Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Reflection: Does North Korea have anything to be thankful for?
A best guess on my part is that my parents side with the former way of thinking. Like it was discussed in class, I feel that North Korea is merely showing its teeth in an era where we've become accustomed to a more liberal, transparent world power apparatus that such a display of a realist method is distressing to nations and people across the world merely because it has become an antiquated technique among developed and even developing nations. North Korea knows internally that it's going to be difficult to assert their (imagined) authority over the countries of East Asia once their "fearless leader," Kim Jong-Il passes away. It's similar to what will certainly be a problem for Cuba once the man who is now supposedly working behind the curtains, Fidel Castro, finally kicks the bucket. Also, as was noted in the New York Times this morning, South Korean officials and diplomats feel that after Kim Jong-Il dies, it will only be a matter of time (likely a few years) before the government collapses. China, through the new WikiLeaks story, has shown impatience with North Korea, perhaps signaling that their mutual friendship that has spanned decades may finally be coming to an end. North Korea doesn't really have any other friends in the world; China is their last hope. I mean, if the United States were a nation run like North Korea, and we had a dynasty family running things in our country, wouldn't it be rather destabilizing once the leader died and a transfer of power is taking place? North Korea may not get another chance for a governmental change for years, as Kim Jong-Il's heir apparent, his son, would probably lead the country for decades to come. The government, wanting to keep its authority over its people intact, and at risk of losing their only real ally, will attempt to
Monday, November 29, 2010
Reflection: Thanksgiving and East Asia
This Thanksgiving I was thankful of my family, as well as for not living on Yeonpyeong Island. I don’t know what’s scarier, the possibility of a full scale war or living in constant fear of attacks. While I’m pretty sure North Korea doesn’t want a full-on war, I’m not optimistic that the whole situation will end on a happy note. South Korea so far hasn’t taken North Korea’s taunts strongly enough to take it to the next level, but the new President might respond differently. The reluctance of China to condemn North Korea’s actions is too bad. I don’t think it would be in China’s best interest to associate itself with such a country as North Korea. If China wants to grow into a major superpower, it would be beneficial to ally itself with countries that have good reputations. Even though I understand that China doesn’t want to look like its taking orders from the U.S. and South Korea, I think China would gain an improved record for helping tame a problematic neighbor.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Reflection: Throwing Money at the Problems of Today
In the lecture we read/listened to, the man seemed to give credence to the theory that it would be better to use that money toward abolishing hunger in the world's developing nations, or using it to fight an epidemic like AIDS. Certainly these are noble causes, but he seemed to brush off the threat of global warming as unimportant and irrelevant. Perhaps hunger/poverty issues should take precedent over global warming, as no one really ever died over global warming. However, if it is a global inheritance of this money, shouldn't the funds be used to fight an issue that affects those in Switzerland as well as those in Swaziland? I'm pretty sure bioterrorism isn't a majorly pertinent issue in those nations, but the threat of global warming doesn't know borders.
Investing in a "Manhattan Project" of the 21st century could help spark initiative in the world to pay more attention to green technology. We could save our planet and secure our economic security for decades to come.
Poverty can't be solved, and to be honest terrorism can't theoretically be solved either. However, global warming can only be solved in a subjective light. We can't all agree even at this time that climate change is real, and much less whether it is man-made or merely natural. Perhaps funding should be put aside for the advocation of global warming measures, since a great segment of the population (including an alarming number of people in our class) still believe global warming to be a false prophecy of the future.
I'll actually quote a Republican to finish this reflection. Before he began his run to the right in order to get re-elected, Senator John McCain noted this about global warming in a debate between his Republican counterparts during the presidential campaign:
"If it's real, then we can help save ourselves from a global disaster. If it's not, then all we've done is left our children and our grandchildren with a cleaner world."
Maybe we should just have some tax cuts? 50 billion dollars could give every person in the world about $8.15. Pretty sweet deal.
Reflection on Columbus
Reading about Columbus in The Conquest Of America was a very thought-provoking experience. Columbus comes off in the book as a highly eccentric person at best, and a total lunatic at worst. He seems so irrational and downright deluded that it’s almost hard to hate him, because if he really was so out of his mind as to punish people for suggesting that Cuba was an island just because he wanted to have reached Asia, how could he have hoped to comprehend or draw any logical conclusions from his interactions with the native americans? While I had always known Columbus had all the closed-mindedness and religious rigidity of the times, I had never heard just how bizarre a person he was. Perhaps his exploits in the new world weren’t quite what would be expected of a typical European explorer. If another person had discovered America instead of Columbus, surely they would have had a different approach.
