The Gypsies and the Balkans States
Essay - 7 pages - International relations
The Gypsies are now recognized to have originated from northern India and to have arrived in Europe around the 14th century. This deprives the Gypsies of an historical homeland and a state able to protect their rights, even outside its borders. Moreover, their immigration in several waves created...
"Why has the common foreign and security policy been so much more difficult to organise than economic cooperation?"
Essay - 6 pages - International relations
One of the most important discussions in the modern-day European Union concerns the lack of effectiveness of common foreign and security policy. As the Union moves towards integration, creating such a policy has become one of its most pressing concerns. I shall consider this question in detail...
"What accounts for the success of Silvio Berlusconi in Italian politics since the political crisis of the early 1990's?"
Essay - 6 pages - International relations
As the most dominant Italian politician of his time, Silvio Berlusconi has introduced important innovations in many fields of Italian politics: new ideological approaches, new coalition strategies, new campaign methods and a new leadership style and language. All of these innovations have had a...
Have we reached the limits of the EU enlargement?
Essay - 8 pages - International relations
In the light of the massive 2004 European Union (EU) enlargement and the current one of Bulgaria and Romania, the question of whether the EU is reaching the limits of its enlargement shows all its relevance. In fact, since the moment the European integration process was launched, it has welcomed...
What does the European Union's so-called 'democratic deficit' stem from, and how could it be tackled?
Essay - 7 pages - International relations
One of the most important discussions in the modern-day European Union concerns the democratic deficit. The Maastricht treaty, which was signed on February 1992 by different European states, claims that the goal the EU is to create ‘an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, in which...
Has Blair government's constructive European engagement been undermined by the Iraq war?
Essay - 6 pages - International relations
Britain's relationship with the European Union (EU) has been one of the most divisive issues of British politics over the last 50 years. Yet, the election of the Blair government in May 1997 intended to change this situation and marked a significant shift in the UK's European policies. Unlike his...
A Just Cause
Essay - 3 pages - International relations
As Michael Walzer frequently states, “war is hell”; however, that has not stopped people from engaging in it for thousands of years. There are a variety of reasons nations have entered war, among them are: territorial expansion, the spread of democracy, self-defense, and humanitarian...
The relations between Macedonia and Albania
Essay - 5 pages - International relations
Macedonia has particular features in the Balkanic entanglement. On the one hand, we could say it is a “classical” Balkanic country, with all the negative connotations this adjective unfortunately implies: a post-Yugoslavian country, which encounters difficulties to ensure its authority,...
The international intervention in Somalia 1992-1995
Essay - 46 pages - International relations
Somalia is traditionally a pastoral and nomadic society. Throughout the precolonial era, herders of camels, cattle and sheep lived in a world of “egalitarian anarchy” where the main preoccupation of the clan families was the well-being of the herd. The clan structure functioned...
The general oil market and the American oil policy
Essay - 18 pages - International relations
Since the Industrial Revolution, energy is an international concern: one fifth of international trade of goods is the supply in energy of the companies. At the beginning of the century, oil became the most important energy source. Today, oil represents the most important share of the energy...
Globalisation and peace in the twenty-first century: a structuralist approach
Essay - 14 pages - International relations
In his Glance at today's world (1931), French poet Paul Valéry wrote "Le temps du monde fini commence" (1). By "monde fini", he meant that the world now had well-established geographical limits, implying there was no more Terra incognita or utopia where to transpose our dreams, either in...
What are human rights and what place have discussions on human rights found in international relations?
Essay - 7 pages - International relations
Though they may disagree on the importance of this phenomenon, most international experts now admit that there is a growing concern, both from states and from people, for Human Rights in international relations. Human Rights are often used to legitimate an action (diplomatic pressures, economic...
Africa: a cold war proxy field?
Essay - 5 pages - International relations
In most discourses about International Relations, Africa is described as a ‘victim' of external powers - namely its former colonisers, the United States and, as far as the Cold War period is concerned, the Soviet Union. For instance, it is said that African wars in the post-colonial era were...
Is the United Nations an effective organisation?
Essay - 3 pages - International relations
The United Nations is not the first international organisation to be established to help settle conflict peacefully and to prevent future conflicts from arising. In 1899, the Hague Convention for the Settlement of International Disputes was established. “The conference was convened at the...
African Traditional Healing in Today's World
Thesis - 4 pages - International relations
With the advent of postmodern theory in the mid-to-late twentieth century, Western thought has come to realize the need for a more complete view of human knowledge and being, one that does not fall prey to the modernist Enlightenment fascination with ‘rationality' and ‘objectivity'...
The clash of civilizations, by Samuel P. Huntington - Theory study and criticisms against the ideas
Book review - 2 pages - International relations
In 1996, Samuel Huntington published his book “The clash of civilization and the remaking of world order”. That book being a follow-up to the article that Huntington had published a few years earlier in the journal “Foreign affairs”. The journal Foreign Affairs never got so...
