The territorial disputes concerning the Spratly and Paracel Islands and adjacent waters are still unresolved. Recently, incidents between Vietnamese seismic survey ships and Chinese coast patrols are a reminder of the conflict potential these border disputes inherit. After a phase of relative easiness among the claimants to the South China Sea islands, these newly heightened tensions cause rising worries in the region and abroad.
Building democratic states is a complex and challenging task at the best of times. After violent conflict this task is additionally complicated by the fact that peace needs to be secured, institutions need to be comprehensively reformed, if not built from scratch, civil society and political culture need to be reinvigorated, and economies need to be put back on a path to sustainable growth.
Ever since the so called ‘interparadigm debate’ in the 1970s and 1980s, the discipline of International Relations is perceived to be characterised by a series of paradigms. Even though a range of post-positivist theories have sprung up in recent years, leading some scholars to proclaim the post-positivist era, positivism is likely to remain the dominant paradigm in the discipline.
While the western world is likely to turn inward as its middle-classes attempt to cope with the economic squeeze, the new middle-classes in the global south are less predictable and more likely to be a force for instability. The ability of governments in the global south to respond to the changing demands of their constituents and provide competent economic governance will profoundly influence the future, both domestically and globally.
The 1989 Tiananmen event presented the strongest challenge to the CCP’s monopoly of power. Although the CCP still hold dominance in Chinese politics, the influence of the media and the high number of participants and methods used by the protesters were all factors contributing the high level of reaction from CCP leaders.
Whilst the German experience in South West Africa is significant, the wider phenomenon of imperial domination is the greater contributory factor to the genocidal Nazi mentality. An ethos of thought and norms developed in the colonies which created the potential for totalitarian domination and mass extermination in Europe, culminating in the catastrophic events of the Holocaust.
Enlargement has been fuelled by transnational actors, aiming to enhance the economic prospects of transnational capital within Europe, and secure the interests of the hegemonic bloc. It was part of a wider process to increase economic competitiveness and remove internal barriers to trade.
Western democracies must accept China as an equal partner in managing the global order, an order that has until recently borne the distinctive imprint of Western interests. The task of accommodating China will form the defining challenge of the 21st century.
Saudi Arabia is currently in the lead against Iran. Riyadh has consolidated allegiance from states with huge payouts and also strengthened the GCC. Though Saudi Arabia faces huge difficulties in Yemen, and uncertainty in Syria and Libya, Iran has failed to make any inroads in increasing its influence at Riyadh’s expense, except in Lebanon.
Since the European Union first forayed into the field of humanitarian assistance affairs, it has demonstrated significant actorness, through capability, opportunity and presence. It has done so both in the measures it has taken, and the policies and institutions that it has created, solely for this purpose.
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