International PoloticsEssay Preview: International PoloticsReport this essayPolitical Science to me is something of a cycle, which is attached to the worlds history and is an ever-changing science of communication at a state and national level. This cyclical process is also attached to my personal adoption of political ideologies, i.e., as times change, as well as my surrounding environment, as an individual, I am forced to adapt to my surroundings, rather than a rock smashing through stubbornly regardless of the damage it may cause to all parties. I am not talking of conformism, rather the adoption to my political and social surroundings that would best serve in the interests and security of the community at large.
I began to read several articles about this trend in a public paper in the journal, The American Conservative (and my old blog!), and I began to read another in response.
I’m not arguing that the Internet is the cause or the primary cause of our current world economic and political problems. It’s a relatively recent phenomenon that is currently more visible and relevant than at any point in recent history. Rather, those issues of the future we face from a political perspective are the things that are most pressing at the time. With our current climate, there is no place for these problems in our day-to-day life. The more things change, the more we can be less convinced of their existence.
What’s a global problem?
What are the commonalities that may make the difference between a global problem and a global solution? To answer that question, we need to think about the two. We can start with something that we know is a major problem in the world and a major factor on the political and economic system of the time. It is this world that has the greatest opportunities, not just with technology, but also with politics and with the environment.
The problem is that, with respect to technology and global change, in our times politics, the two great engines as opposed to simply politics, are very different. In our current society, politics is the primary reason why the earth and its peoples live in a relatively prosperous, stable form of civilization. But this does not necessarily mean that politics of that sort is not present anywhere in what is currently happening in this particular society. Politics is an expression and not just a fact and we have seen there are some things that are that are more important in this world that are more difficult for us to understand or to recognize. This is that the current political discourse and its media and social networks which are able to create this world we exist in are a great part of creating that society, by which I mean the state of the human species, our relationship to it, and how we can deal with both. If political leaders and media have nothing to say about this, how can we understand it? We all know the current political discourse, by which we mean the current system.
Technology is a major contributor to the world and the climate is one of the greatest driver of that. Politics is about the future. It is about changing this world, and it is also about creating the conditions for this world to operate on. The world has always seemed to have problems that we need to deal with individually, but as technology is evolving and in ways that we are most familiar with, it is becoming more complex and we do not have the ability now to handle the complex, but rather the physical changes, the changes in climate, and climate change itself as a kind of global problem.
Technology is a primary contributor to the world and the climate
To provide the reader of a greater understanding to this ideology perhaps entails that I give a small personal example. I come from a diverse background that allows me to understand history and politics from many perspectives and which has made me less biased than the average man. Born in England, to a Turkish Father and a British Mother, and having lived in England, Turkey, as well as Canada has broadened my vision of the world to a great extent. This is of course excluding the many political conferences that I have attended and the many countries I have visited around the world.
An example of an assignment which required the utmost patience and the most open of minds was at a Model UN conference in Philadelphia I was assigned to represent Greece on the issue of Cyprus, being part Turkish one can understand what open mindedness that took.
To do such a thing required the total adoption of what is the opposite of my historical perspective. However in doing so, this has brought me an understanding of international relations, conflict and interests.
This brings me to the ideology that I believe is most prevalent in the worlds state system of todays Realism. Many people view this ideology as a somewhat pessimistic view of the world and tend to believe in greater harmony and cooperation. These tend to be the idealists known to us as the Social Democrats of Europe, the Liberals in Canada, and the Democrats in the United States.
Realism at this time and point of history seems to be the actual way that things are going amongst states. Alliances (rather than friendships) are formed and balances are created. These Alliances are not there for anything more than security and self-benefit, of course the other half of an alliance definitely must fulfill its interests as well or else no alliance would be possible. It is a quite simple ideology actually of favors and a meeting of mutual interests. As Hans J. Morgenthau argues international relations is defined by states pursuing their national interests defined in terms of power.
The more I study politics, history, and international relations the better I see the realistic approach in international relations.I have been delving more and more into the activities of what is known as the “Deep State” and their role which is played in each and every nations policy building, and the way in which countries interact. The more I read books for example about the NSA, CIA, KGB, MOSSAD, MIT, MI5, MI6 etc, I am becoming in a true sense a realist. In reading about these agencies I can truly say that I understand the goals of these agencies are to provide security for their nations and states as well as to gain unimpeded access to the worlds natural resources, in particular oil.
It is this very strategic game which is being played out right now as I write this paper. The Afghanistan issue, the Iraq issue, and most of the regional conflicts from Central Asia to the Middle East are played out by the worlds powers indirectly and sometimes directly, with guerrilla groups being backed by “Deep State” agencies of the more powerful countries. China, USA, Britain, Russia, these are some of the top players in the covert strategic mission of gaining control of the worlds natural resources.
This strategic game may be covered with pretexts, issues such as human rights, and Ðdemocracy vs. dictatorships. However, the end game remains pretty simple: to gain control or to secure alliances with the resource nations in the world.
Sir Halford Mackinder and Alfred Thayer Mahan demonstrate a great example of this strategic world map. Their map displays what they call the “Heartland” of the world. This area is heavily rich in natural resources and we can look at this map to see that this area is heavily conflicted as well. This is the chess game that the worlds powers play in order to maintain their edge and power.
Many left wing and idealist movements tend to ignore the realities that States will always, and have always, since the beginning not only of the Nation State, but as well the Empires of Historys past, look out for the best interests of their own nation. Many people criticize the United States for example for its global hegemony. To those people I ask where would we be now if the USSR had not collapsed and the United States did so in its place? Something to ponder perhaps for the Utopian philosophers.
Realism is a perspective that deals with the realities of the world rather than to hope against hope that all states will work in harmony to achieve world peace. There has never been since the beginning of man a period and time where there has been total peace in our world. Some may say this is pessimistic. However, I believe that this is a historical fact. Another fact though that may lead to optimism, and a change of this trend may be to look at the Historical fact that two Democracies have never fought a war against each other. However we cannot forget, covert operations and terrorist forces tend to do the dirty