Research Blog

Week 11 - Poverty, Development, and Hunger The ways in which we deal with the issues of poverty, development, and world hunger is varied yet nonetheless crucial to the ability for developing nations to continue to build and grow with the goal being the emergence of such nation states into independence whilst meeting basic standards of human need. Some compounding issue that we face in achieving this goal is the effects of over-population and environmental effects of climate change. It is argued that the Millennium Development Goals have been met (according to the UN) however it is clear that there are still huge numbers of people facing dire living situations with very little food or clean water. An interesting study by Mark Maslin recently revealed that poverty and corrupt government were more influential factors on conflict in East Africa than climate change. More accurately, the most influential factor in creating conflicts in these developing nations was the confluence of po...

Week 10 - Nationalism   The idea of a collective national identity and its role in statehood has been theorised by political thinkers since the mid-eighteenth century. The various ways in which we conceptualise our citizenship in relation to a state is profoundly impacting on the way in which individuals relate to each other within a state and even more so on the relations between individuals from varying states as the differences between national identities become more clear by comparison. Global events such as the Cold War, the introduction of the internet, and increasing globalisation have all had profound effects on the way individuals identify with their nation. Now as globalisation and world travel becomes increasingly accessible the ability for people to become nationalistic for new countries is more readily available. Zoe Williams writes on the differences we can see between the good and bad effects that nationalism has had international...

Week 9 - Environmental Issues The effects of the current environmental issues we currently face as a global community could are potentially devastating and it is important that immediate action takes place both on an individual level and at a national level. Hardin's examination of the 'Tragedy of the Commons' theory is critical to understanding the nature of the environmental concerns our planet faces in that collective action on climate change and lowering carbon emissions is necessary to see a meaningful impact, thus individual freedoms must be sacrificed for the sake of mutual benefit as a community. This image of collective action on making a change to our influence on the environment is transferable across the spectrum, from a local community to the global community. An article by Dana Nuccitelli in the Guardian unpacks a number of instances where critics claim that insignificant impacts are seen by making environmentally conscious lifestyle choices is a symptom o...

Week 8 - The United Nations The United Nations is an instrument of international relations and peacekeeping that has its roots in the principles of liberty, justice, and peace. Thus, some of the practical goals of the United Nations are; m aintaining worldwide peace and security, developing relations among nations, and fostering cooperation between nations in order to solve economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian international pro blems. The issue that is often raised in relation to the UN and its ability to keep peace globally is the question of jurisdiction and the extent to which hard power may be used to maintain global security. Often states will define what is and isn't a security problem based on auxiliary factors, such as, the desire to acquire natural resources in a particular area or an ideological opposition to governments from the area of threat. Thus, 'securitisation' becomes problematic for the UN who is battling against not just physical threats to s...

Week 7 - Environmental Security The concerns for security that are produced by our changing climate are legitimate, with natural resources dwindling the requirement for military intervention in the distribution of vital resources such as clean water and food is becoming increasingly likely. An article by Pacific Standard Magazine lists some of the most endangered cities around the globe who face water shortages, overpopulation and danger from rising sea levels and natural disasters. Some of these cities include Cape Town, Karachi, Dhaka, and Manila. Another aspect to conflate with the issues of climate change is the role that terrorist groups such as Isis play in recruiting desperate individuals who live in endangered cities, Manila is a great example of this. As these groups increase in size through recruitment the risk of conflict increases and then security over resources is strained even further. In this way it is clear to see how climate change and environmental risks create ...

Social Constructivism Constructivism, as a way of viewing international relations, pries deeper into the reasons why states make the geo-political decisions that they do and the impact this has on existing structures in the global society that states exist in. The concept of geo-economics, as explored in Scholvin and Wigell's work, is a phenomenon that demonstrates the way in which constructivism has influenced our conceptualisation of international relations and the role that states play in interacting globally with each other. It raises the question of whether geo-economics is simply an analytical framework for international relations scholarship or is it more than that, an example of statecraft in action perhaps? Scholvin and Wigell claim that Russia's use of natural gas as a strategic leverage is a typical example of geo-economics in play as it so closely tied to the geographical requirements that make the political manoeuvre possible. Thus, the conceptualisation of a...