One of the most under-studied, and perhaps most over-promoted, aspects of American foreign policy is the so-called Mil to Mil Relations, the cultivated ties the US military has with foreign militaries. These Mil to Mil Relations consist of military training and liaison exchanges, joint exercises, and senior level consultations.
There is a clear moral distinction between terrorism and war; in the plights of terrorism, more individuals can be considered morally culpable for the state of affairs they are reacting to and so the concept of innocence, or what constitutes a non-combatant to use just war terminology, is greatly reduced when compared to that of war.
Foreign Policies are designed with the aim of achieving complex domestic and international agendas. It usually involves an elaborate series of steps, in which domestic politics plays an important role. Additionally, the head of the government in most cases is not an individual actor. Foreign Policy decisions are usually collective and/or influenced by others in the political system.
Despised by Bismarck as ’not worth the life of a single German solider’’ and described by Churchill as ‘having too much history to consume’’, the region of the Western Balkans is returning to the agenda. The EU and the USA must step in and show that they are up to this ultimate test of bringing the last remaining non-EU island into the orbit of the Union and NATO.
The present-day image of the EU can be defined as a political, economic, social and legal hybrid with a combination of federal, confederal, supranational and intergovernmental features. Whether it should proceed through the development of a U.S.E will remain a matter for deep reflection, for how it really works will never match one vision of how it should work.
With the cascading events in Tunisia, there has been much debate about whether or not this represents a real revolution. The question is clearly important. Much of the debate seems to focus on whether or not Tunisia will move out of an autocratic system of government and into a liberal democracy. But whatever the eventual political outcome, Tunisians have already experienced a real revolution.
It was the first cyber-revolution, but it probably won’t be the last. While in the past it was more than common for leaders to rule their people through fear and threat, with increased education and accessibility to the internet, authoritarian leaders and dictators like Ben Ali will hopefully soon be known only in history.
Vietnam. Mention the word to many a Westerner today and the reply you will get is more than likely to involve images of napalm, Hamburger Hill, Kent State and a whole other array of brutal and divisive issues that have so scarred the American psyche. However, there is another story, the legacy of the war on the Vietnamese themselves.
Hamas, ‘Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya’ (The Islamic Resistance Movement), has evolved over time from its humble beginnings as a faction of the Muslim Brotherhood, to an arguably legitimate political body, controlling much of the occupied Palestinian territories. This paper will reflect on the key factors in its development and features of the movement, and will conclude with a discussion of Hamas’ future as both an agent of armed struggle and a legitimate political body.
This paper argues that despite its flaws in the political domain and the weaknesses of the Security Council, the UN’s role in sustaining the economic and social development and addressing global issues such as hunger has been exceptionally strong. It is inadequate to focus on the UN’s political realm only and dismiss the other substantive areas of its work such as sustainable development.
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