Transcript GO131: International Relations Professor Walter Hatch Colby College Closing Thoughts How far have we come?

GO131:
International Relations
Professor Walter Hatch
Colby College
Closing Thoughts
How far have we come?
From Ignorance?
To Enlightenment?
Well, let’s see…
We’ve examined IR theory
Realists
Liberals
Constructivists
Marxist-Leninists
Feminists
We’ve applied theory to cases
WWI
WWII
Cold War
We’ve studied security issues
Weapons of Mass destruction
Ethnic and religious conflict
Old and new interventionism
We’ve studied economic issues
The North-South divide
Trade and Finance
Globalization and regionalism
We’ve studied legal issues
Treaties, conventions, norms
ICJ vs. ICC
“Shaming”
We’ve studied environmental issues
Global warming
Ozone depletion
Loss of bio-diversity
We’ve asked: Who matters?
States?
Intergovernmental organizatons?
Non-state actors?
NGOs
MNCs
Terrorist Networks
Civilizations?
But we haven’t yet looked ahead
Two Linked Issues
Terrorism
Anti-Americanism
Terrorism
History
French Revolution’s “Reign of
Terror” (1793-4)
Anti-czarist Russians (1878-9)
National liberation struggles
(since 1960s)
Provisional IRA
Basque ETA
Chechens
Uighurs
Tamil Tigers
Islam-ism
Politics of Definitions
“Premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated
against non-combatant targets by subnational groups or
clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an
audience.”
US State Dept
Any action “intended to cause death or serious bodily harm
to civilians or noncombatants, when the purpose of such act,
by its nature or context, is to intimidate a population or to
compel a government or an international organization to do
or abstain from doing any act.”
UN study panel (2004)
Tokyo (March 1945)
Dresden (February 1945)
Political Islam
Political Christianity
Abortion clinic in Birmingham, AL (1998)
Common Denominators
Erosion of faith
Decline of tradition
Eclipse of “the local”
Jihad
vs
McWorld
Anti-Americanism
Two More Big Issues
for your generation …
Climate Change
Global Poverty