Cold war experiences continue to shape the way that the present age of leaders look at international issues. For instance, the Cuban Missile Crisis opened the eyes of the leaders of this era. With the constant risk of nuclear war resulting in mass sufferings and death at any moment, individuals started to question why they worked hard and why these things made a difference. The new found philosophy informed the American Dream since it led to a decline in not only the morale, but also the will to work hard. Secondly, the red threat has shaped foreign policy across the board. It spread through the Monroe Doctrine which provided that the U.S. could attack any nation under the risk of embracing socialism however allows current socialist nations to exist unabated and the Brezhnev Doctrine which provided that USSR could attack any nation that threatens socialism or when necessary to bolster communism established the modern policies on international relations. These regulations caused the split amongst Western and Eastern Europe after Cold War, conflicts and eventual division between political and economics today. Because of support for capitalism by the United States and also the united states support for Western Europe, the U.S. has a habit of to leaning toward Western Europe bolster and furthermore the split amongst Europe’s West and East today.
Post 2: journal entry
In essence, as a student, I very enthusiastic to learn the various concepts of international relations which will be very vital for my profession. From this course, I am looking forward to learning more about the international regimes and various organizations such as the UN, states and foreign policy, security and various conflicts in international relations, international law, human rights ad justice, today’s global problems for instance culture, religion, terrorism, refugee and the environment.
There are a wide variety of sources that I will use in this course ranging from academic journals, news journals, books and even magazines. Perhaps in terms of published books, I will use Kenneth Waltzs Man, the State, and War as a supplementary reading material. Also, there several sources of journals that will be very important such as American Journal of International Law, American Journal of Political Science, American Political Science Review, Australian Journal of International Affairs, Cambridge Review of International Affairs and British Journal of Politics and International Relations. News sources such as BBC, CNN, Aljazeera, the guardian and the economist will be very much helpfully to my studies. Other sources will include Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Reuters, Atlantic Journal and The National Journal.
Lastly, one story that I have been following on lately on CNN is the planned summit between leaders of the United States and North Korea (http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1805/30/sn.01.html). According to this transcript, a lot of effort is being made to bring North Korean leaders to a round table with United States leaders in order to solve the stalemate that has stood between the two countries for decades. While note yet accomplished, there is high hopes of bringing these leaders together to discuss the issues of contention. This developing story will be very instrumental for my course considering the fact that it touches on one of the most important aspects I am looking forward to learning, conflicts in international relations.
Journal 3: key concepts that comprise the foundation for the discipline of international relations
Essentially, international relations is more complex today than it was a long time ago. Key changes have happened since the beginning of the 1970s. These mainly include new developments in U.S. - Soviet and U.S. - China relations, reorganization of the international financial system and unrests, the fourth Middle East war and followed by the oil crisis, rapid changes in the circumstances in Indochina and the heightening of problems in the global economy.
The world has go into a period of multipolarization and international relations have turned out to be differentiated of late. There are several factors that can be referred to as a share of the vital issues adding to the expansion of international structure today including; the rise of China's international status, the ascent of China's global status, rise of japans power and other western European nations, Sino-Soviet conflict, colonial system collapsing, the risen patriotism and self-determination of nations in the South, and the inclination to seek ethnic or national interests among the nations in the south, west and the east.
Also, the alternatives that are available to majority of the nations in foreign policy arrangements have expanded because of the way that the outbreak of war between the west and east has turned out to be relentlessly problematic, notwithstanding long periods of cold war, armed conflict between west and east is evaded, and of late both the sides have embraced the strategy of easing pressures.
