How Do Terrorist Groups Emerge?
State repression heightens the sense of antagonism between certain political actors, ultimately culminating in a vision of the status quo as a state of war.
Does Britain’s Future Lie with North America, rather than Europe?
Current events like the European debt crisis seem to only emphasise the need for Britain to look to North America in order to join NAFTA and escape European bureaucracy.
‘NAFTA was signed because it made political sense’. Discuss.
This essay will begin with a detailed analysis of how NAFTA fits into the concept of regionalism and addressing the international political economy theories that inform it. It will then move on to a thorough critique of the economic and political motivations of the United States, Canada and Mexico and the theories that explain them, before bringing the NAFTA debate up to date with a brief summary of where we stand now. It will argue that NAFTA primarily serves an economic function, but was brought about by a ‘confluence of many factors’ which helped to shape NAFTA into the free-trade agreement that today appears irreversible.
Liberal Institutionalism: An Alternative IR Theory or Just Maintaining the Status Quo?
Institutionalism rejects the realist assumption that international politics is a struggle for power in which military security issues are top priority and argues that instead, force is an ineffective instrument of policy. In order to understand the impact of internationalism on IR theory and its criticisms we must first look at its definition and how it differs from realist perspectives.
International Reconstruction in Iraq After Protracted Conflict
The successes or failures of post-conflict reconstruction should be evaluated through a lens that also considers the historical and sociological background of Iraq prior to the war.
The Implications of The Rise of China on Australian Foreign Policy
The key implication of the rise of China is how to manage the new regional order, one in which Australia has an advantage in resources, but is disadvantaged as a regional outsider
Securitization Theory and Biological Weapons
The United States has not overestimated the biological weapons threat, and its biodefense measures, as expressed through current policy and funding decisions, are warranted.
Economic Development and Democratisation in the Middle East
There is an incompatibility between the purpose and mode of Middle Eastern economic development to date and the fraught efforts towards forms of democracy across the region. Additionally, the importance of certain economic developments to specific actors has successfully outweighed the importance of democracy in the region, and will persist in doing so for the foreseeable future.
Strategic Partnership or Contending Coalitions? An Analysis of EU-NATO Relations
Fundamental problems, both structural and political, continue to characterise the EU-NATO relationship as one of ‘contending coalitions’. Yet, recent shifts in the attitudes of major actors coupled with success in simultaneous operations suggest there is potential for a ‘strategic partnership’ to emerge.
British Diplomacy and Iranian Angst: British Iranian Relations, 1973 -1979
The Iranian pre-disposition to distrust the British has been referred to widely in both primary and secondary sources, yet has not been rigorously analysed in either its manifestations of effects. This essay will examine the effect of this cultural trait on the last six years of the reign of Mohammed Reza Shah, and on the conduct of British foreign policy during that period.
