Despite conclusive and significant scientific evidence to the contrary, there is still some considerable scepticism over the nature, causes and consequences of climate change. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and cyclones, as well as retreating glaciers and melting sea ice at the North and South poles, are all indicative of a warming world.

We are trapped in our experiences as colonisers and colonised, and in our resulting positions of power or powerlessness. Therefore, representation of ‘subaltern women’ by white western liberal feminists remains problematic, since tied up in the notion of representation are the complications of power, knowledge and language.

With the end of the Cold War, Britain’s position in world politics was ambiguous and the future direction of its foreign policy uncertain. Torn between the increasingly divergent interests of Europe and America, the familiar charge that Britain had lost an empire and was struggling to find a role seemed difficult to dismiss. In this essay, I will critically assess Labour’s attempts to define a new role for Britain in the post Cold War era.

Beliefs do matter in foreign policy as decision-making rarely conforms to demanding rational choice models. The power of ideas in international relations highlights particular human weaknesses, which might help understand a number of seemingly inexplicable decisions. Beliefs, however, are only one part of a wider framework.

The real world is too complicated to be explained by absolute or relative gains alone. Both theories treat states as rational and unitary actors. Due to the diversity of interests, it is not easy to define a unitary national interest in some issues. Consequently, gains per se sometimes cannot be clearly stated.