POLS170 Blog Posts

Simone Billera March 23rd, 2022 Blog Post #3 The act of protesting is utilized by citizens in order to make their voices heard. It is an important feature of democracy, allowing regular inhabitants of a community to demonstrate their disapproval or objection to those who hold positions of influence and power. Just a few weeks ago, a situation quite similar to protesting occurred at the UN Human Rights Council, a body of the United Nations we discussed during Lecture #13. When Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, began his speech, the majority of UNHRC delegates walked out in protest. When I heard about this situation, I appreciated and understood the sentiment behind such a movement; however, I found myself questioning it as well. I view protesting as a tool for those who lack influence and power, not those already elected into positions of authority to represent other citizens.  Delegates of the UNHRC are elected for staggered three-year terms by a secret ballot cast by t...

  Christine Ajao  Professor Shirk  POLS  170  23 March 2022 The International Court of Justice is a court of the United Nations where they discuss topics like international law, settle disputes of international conflict, and try leaders who commit crimes against humanity. There have been many different opinions over the international court, especially in the New York Times debated “ A Global Court’s Effectiveness ”, where they displayed deferent opinion pieces over the effectiveness of ICJ and brought up different points of view specifically over the case in Kenya. Each of the different opinions ranges from the support of the international court with some serious reform and other articles saying it is completely ineffective.  In the opinion piece “I.C.C.’s Dismal Record Comes at Too High a Price” where Abede talks about how the budget of the ICC suggests that it is failing and also that there has been evidence of the ICC targeting African countries spec...

     For this blog I wanted to compare the desires of many of our Founding Fathers during the creation of our  countries in regards to foreign policy to the position of the world stage that the United States finds itself in  the present day. More specifically how many of our Founders supported a general attitude in  noninterference in the affairs of other sovereign nations. Independence was the biggest pillar of the  American Revolution, unfair influence and taxation from Great Britain stirred the revolutionaries to call  for not only separation, but complete independence and autonomy from its mother country. During the  drafting of our Constitution, and at the very least into our first presidency, the general attitude towards  interfering with the affairs of other countries was one that supported a complete isolation of the country,  minus trade and commercial agreements of course. So while not completely isolationist the founders...

  Remi Adefioye Blog post 3 The World Trade Organization ensures that trade flows freely amongst nations, settles potential disputes, helps developing countries, and stays predictable. If the US were to abandon the organization it would be out of selfishness and likely lead to disaster. The only plausible reason to leave the WTO would be the desire to shift from a rule-based system into a power-based system. This could potentially impede China’s economic growth; however, for this to happen, the US would have to rely on various nations to follow their lead in leaving the organization and hence create a new approach to trade. The US could potentially create uninhibited trade policies which could boost their trading prospects; however, this is not a risk that should be taken, especially in the globalized world.  Without the WTO the U.S. is in danger of countries discriminating against their goods and services without any limits. U.S. producers would be denied lower barriers abroa...

Brian Cote Professor Shirk POLS 170 23 March 2022 Blog 3      In the text “Explaining Cooperation Under Anarchy: Hypotheses and Strategies”, the author, Kenneth Oye, goes into detail about how states need to alter their political strategy in order to achieve the best possible payoff structure. The actions of the People’s Republic of China in the past couple of weeks provide a perfect example of how a state chooses its foreign policy based on achieving the best possible payoff structure. For example, Russia recently sent a diplomatic mission to China to request military arms in order to help its war effort in its conflict against Ukraine. Theoretically, supporting a country (Russia) in a war against a country who is getting increasingly stronger ties with a direct competitor (United States) would be a very wise political move because if Russia were to succeed, it would indirectly negatively affect the United States, which would then benefit China. However, by sending weapo...

  Christine Ajao Professor Shirk International Politics  10 March 2022 The idea of the goal of the international court is supposed to hold the position of a judicial court in the United Nations. This means that they are there to govern international law as well as announce opinions on international legal issues. In “Justice Can’t Prevail in a Vaccum” by M. Kamari Clarke, Clarke discusses how the international court has failed to recognize structural inequalities in post-colonial Africa. She uses the example of post-colonial Kenya and how the land was unevenly distributed which created inequality.  This is important to note because, yes the International Court does hold law and court but is it enough for what it should be representing? There is already an issue of including African countries in the United Nations and having this issue between Kenya and the International Court, tears down the legitimacy of the court. In the end when Clarke said, “Justice in postcolonial...

 To me the most persuasive argument came from the author Daniel Abe; wherein he makes the claim that the cases that the ICC are continually pursuing are both not high value enough, as well as much too costly. Given the underwhelming nature of many of the recent cases the ICC has been taking, the amount of money being poured into financing and providing resources for these cases is far from worth it. As of late, the ICC has been trying to target leaders within many African countries with arguably moderate success at best. If the ICC can't handle going after these much smaller, much weaker countries in comparison to any more powerful or rich countries, how effectual of a body actually is it?

Remi Adefioye ICC Blog Post I found Daniel Abe’s post to be the most persuasive. He thinks that the ICC’s dismal cases are coming at too high of a price. One of the other posts argued that the ICC should be getting more funding as this would increase the likelihood of victims forming civil society groups that could make domestic demands and ultimately empower the ICC. As Abe states, the ICC has been targeting African countries and has spent over $1billion in the 2/9 cases. This may seem like progress but against larger and more powerful countries, the cost of conviction would be immense. In my opinion, the ICC will never have enough authority to convict some countries in the West. If the ICC is struggling to convict leaders in Kenya and other African countries, regardless of how much funding they may receive, countries in the West and certainly the US will never back down. In the end, Abe’s last point is that the money that could be potentially spent on the ICC should go to education a...

