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Full-Text Articles in International Relations
Analyzing The United States’ Limited Response To The Syrian Refugee Crisis, Carolina Romero
Analyzing The United States’ Limited Response To The Syrian Refugee Crisis, Carolina Romero
Political Analysis
The Syrian refugee crisis can be described as one of the biggest, if not largest, humanitarian crisis of the 21st century. The crisis is a result of an ongoing civil war between rebel groups and the government forces of the Assad regime. Since the beginning of the war in 2011, over 400,000 have been killed and a combined 11 million have been displaced either internally or externally from their homes (Human Rights Watch, World Report 2018). The United Nations and the international community have openly expressed discontent with the dealings of the Assad regime, and as a result, have attempted …
Regime Change, Deferred: Regarding United States’ Foreign Policy In Syria, Rosa Mazza–Hilway
Regime Change, Deferred: Regarding United States’ Foreign Policy In Syria, Rosa Mazza–Hilway
Political Analysis
In 2011, President Obama proclaimed, “the time has come for President Assad to step aside” (“President Obama”). The question then becomes: why has the United States failed to act upon this declaration and been unsuccessful in achieving regime change in Syria? While there is evidence to suggest regime change is the ultimate goal in Syria, there has been a lack of action taken to facilitate the deposition of Assad. In this paper, there will be an emphasis on the policies and rhetoric that indicate the desire to catalyze a shift in governmental power through the disposal of the Assad regime. …
Eyes On The Money: How Realist Economic Policy Facilitates The Modern Surveillance State In The Usa And The Prc, Benjamin Warder
Eyes On The Money: How Realist Economic Policy Facilitates The Modern Surveillance State In The Usa And The Prc, Benjamin Warder
Channels: Where Disciplines Meet
This paper examines the manner in which the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China, as the world’s leading economic superpowers, pursue a generally realist international relations approach to maintaining and securing their bases of economic power, and how this purpose translates into the development and proliferation of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) camera networks in major cities as a means of protecting those cities as economic hubs crucial to the national economy. Two research questions guide the paper. First, how does each state demonstrate realist policies in the process of securing economic centers and the overall protection …
Where’S The Consultation? The War Powers Resolution And Libya, Eileen Burgin
Where’S The Consultation? The War Powers Resolution And Libya, Eileen Burgin
The University of New Hampshire Law Review
[Excerpt] “President Barack Obama triggered a War Powers Resolution (WPR) controversy with his military response to the anti-government rebellion and civil war in Libya in 2011. Members of Congress seized upon the WPR, questioning whether the Obama administration had complied with the WPR’s requirements when the United States launched the initial Libyan Operation Odyssey Dawn (OOD) and subsequently participated in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Operation Unified Protector (OUP). Many legislators charged that President Obama had violated the WPR. Concerns centered on such issues as presidential reliance on the United Nations (U.N.) Security Council—rather than Congress—for authorization to act, …
The Us On The Palestinian Statehood Bid: Weighing The Costs, Thomas Pegram
The Us On The Palestinian Statehood Bid: Weighing The Costs, Thomas Pegram
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Reflecting on the controversy surrounding the Palestinian bid for statehood, Richard Falk neatly subverts the opening words of the UN Charter, “we the people,” as having always surrendered to “we the governments,” and, in the modern era of American empire, “we the hegemon.”
This may well be true. The UN Security Council (UNSC), in particular, is viewed in Washington as a vehicle for hegemonic ambitions—to be indulged when it serves its purpose and vetoed and sidelined when it does not. Unfolding events at the UNSC, reportedly due to vote on the Palestinian resolution on November 11 but now postponed perhaps …
Paul Timmermans On Invisible War: The United States And The Iraq Sanctions. By Joy Gordon. Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press, 2010. 359 Pp., Paul Timmermans
Paul Timmermans On Invisible War: The United States And The Iraq Sanctions. By Joy Gordon. Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press, 2010. 359 Pp., Paul Timmermans
Human Rights & Human Welfare
A review of:
Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions. By Joy Gordon. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010. 359 pp.
