foreign encroachment within the country, firstly by the British, and subsequently by America and others. The desire to end this state of affairs was a powerful uniting force that rallied everyone under the banner of nationalism.
Inter-war airpower theory and World War II
The development of air power in the realm of the military emerged almost at the same time as aviation itself due to the accelerating features of the First World War. With air power’s inception, it became possible to make strategic strikes against the enemy’s centre of gravity without the necessity of making contact in a traditional land or sea war.
On Hamas: A fresh analysis of an old ‘problem’
The dominant Western rhetoric enforces the portrayal of Hamas as a static organisation, its violent and ‘fanatical’ behaviour rendering it as innately characteristic while contradictory evidence is marginalised as irrelevant. This myopic approach has failed to understand Hamas, and for peace ever to be achieved this paradigm must be broken.
Accounting for Hitler’s decision to invade the Soviet Union in 1941
Within his work on Operation Barbarossa, Koch states that ‘the origins of the German invasion of Russia’ remain importantly ‘at the centre of historical debate’. A potential reason for this is the highly contentious roots of the decision to invade Russia in 1941; what exactly motivated Hitler to initiate an invasion that would inevitably result in Germany having to fight a war on two unsustainable fronts?
