Researching Torture: Positivist and Interpretist Approaches
The following paper will firstly introduce the arguments for the Positivist approach to research, which focuses on quantitative methods, and for the Interpretist approach, which focuses on qualitative methods. The second part will apply these approaches to the issue of torture and in doing so will identify and discuss the limitations of applying only one theory or approach to research.
Of Food Aid and Altruism – The Human Security Paradigm in Theory and Practice
Fifteen years after its first official promulgation, the human security paradigm requires analysis and evaluation, particularly in respect to its implications for the politics of international food aid.
The Technocratic Turn in the Phases of International AIDS Politics
The technocratic turn may sideline politics in a way that ignores the tensions between actors, individuals, and structures of power that are vital to making the science both work and available to those who need it most.
Bridge No More? Turkish Public Diplomacy and Branding under the AKP Government
In order to better communicate with the rest of the world regardless of their religious affiliations and establish a stable identity, Turkey should focus on institutionalizing its public diplomacy attempts and should soften its anger-driven rhetorical style.
How Cloud Computing Complicates the Jurisdiction of State Law
Scholars outside of law and computer science must investigate virtual environments, since the application of State law to a virtual environment has proven to be ineffective.
An Evaluation of Challenges to the Traditional Notions of Sovereignty in the Post Cold-War Era
This essays discusses the ways in which four prevalent different definitions or spheres of sovereignty, have challenged the traditional notions of sovereignty since the early 1990s. These are; domestic sovereignty, interdependence sovereignty, international legal sovereignty and Westphalia sovereignty.
Soft and Normative Power: The Power of Attraction in International Politics
The strength and spread of cultural interactions between different governments and different people’s will reduce the likelihood of war between nations. As globalization takes its seat as the world’s ruling party, the international system will become a single yet vibrant meeting place.
How did international power relations contribute to the Third World debt crisis?
It’s widely agreed that the Third World Debt crisis began in Mexico in 1982 sparking a chain reaction across Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. Domestic factors such as capital flight and corruption played a part but the main cause can be traced to the US and the rise of interest rates in 1979.
Somaliland: a modern state minus international recognition?
Does Somaliland exhibit modern state qualities? Are we witnessing the development of a ‘beacon of light’ in an otherwise war-torn area of Africa? Or is this an overly positive analysis, resulting in an idealistic, rather than realistic, approach to the problematic of statehood in the region?
Should we regard gender-based violence as a weapon of war?
This essay argues that all violence can be exposed as an expression of gender; as an expression of masculinity or as an attack on femininity. It goes on to explore the ways in which the violence of the War on Terror and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq are based on gendered narratives.