Wars Against Civilians Are Unjust Wars, Richard A. Falk
Wars Against Civilians Are Unjust Wars, Richard A. Falk
Human Rights & Human Welfare
For those of us old enough to recall the anti-war testimony of Vietnam vets during the early 1970s, reading the chilling report by Hedges and Al-Arian on the attitudes of Iraq war vets is shocking, and yet not surprising. It is shocking because of the eyewitness confirmation of cruelty and lethal brutality on a regular basis in the interactions between the coalition army of occupation and Iraqi civilian society. Sadly, it is not shocking because of the nature of the violent resistance to occupation being encountered by American forces in Iraq, giving rise to a Vietnam-style mentality of counterinsurgency in …
Facing Up To The Truth, Susan E. Waltz
Facing Up To The Truth, Susan E. Waltz
Human Rights & Human Welfare
American GIs who liberated Dachau from the Nazis in April 1945 exist in our collective memory as iconic representations of the American soldier-hero: competent and capable, disciplined, principled and fundamentally good. From their collective example, we expect American soldiers to reveal, report, and excoriate war crimes. This makes it difficult to acknowledge that Americans may also commit war crimes—and on a regular basis.
September Roundtable: Introduction
September Roundtable: Introduction
Human Rights & Human Welfare
An annotation of:
“The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness” by Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian. The Nation, July 30, 2007.
Occupational Hazard, Michael Goodhart
Occupational Hazard, Michael Goodhart
Human Rights & Human Welfare
“The Other War” describes how the patrols, supply convoys, checkpoints, raids, and arrests, which make up the daily routines of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, sometimes involve degrading and abusive treatment of Iraqi civilians. Through interviews with some of those soldiers, the article portrays the everyday tragedy of the Iraq war and demonstrates how the very policies used to “secure” the country are creating greater insecurity and sparking Iraqi resentment of the occupation. The authors’ main point is that such abuses are inevitable under what they call “misguided and brutal colonial wars and occupations” like Iraq, “the French occupation of Algeria… …
Bad Apples Or Bad Policies?, Daniel J. Whelan
Bad Apples Or Bad Policies?, Daniel J. Whelan
Human Rights & Human Welfare
In a scene from the Woody Allen film Hannah and Her Sisters, the haughty and cantankerous character Frederick (Max von Sydow) is telling his girlfriend (Barbara Hershey) how he spent the evening flipping through channels on television. Ever the arrogant social critic, Frederick remarks,
You missed a very dull TV show on Auschwitz. More gruesome film clips. And more puzzled intellectuals declaring their mystification over the systematic murder of millions. The reason they can never answer the question: “How could it possibly happen?” is that it’s the wrong question. Given what people are, the question is: “Why doesn't it happen …
Mercenaries And Other Ways Of Breaking The Law: Why Our Blood Should Boil, Judith Blau
Mercenaries And Other Ways Of Breaking The Law: Why Our Blood Should Boil, Judith Blau
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Among the many consequences of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the absence of investigative journalism and critical reflection in the U.S. is, perhaps, the most troubling; though we are now seeing a reversal of this trend. Jeremy Scahill has been one of the brightest and best examples of this reversal, relentlessly pursuing a trail of wrongdoing involving the U.S. government and private corporations.
July Roundtable: Introduction
Human Rights & Human Welfare
An annotation of:
“Outsourcing the War ” by Jeremy Schaill. The Nation. May 28, 2007.
Private Military Industry And The Laws Of War, Mahmood Monshipouri
Private Military Industry And The Laws Of War, Mahmood Monshipouri
Human Rights & Human Welfare
The “war on terrorism,” according to Jeremy Scahill, has led to the most privatized war in the history of the United States of America: the war in Iraq, waged partially by private security contractors who are, for the most part, accountable to no higher legal-political authority. This brings us to an obvious question: Is this type of warfare an imperative part of counterterrorism?
Rooting The Privatization Of War In A Broader Political Context, Ali Wyne
Rooting The Privatization Of War In A Broader Political Context, Ali Wyne
Human Rights & Human Welfare
On the issue of military outsourcing, I think that it would be valuable to place Jeremy Scahill’s research and critique in a broader context.
