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Blog #5: International Relations: Final Readings on Columbus

  International Relations: Final Readings on Columbus In our last class on International Relations, our class was tasked with discussing the book “The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other” by Tzvetan Todorov. The book talks about the conquest and colonization of the native people of the Americas by the Spaniards soon after they found the Americas. The beginning chapters of the book discuss the initial findings of the Spanish when they first came upon the Americas. The Spanish immediately noticed how rich America was with resources, stating that gold and silver were found in abundance. In addition to this, the Spanish noticed the rich and different landscape of the Americas with high mountains and beautiful valleys. Lastly, the Spanish noticed the difference among the native people of the land who had different cultures, features, traditions, and languages. As the book begins to progress, the chapters then begin to get into the psychology and thinking of the Spanish while ...
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BLOG 5

  Roe v Wade: The History and Looming Future of Our Nation Passed in 1973, the monumental decision of Roe v. Wade ruled that the Constitution of the United States would protect the liberty of a women’s decision to have an abortion during the first trimester of her pregnancy, permitting minimal to no governmental imposition. In doing so, the ruling struck down a multitude of in tack U.S. laws on both federal and state levels, igniting the infamous debate between pro-choice and pro-life parties. The case of Roe v Wade was first instigated after Jane Roe, a pseudonym for 22 year old Norma McCorvey, sought to have an abortion in Texas in 1969 after falling pregnant for the third time whilst unmarried and unemployed. However, Roe’s plight was rejected by the in place Texas law which ruled abortions to be illegal with the exception to save the life of the mother. Texas’ law further denied Roe the right to travel to a neighboring state in order to receive an abortion to which point Roe ...
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Blog post 5

Implications of Diplomatic Risk Game  The Diplomatic Risk Game provided valuable insight as to how international political decisions are executed, morevor what leaders place emphasis on when choosing their political strategies. In a fictional game, the chosen leaders and diplomats were not concerned with the true implicit and explicit costs of war, rather, the focus was on total dominance in resources. Similarly, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues to progress it can be seen that leaders like Vladimir Putin operate under those same principles.  In principle, war should operate as it did throughout the Risk Game: two nations that cannot reach an agreement go to war and the dominant nation will emerge victorious. The Risk Game allows its players to focus solely on the international dynamics and their corresponding power changes emerging post-war. In order to settle a conflict,  “both the defender and the attacker roll X dice, where X is the amount of units they ...
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Blog 5

With the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, the notion of great power conflict has once again become extremely relevant and real. This invasion shocked many Western viewers, who had become accustomed to seeing warfare through the lens of the Global War on Terror. In this campaign, the West found itself fighting in mostly low intensity conflicts against insurgencies and terrorist groups, rather than professional militaries. While the war in Ukraine is “the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II '' (Rand), there is another great power conflict that, if it were to break out, would potentially lead to greater consequences for the United States than the war in Ukraine. This potential future conflict would be between the United States and China over control of Taiwan. This is for many different reasons, to include, military, economic, and political. For one, Taiwan is a part of an important island chain that the US can use to box the Chinese navy in and cut China off f...
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Blog 4

          When any sort of mass violence happens anywhere in the world, people resort to refering to it as “terrorism”. As Daniel L Byman writes in his article, Who is a terrorist actually? , “not all violence is terrorism, either. In many instances, even those who do actively promote and use violence don’t merit the label ‘terrorist’. The State Department definition of terrorism as being “ Premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents” is too broad and invites people to use the label of terrorist in a much less stringent manner than it should be used. This can lead to many different secondary and tertiary effects, such as a diminishing of the power of the word and an invitation for government overreach. In my opinion, the definition of terrorism should become much more narrow than it currently is and the use of the term “terrorist” or “terrorism” should not be used as much ...
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BLOG 4

   Blog #4 Max Gilbert Elon Musk and Twitter: An Unlikely, Yet Sound Partnership      As of recently, and specifically this morning, Elon Musk seems to be on the precipice of buying the social media platform Twitter for roughly 46.5 billion dollars, and taking the company private. In total, Musk is worth more than two hundred and eighty billion dollars, and is most known for electric car company Tesla, and space exploration venture "Space X." Amidst this corporate drama, there remains the question of why does he want to buy twitter, what's in it for Musk? To begin with, he has spoken about the platform's harsh moderation of content, and free-speech, and would most definitely lessen those restrictions if purchased. Furthermore, Twitter as a whole has not capitalized on it's larger than life user base, and is notoriously dysfunctional. Musk would bring a fresh mindset to the table, and provide a more in-touch view, and perspective of younger generations.  ...
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Blog Post 4- Carter Goltermann

                                     Debilitating Polarity: Will the Paris Accord Prove Successful?   The question must be asked why the Montreal Protocol successfully worked in reducing the amount of Chlorofluorocarbons that were emitted into the atmosphere, but the Kyoto Protocol failed in reducing the amount of greenhouse gasses emitted in the atmosphere. In fact, the “greenhouse gas output has increased since 1997, not decreased” (National Geographic). Some would equate this failure to the structure of the United States Government, more specifically, the polarity that it fosters. This polarity, alongside a democratic government that was designed to represent the public, produces a nation that changes its political stances based on the majority party for a given presidential election. Considering that the U.S. is one of the most vital nations in the process of inter...
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