The Ongoing Relationship Between France and its Former African Colonies
France has attempted to maintain a hegemonic foothold in Francophone Africa to serve its interests and maintain a last bastion of prestige associated with past mastery. Do these relations retain an essentially colonialist character?
Accounting for Germany’s Foreign and Security Culture
Given Germany’s post-war situation, it moved towards a constitutionally enshrined antimilitarist, democratic and moralist stance, which helped make Germany a smaller geopolitical actor than its potential suggested, a situation it was not altogether unhappy with. Despite the former, it does have a genuine security culture which has adapted over time.
Intervention in Libya: Example of “R2P” or Classic Realism?
The intervention in Libya is being portrayed in the media as an attempt to save the Libyan people from destruction at the hands of a brutal and oppressive regime. When one looks at the evidence, various interests and geopolitical concerns confronting intervening nations, another motive emerges: realism.
What Motivates Islamic Political Organisations in the Middle East?
The fact that Hamas and Hezbollah have participated in elections does not necessarily mean that they have abandoned Islamist ideology. The very term ‘Islamist’, or at least its application, is highly problematic. Furthermore, all Islamist organisations are very different, and are constrained by the institutional rules of participation to differing degrees.
The Single European Currency as a catalyst for integration within the EU
The Euro, by design and recent accident, has been a catalyst to integration within the EU, but with the caveat that this integration is unevenly distributed. Even if there are disparities in broader levels of integration, the determination to avoid failure has unified the euro-area members and non-members alike.
Why is the Maastricht Treaty considered to be so significant?
The Maastricht Treaty did not only reform the structure of the European Community (EC) through the establishment of a political union, and strengthen economic integration with the creation of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), but it also enabled the stabilisation of political tensions within Europe at the end of the Cold War, and integrated a unified Germany into the EU.
The Intensification of US Efforts to Build an Atomic Bomb
The mushroom cloud has retrospectively obscured the context in which American leaders took the decision to build and use the atomic bomb. The principle rationale behind the intensification of the Manhattan Project in the first half of 1945 was the desire of the US bureaucracy to end the war in the Pacific before the planned invasion of the Japanese mainland in November 1945.
An Undemocratic Hong Kong?
Interestingly, Hong Kong already has institutions that underlie democracy but it is still yet to be legitimate. This poses the key question; if Hong Kong has institutions that do to some extent, simulate a democracy, what has prevented full transition for Hong Kong to become a legitimate democracy?
Why has a negotiated settlement been possible in Northern Ireland and not the Basque conflict?
A case can be made that a negotiated settlement has been possible in Northern Ireland due to an inclusive political strategy and acceptance of compromise, whereas the Basque situation has not been conductive to a settlement due to the government pursuing an exclusionary position towards ETA and radical nationalist political groups.
Is the Sudan conflict best understood in terms of race, religion, or regionalism?
Both the enormous diversity within Sudan in combination with the lack of a substantial “Sudanese” identity accounts for the prevalence of conflict. This absence of a widely accepted and omnipresent state identity also explains how identity is formed in relation to hegemony.