Can The Next American President Switch The Tracks?, Harry Kreisler
Can The Next American President Switch The Tracks?, Harry Kreisler
Human Rights & Human Welfare
For decades the Washington mantra has been privatization. As Secretary of Defense in Bush 41’s administration and as CEO of Haliburton, Dick Cheney was influential in the application of this idea to defense policy. Now as Vice President of the United States, he and his coterie of followers have taken the idea to a new level. According to Jeremy Scahill, the United States has reached a tipping point in waging the Iraq war, with dire consequences for defense policy, democratic accountability, and the global perception of who we are and what we stand for.
Geopolitics Or Human Rights?, Judith Blau
Geopolitics Or Human Rights?, Judith Blau
Human Rights & Human Welfare
George Soros’ article, “On Israel, America and AIPAC” serves as a sobering reminder that the human rights revolution is constantly being scuttled by geopolitics that not only sideline human rights, but more devastatingly undermine their premises. I happen to agree with him that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is a major obstacle to the U.S. normalizing relations with any country in the Middle East, including and especially Israel. AIPAC is something of a misnomer because it is a coalition, not a committee, and some of its key members include neo-cons, as Soros mentions, as well as Christian evangelicals. …
June Roundtable: Introduction
Human Rights & Human Welfare
An annotation of:
“On Israel, America and AIPAC” by George Soros. New York Review of Books. April 12, 2007.
Should Supporters Of Israel Embrace An "Open Society"?, Harry Kreisler
Should Supporters Of Israel Embrace An "Open Society"?, Harry Kreisler
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Organizations, such as lobbies, must adapt to changes in their environment or they risk mission failure and possible extinction. Adaptation requires new ideas, new constituencies, and rigorous self-analysis. A vigorous internal debate raises the possibility of corrections in course as an organization navigates through its changing environment.
Aipac's Good Intentions Undermine Israel's Interests, Ali Wyne
Aipac's Good Intentions Undermine Israel's Interests, Ali Wyne
Human Rights & Human Welfare
While the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is nominally pro-Israel, its advice undermines Israel’s interests. It does not encourage Israel to make concessions, but rather recommends that Israel ignore the reformists within and outside of it. The folly of such counsel becomes apparent when one recognizes that Israel’s current strategy cannot be sustained.
Engagement As A Way Toward Peace, Mahmood Monshipouri
Engagement As A Way Toward Peace, Mahmood Monshipouri
Human Rights & Human Welfare
The Bush administration’s active support for the Israeli government is counterproductive in its refusal to recognize a Palestinian unity government which includes Hamas. A great majority of American Jews have called for Israel to withdraw from the territories occupied in 1967 and support the creation of a Palestinian state. A hard-line minority of politicians in the United States, along with their affiliated media networks and think-tanks, have continued to dominate the main Jewish lobbying group, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
May Roundtable: Introduction
Human Rights & Human Welfare
An annotation of:
“The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency” by Mahmood Mamdani. London Review of Books. March 8, 2007.
Politics Of Naming And Politics Of Responsibility, Rhoda Howard-Hassmann
Politics Of Naming And Politics Of Responsibility, Rhoda Howard-Hassmann
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Mahmood Mamdani is right to complain that the American—and international—public is unaware of the political complexity of the Darfur conflict. He is also right to point out that selective or inconsistent uses of the terms “genocide,” “civil war,” and “insurgency” can mask covert, or even overt, political agendas. His comparison of Darfur to Iraq is telling. And he is right to point out that even with the best of humanitarian intentions, the presentation of a simplified version of Darfur, in which “Arabs” persecute “Africans,” can play into the “war on terror,” insofar as, in the minds of at least some …
The Return Of Moral Equivalence, J. Peter Pham
The Return Of Moral Equivalence, J. Peter Pham
Human Rights & Human Welfare
During the latter stages of the Cold War, one school of ethical analysis, ultimately labeled as “moral equivalence” by the late Jeane Kirkpatrick, measured Western liberal democracies against utopian standards in a radical critique which redefined the political discourse, erasing distinctions between the Soviet Union and its satellites on the one hand and the United States and its allies on the other.
