The United States Supremacy and her place in Global Politics and the Geopolitics of the International System
Following the demise of the cold war in 1990s, the United States emerged as the world’s leading power in the international system. This supremacy is partly supported by the global recognition of United States’ position as the most powerful nation on earth. America’s global supremacy is also anchored on the centrality of its role in global politics and its tremendous influence on the geopolitics of the international system. By referring to the U.S. as the world’s super power, there is an implied relational reference and positioning of the United States as the center piece of the international system. It is perceived as the grandmaster of international affairs. This paper examines the supremacy of the United States in the new world order. It argues that as a post-cold war super power, the U.S. has significant influence on global political and developmental relations that characterize the ideologically unstable and anarchic international system. The paper explores the contradictions that arise from the efforts of the U.S. to pursue common good using its military power in the attempts to restore sanity in the international system. It concludes that by climbing to the apex of the world’s top power seat, the U.S. earned itself the image of an empire builder that is assumed to have imperialistic tendencies rather than a respected overseer of the international system.
New Wars, Old Wars: Is the Distinction Valid?
Alexandra Dobra, masters student at Cambridge University, provides an analysis of the relevance of post-Cold War distinctions between old and new wars, using a bipartite structure to emphasize continuities and universalities versus differences resulting from the dynamics and correlated increase in war-prone circumstances via the construction of identities and structure. She concludes that the distinction between old and new wars is valid to the extent to which the image of the nature of war is expressed via new means but that many so-called new wars reflect rather enduring patterns over the last century.
International Cooperation to Control the Intergovernmental Small Arms Trade: Case Study China-Sudan
After outlining the deadly scope of today’s small arms trade, this paper touches on questions of international law and responsibility, or lack thereof, as illustrated by the legal intergovernmental transfer of arms from China to the Sudan, despite international pressure urging the contrary. References include United Nations documents, task force and international NGO campaign reports, contemporary media coverage and University for Peace lecture discussions.
Deconstructing Reconstruction
David Ekbladh unravels the real meaning of “post-war reconstruction”.
Cuban-European NGO Collaboration: The ‘Special Period’
The purpose of this article is to achieve an understanding of the nature of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) in Cuba and to highlight aspects of the collaboration that has occurred between Cuban and European NGOs. The motivation for undertaking this study is to begin the process of filling the gap in information with respect to Cuba’s NGO community and to get a sense of the circumstances under which international cooperation is carried out on the island. This article constitutes the preliminary findings of an interdisciplinary study of the role of NGOs operating within the context of a revolutionary socialist society. The article begins with essential background to understanding the reasons European NGOs entered Cuba in the 1990s
From Vienna to New York: Diverging attitudes and expectations among NPT members spell trouble for the 2015 NPT Review
The resurgence of Cold War style rhetoric between Russia and “the West”, ongoing concerns over North Korea’s nuclear program, a still elusive nuclear deal with Iran, and the recurrent fear of nuclear-armed non-state actors all stand as stark reminders that humanity still lives with the unacceptable risk of nuclear war. In this timely and important article, Rob van Riet reviews the promises and ambiguities of recent conferences, summits, working group sessions, legal actions, and negotiations on nuclear weapons, and evaluates the potential of the NPT review conference in May this year to make real political progress towards the goal of nuclear disarmament.
Religions and War
The study of religions and war is somewhat inchoate, yet for many years scholars have noted the important role religion plays in national, ethnic and international conflicts. Many have recently pointed to the use and abuse of religious symbolism by politically motivated leaders who employ religious language as a means of generating support for purportedly righteous causes.
We have become increasingly aware that when conflicts are couched in religious and moral language, followers often quickly and enthusiastically fall in line many willing to make ultimate sacrifices to fight on God s behalf, or at least on God s side as defined by their leaders.
Whether such political leaders are sincere in espousing religiously-imbued rhetoric or whether they are simple demagogues, the approach clearly works. It works to a great extent because it seems that many people, no matter what their political leanings, prefer to reduce complex socio-economic, or political conflicts into a zero-sum values game of right and wrong.
The Japanese Constitution as Peace System
The wars in Asia would seem to demand that certain European countries, the U.S., and Japan all re-examine the value systems that presumably provided the justification for those wars. Many situations of “instability” in this century were actually based on the preconceptions and deeds of the nations that applied that label. Now as ever, if a country has reason to be opposed to something, it will typically display a tendency to assume that other countries are engaged in strategic designs or acting from an adversarial position.
The Marshall Plan Mystique
The war in Iraq had not even begun when public discussion began on the rebuilding of Iraq by the US. Is this to be another “not the Marshall plan”? David Ekbladh calls for rethinking the approach to so-called Marshall Plans.