What are the main milestones in the emergence of the Palestinian problem and the Arab-Israeli conflict?
Essay - 8 pages - International relations
In January 2006, the Islamic militant group Hamas won the Palestinian Parliamentary elections, with 42,2% of the votes. The election in Palestine of a group that remains committed to an armed struggle, the destruction of Israel and retaliatory attacks on Israeli civilians shows that nearly sixty...
To what extent can we say Great Britain and the USA have a special relationship? What have the advantages and the disadvantages of the relationship been?
Essay - 4 pages - International relations
Many signs in history show that the UK and the USA detain a privileged relation. As one of the first British colony to be liberated, the USA has always been related to Great Britain. These two countries share the same language, the same political tradition, the same religion. From the point of...
International Organisation: The UN system
Essay - 6 pages - International relations
Is global governance a chimera in a world of states, or is there as Keohane suggests, limited global governance in a partially globalized world, or is global governance an effective form of western hegemony? Is global governance a chimera in a world of states, or is there as Keohane suggests,...
Vatican Diplomacy
Tutorials/exercises - 3 pages - International relations
The Pope, as a spiritual and temporal leader, wields a double sovereignty: over the City of the Vatican as Head of State, and over the Holy See (or Apostolic See) as Head of the Roman Catholic Church. This fundamental distinction, “perennialized” by the 1929 Latran accords, is at the...
The evolution of the closer relationship between the United States and India
Essay - 13 pages - International relations
Since its independence and the end of the cold war, India has evolved considerably. Nowadays, India's power is rising like its influence on the international scene and the emergence of India as a major Asian power is a matter of fact. Indeed, thanks to diverse advantageous characteristics, India...
Is Intercultural communication possible across the Baltic Sea Region?
Essay - 8 pages - International relations
“The meaning behind intercultural communication is to try to bring different world views and meaning attributions closer to each others through and with the help of verbal and non-verbal interactions” . Here is a definition of intercultural communication by Niina Kovalainen that reveals...
Britain is widely regarded as the ' awkward partner ' in Europe. How accurate is this assessment? - publié le 27/03/2007
Essay - 4 pages - International relations
“We have our own dreams and our own tasks. We are in Europe, but not part of it. We are linked, but not combined. We are interested and associated, but not integrated.” Winston Churchill's famous quote aptly describes Britain's approach to European integration since the inception of...
Britain is widely regarded as the « awkward partner » in Europe. How accurate is this assessment? - published: 27/03/2007
Thesis - 4 pages - International relations
“We have our own dream and our own task. We are with Europe, but not of it. We are linked, but not combined. We are interested and associated, but not absorbed.” Winston Churchill's famous quote aptly describes Britain's approach to European integration since the inception of the EU in...
International relations, theory and practice: the Second Kashmir war
Essay - 5 pages - International relations
I will deal in this essay with the Second Kashmir War, which was a war between India and Pakistan in 1965. We will see how we can interpret the causes and the origins of the war, and the way it was ended and solved. I chose to use two different theories to interpret the Indo-Pakistani war of...
International organisations and sovereignty
Essay - 3 pages - International relations
The French campaign for the referendum on the European Constitution has perfectly shown the fear of a loss of state sovereignty due to the European Union within the political elite as well as within the society. With the increase of international organisations, that can be defined as “a...
Kenneth Waltz's on nuclear weapons - publié le 12/03/2007
Essay - 3 pages - International relations
Do you agree with Waltz's recommendation to spread nuclear weapons? On Sunday, April 9, 2006, the Washington Post announced that 'the Bush administration is studying options for military strikes against Iran as part of a broader strategy of coercive diplomacy to pressure Tehran to abandon...
Kenneth Waltz's on nuclear weapons
Essay - 3 pages - International relations
Do you agree with Waltz's recommendation to spread nuclear weapons? On Sunday, April 9, 2006, the Washington Post announced that “the Bush administration is studying options for military strikes against Iran as part of a broader strategy of coercive diplomacy to pressure Tehran to abandon...
The Progressive Era, the New Deal, and the Great Society: a comparative study - publié le 01/03/2007
Essay - 4 pages - International relations
The Jeffersonian idea that liberty and equality would be best achieved by every man pursuing his own interest and a federal government with constrained powers, is often seen as America's traditional political philosophy. During the 20th century, three eras of government activism, particularly...
The Progressive Era, the New Deal, and the Great Society: a comparative study
Essay - 4 pages - International relations
The Jeffersonian idea that liberty and equality would be best achieved by everyman pursuing his own interest and a federal government with greatly constrained powers is often seen as America's traditional political philosophy. During the 20th century, three periods of government activism...