Missing The Point, Colin Thomas-Jensen
Missing The Point, Colin Thomas-Jensen
Human Rights & Human Welfare
“What would happen if we thought of Darfur as we do of Iraq, as a place with a history and politics—a messy politics of insurgency and counterinsurgency?” (§4). This is the most telling question posed by Professor Mahmood Mamdani in “The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency.” The implication is that the growing public demand for strong international action—military or otherwise—to halt the atrocities in Darfur is somehow unwarranted because people have failed to understand that the systematic crimes against humanity committed against civilians in Darfur (and indeed Iraq) are an inevitability of “the messy politics of insurgency and …
The Moral Vocabulary Of Violence, David L. G. Rice
The Moral Vocabulary Of Violence, David L. G. Rice
Human Rights & Human Welfare
What is at stake in labeling a particular incidence of large-scale violence “genocide”? Mahmood Mamdani rightly argues that “genocide” is an insufficient description of the conflict in Darfur. I would suggest that the problematic nature of that terminology goes back to its inception after World War II. Activists have inherited the concept of “genocide” from a particular historical moment. Now, “ genocide” carries unique moral weight in the discourse of international politics. When violence against civilians has been widely accepted as a necessary outcome of the preservation of peace, activists find it necessary to imagine a worse evil than the …
Human Rights And The War On Terror: Complete 2005 - 2007 Topical Research Digest, Jack Donnelly, Simon Amajuru, Susannah Compton, Robin Davey, Syd Dillard, Amanda Donahoe, Charles Hess, Sydney Fisher, Kelley Laird, Victoria Lowdon, Chris Maggard, Alexandra Nichols, Travis Ning, Toni Panetta, Greg Sanders, James Smithwick, Angela Woolliams, Chris Saeger, Sarah Bania-Dobyns, Eric Dibbern, David Gillespie, Latife Bulur, Katie Friesen, Arika Long, Arianna Nowakowski, Joel R. Pruce
Human Rights And The War On Terror: Complete 2005 - 2007 Topical Research Digest, Jack Donnelly, Simon Amajuru, Susannah Compton, Robin Davey, Syd Dillard, Amanda Donahoe, Charles Hess, Sydney Fisher, Kelley Laird, Victoria Lowdon, Chris Maggard, Alexandra Nichols, Travis Ning, Toni Panetta, Greg Sanders, James Smithwick, Angela Woolliams, Chris Saeger, Sarah Bania-Dobyns, Eric Dibbern, David Gillespie, Latife Bulur, Katie Friesen, Arika Long, Arianna Nowakowski, Joel R. Pruce
Human Rights & Human Welfare
“9/11 changed everything.” Not really. In fact, there has been far more continuity than change over the past six years in both international and domestic politics. Nonetheless, human rights often have been harmed—although not by terrorism but by “the war on terror.”
Democracy's Paradox: Popular Rule As A Constitutional Limit On Foreign Policy Promoting Popular Rule, Harry F. Tepker Jr.
Democracy's Paradox: Popular Rule As A Constitutional Limit On Foreign Policy Promoting Popular Rule, Harry F. Tepker Jr.
Oklahoma Law Review
No abstract provided.
Trends. The United States, Israel, And Parallelism In Counterterrorist Response, Ibpp Editor
Trends. The United States, Israel, And Parallelism In Counterterrorist Response, Ibpp Editor
International Bulletin of Political Psychology
This Trends article discusses and evaluates United States reactions to terrorist attacks, and US support for Israel in a political psychological context.
Trends. After The Deluge: Psychology And Post-Totalitarianism, Ibpp Editor
Trends. After The Deluge: Psychology And Post-Totalitarianism, Ibpp Editor
International Bulletin of Political Psychology
This Trends article discusses the psychological impacts – both positive and negative - of the transition from totalitarian rule in Iraq following the US-led military intervention against Saddam Hussein’s regime.