  Brian Cote Professor Shirk POLS 170 10 March 2022 ICC Blog I believe that the International Criminal Court's ability to prosecute heads of state is its most persuasive factor in favor of its support. By having the ability to, as well as actually executing such prosecutions twice already in the past, it sends a message to the entire international community that no one person is above or not subjected to the laws of the International Criminal Court. Such projections send a message that every person is on the same playing field when it comes to legal affairs regardless of wealth, status, or political alignment. I also believe that there is another positive way to look at this position. Those opposed to the Western influence often view the ICC as a way for Western powers to punish, humiliate, and condemn those who they were not in alignment with or are different from. That makes the idea of joining an organization such as the ICC very unattractive to non-Westerners. However, with t...

Simone Billera March 10th, 2022 POLS170, ICC Blog Post I would like to preface this blog post by stating that I do not fully agree with any of the arguments made in regards to the International Criminal Court; however, one post stood out to me immensely. Daniel Abebe undoubtedly wrote the most persuasive opinion piece. His opening sentence is straightforward: “A brief review of the I.C.C.’s operation suggests that it is failing.” After effectively stating his overarching argument quite simply, he delves into the support for such a claim, displaying factual and intriguing numeral evidence. Abebe also draws upon clever comparisons to strengthen his claims, the last line of the first paragraph being: “Food and health care lead to good outcomes, not expensive convictions.” Abebe’s introductory statements are not flower and open-ended but instead intriguing, evidence-based claims. By the end of the first paragraph, I was hooked.  As Abebe delves deeper into his arguments, he makes s...

 https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/russia-ukraine-latest-news-2022-03-04 https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/russia-ukraine-latest-news-2022-03-04 https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/russia-ukraine-latest-news-2022-03-04 https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/russia-ukraine-latest-news-2022-03-04 https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/russia-ukraine-latest-news-2022-03-04

            For this blog I wanted to find a connection between what we talked about in class about  government accountability within democratic systems, the theory that democratic countries are  much more likely to face repercussions for decisions than their autocratic or tyrannical  counterparts, and ideas from my American Political Theory class where we discussed the  importance of accountability of the government by the governed, being central to our  Constitution and the American political system. Democratic governments are often forced to be  largely transparent due to a legislative system that requires a politician to garner large popular  support in order to come into power. In fact, the defenses for our constitution laid out in the  Federalist Papers maintain that our democratic system relies on people being able to directly  influence the government in order to ensure decisions are being made in th...

Simone Billera March 2nd, 2022 Blog Post #2 “Is the World Getting Safer?” by Nikita Lalwani and Sam Winter-Levy is an intensely intriguing article, especially under the circumstances we face today in regards to Russia and Ukraine. The authors provide a plethora of arguments from different scholars, all of which address the question of whether or not international violence is on the decline. At the end of the reading, there is an exceptionally powerful quote from Henry Kissinger, a German-American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant. Speaking about an expression known as the Long Peace, he states: “The sense of the tragic was lost; it was forgotten that states could die, that upheavals could be irretrievable, that fear could become the means of social cohesion” (6). The intensity of this line resonates with me immensely. War and violence have been a distant problem for me, one that I had the privilege of studying and acknowledging without feeling its wrath. For me, “the ...

  Remi Adefioye Russia vs. Ukraine Blog Post 2 March 2, 2022 Why has Russia invaded Ukraine? This question has been discussed in our class and my public policy class. The answer is up for debate but there are some reasonable explanations. Although unlikely, Putin could be invading Ukraine to stop them from potentially joining NATO. Putin may also just want Ukraine in Russia's orbit. I think Putin is trying to change the sphere of influence around the world and ultimately increase Russia's influence. Therefore, invading Ukraine is just a piece of his overall plan. The sanctions posed by the West and particularly the US have been a normal trend since the 1990s. Military support is not a smart option for the US or any other nation because it is ultimately not in their best interest. That being said, it is possible that Putin was expecting this response. All the reports in the media have been about the countries that are against Russia and Putin but there has been little coverage o...

  Brian Cote Professor Shirk POLS 170 2 March 2022 Blog Post 2 Writing this blog post on March 2nd, 2022, provides me with the perfect context to analyze the effects of polarity in the international world. With the end of the Cold War, the world is no longer in a bi-polar system between two great powers: the United States and the Soviet Union. That stability and balance that comes with a bi-polar system collapsed along with the fall of the Soviet Union, leaving the United States as the sole great power in the world. With one great power brings about a unipolar system, where other states look to that one power to dictate world direction. One could think that this system would bring about peace and conformity in the new world order, and that was the case for about a decade. However, a key qualification needed for the stability found in a unipolar system is that the power disparities between the great power and the other states is large, so there is no room for one or a group of state...

Iran and the Nuclear Weapons  There have been long-standing debates over whether Iran should be able to produce its own nuclear weapons. In Waltz’s article titled “Why Iran Should Get the Bomb: Nuclear Balancing Would Mean Stability”, he discusses an argument that is not deemed popular by many, where Iran should be able to obtain and create their own nuclear weaponry. Waltz brings up the idea that Iran would be able to enjoy the benefits of having a nuclear weapon such as having their own personal security and how there is no evidence that they will strike Israel but actually be deterred from using the bomb. Waltz believes that if Iran gets the bomb, they might become aware that they are move of a threat like countries have in the past. Waltz creates a strong argument that no states with both having nuclear weapons go to war and the fear of having a nuclear war is low. Kahl argues in his response to Waltz's “Iran and the Bomb: Would a Nuclear Iran Make the Middle East More Secure...