Liberia has come a long way since President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf took office. In order to make good on her promise to ‘lift Liberians,’ her approach to leadership must harken back to the people who presented her with a mandate to lead, as well as those who did not.

In order to discuss the mechanisms through which involuntary minorities are socially, economically and politically excluded primarily I am going to define the meaning of the term ‘involuntary minority’. Following this, a brief identification of the main direct and indirect mechanisms clarifies the direction of the discussion. To examine the mechanisms used I have selected three examples of involuntary minorities to focus on; Palestinians in Israel, black Americans in the U.S. and refugees/asylum seekers in Britain.

In order to decipher whether or not the effects of war are gendered it is of foremost importance to consider what is meant by the term ‘gender’. Therefore, primarily, I will briefly define this term followed by a consideration of what one means by ‘war’. Here I discuss feminist theories regarding war with particular reference to the work of Kelly. Furthermore, I will then move on to look at the effects of war with an analysis of the effects during war, the effects during the peace-making process and, finally, the post-war impacts. Each of the aforementioned will be discussed in turn, drawing on specific examples to highlight my arguments further. Ultimately, I conclude with the argument that the effects of war are often gendered, especially when one considers war from a feminist perspective.

The highly visible role played by Qatar in spearheading the destruction of the Gaddafi regime in Libya has focused world attention onto this tiny Persian Gulf emirate.

Rather than discussing their respective strengths and weaknesses, it is best for IR to consider the complementary strengths of post-positivism and positivism together.