The question, however, becomes how different? After all, while Columbus was undoubtedly someone who would seem strange to anyone, in any time era, were his overall actions in the Americas that far from the norms of the times? While his sponsors were taken aback by his enthusiasm, and his crew noted how odd his behavior was, he ultimately did not get labeled as someone who was famed as being chronically deluded. Even modern times, with the sharp increase in acknowledging Columbus as being nothing close to a hero, usually emphasizes the quest for gold and ill treatment of the natives he recorded in his letters, not his convictions that mermaids existed. Perhaps we are viewing him from too far in hindsight, from a time when logic rather than faith was the norm, for if he had truly been considered as strange as he would today, the reputation would have followed him. We see mild versions of this even nowadays, with the flaws and eccentricities of various public figures being brushed over as not being a big deal in their lifetime, only to provoke outrage much later on. What is considered normal for a culture steadily changes over time, and it was clear that even if Columbus's actions did not represent an average European, they were not wild enough to severely damage his reputation as the great discoverer of America for many centuries.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Reflection: Native American Museum
To put this in perspective, Congress in 2003 authorized the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture to be built in 2015. Suppose they decide to totally emit the history of slavery. Without a doubt that would spark a major public outcry. I don’t understand why Native Americans as well as the general public aren’t outraged at the museum’s portrayal of history. I know that the passing of time comes with a “relaxing” of past tragedies. It seems that this happened such a long time ago, that it doesn’t really matter anymore. No one alive today was involved in slavery, yet I bet many people would care if museums didn’t mention it at all―even if the United States wants to keep its terrible past to a down-low. I think this is an injustice Native Americans and the country should fight to correct.
Reflection on Columbus' Motives
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Redskins vs. The Many Native American Nations
The Museum of the American Indian is a much more acceptable depiction of Native Americans than the exaggerated, easily-represented, old-fashioned stereotype used to symbolize the Washington Redskins. In the pop-culture encyclopedia from which simplistic concepts like sports teams are taken, the native american is a feather-adorned, red-skinned, warpainted, weapon-wielding noble savage. Like all stereotypes, this image takes a grain of truth and treats it as though it is the whole truth. As shown by the museum exhibits we saw, native americans are a vastly complex, varied series of different nations, all of which have unique identities. The “Native American” is not a single idea, but a term that can only be used correctly when referring to all the indigenous people of the Americas.
The depiction of the Native American given by the Museum of the American Indian is one of a number of different people who are described as human beings, with the histories of any other number of world civilizations and the same modernization and variation that other cultures have today. The pop-culture depiction embraced by the Redskins strips the humanity out of native americans, reducing them to an outdated cliche that, after bombarding the population enough without opposition, begins to affect peoples’ thoughts about real Native Americans. Without a strong presence of real Native American culture to be an alternative, the cliche is sadly all the exposure some people receive to the idea of Native Americans. And when this is the only idea they have to work with, Native Americans logically seem like an idea that isn’t real, and can’t really exist in the modern world, and become in peoples’ subconscious minds an extinct concept, like crusaders or Arthurian knights.
Largely because of this, the fact that Native Americans are real people who not only live in the present and are nothing like the stereotypes depict, but are also a people who still struggle with ongoing problems left over from the European conquest, slips many peoples’ minds. This is not just a matter of cultural knowledge and sensitivity, but poses another hurdle for the problems of Native Americans. When a marginalized group, such as African Americans during various periods of history, are given attention and presented accurately, people quickly begin to figure out the injustices and problems they deal with, dismissing flawed conceptions of the group in question as they go. But when a group is pushed to the side and never gets a chance to speak, overcoming any problem becomes much harder. And because the stereotypes of Native Americans is so pervasive (and not nearly as widely derided as stereotypes of most other minorities), Native Americans not only have to make their voices heard, but have the added task of doing away with the stereotypes first. After exposure to Native American cultures, such as the exhibits of the museum, it is simple to see that it is a more acceptable depiction, because it is a more accurate depiction. Unfortunately, too few people get that kind of much-needed exposure.
“Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.”
Is Columbus to Blame?
Blame Columbus
Leaders are what they are because those who listen to them follow them. Because the European crew have never met Native Americans before, they would have looked to Columbus for guidance as to how they should relate with them. While nothing is certain, if Columbus acted courteously for the good of both sides, history could be dramatically different. The treatment of these people as objects may have become the precedent for the future practice of slavery in the United States. Just like how we learned how our parents dealt with a situation we’ve never seen before, they did the same thing. Columbus could have peacefully traded goods instead of winding them up and shipping them off as slaves. Today we often blame our leaders for screwing up and causing problems. We should look at Columbus with the same eyes we do with our present leaders.
Blaming Columbus
Can we blame Columbus for what happened to the Native Americans? Surely he was no saint, and certainly had no respect for the indigenous people here, but we cannot blame him for Europe’s response to the new world. Even if Columbus had been an idealistic, altruistic adventurer who respected native people, was willing to be fair with them, and wanted to explore more than to make money, it would not have had any impact on the way the Native Americans were treated.
The culture of Europe at the time was one that combined the early renaissance values of developing new ideas, expanding fields of knowledge, and outwards-thinking expansionism; with the religion-infused, narrow-minded concepts that had been internalized and strengthened throughout the dark ages. Europeans had a great drive to become a successful, enlightened people; but were limited by the decades to centuries of a stagnant social condition, lack of attention to the evolution of schools of thought on multiple levels -- political, technological, scientific, artistic, philosophical --, crushing poverty, and religious fanaticism brought on by the massive death rates due to both the Black Plauge and the devastation that followed; that had drastically slowed the development of European society. When Europe emerged from the dark ages, they were socially not far removed from the crusades, invading and slaughtering to heroically spread the word of Christ among heathens. They were taking risks and venturing into the world with their rising power, but did not have the knowledge and development to match. In short, they were rather like uneducated enthusiasts secure in the knowledge that they knew best. It is ridiculous to think that upon discovering a new land, filled with an abundance of resources and populated by a people who seemed primitive savages to the best of their knowledge and were most certainly not Christian, Europeans would collectively decide to be respectful and diplomatic with these new people and lands, even if an important adventurer had protested.
Europeans at that time did not have the standards to measure up to that we do. They were convinced that the people they had discovered were lower than they were, and did not deserve to have their way of life respected, not when it so neatly fit their ideals about spreading the Christian and European way of life as the superior way. They were struggling to emerge into a period of renaissance, and would not have dreamed of leaving alone land and resources that were so abundant and easily taken. Perhaps if, by lucky chance, Columbus had been an unnaturally learned, experienced, and enlightened person who also had an immense amount of power; he might have been able to stall the European conquest of America slightly, or maybe inspired a school of thought that pushed for a less brutally oppressive campaign. But even so, the discovery of the new world was such a godsend, and arguments against its conquest so unsupported, that it never would have been left alone. Columbus may have done nothing to make the plight of the Native Americans easier, but he had a minimal impact on the European approach to the Americas after discovering them.
The Representation of "Indians"
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Reflection: The Shining City on the Pale Blue Dot
That's here, that's home, that's us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, ever mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "supreme leader," every "superstar," every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there -- on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage, in a vast, cosmic, arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on he scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think for a moment of the rivers of blood, spilled by all those generals and emperors, so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters -- of a fraction of a dot.
Our posterings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere -- to save us from ourselves.
Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand. It underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and preserve and cherish, the only home we've ever known. The pale blue dot.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Reflection - World Bank
I found the presentation from the World Bank to be an excellent one, although it was unfortunate that we could not go visit the World Bank at the same time. I think the World Bank Organization is a great thing for the world to have. It is dedicated to the betterment of the world by helping out countries that are in need while also encouraging them to improve on their own by using incentives and developing infrastructure. This gives rise to wealthy states with healthy economies and stable political systems, which in turn lessen the need for the World Bank’s help and makes the world as a whole a better place to live in.
The World Bank also has careful policies to maximize its effects. Its policies regarding investment returns for the countries that give it money to fund its programs greatly incentivize the countries in questions to do everything possible to make the programs succeed. Also, higher donations mean higher amounts of discretion over spending, which gives the country that gives the most money the most power because money can be used as leverage in international politics, fostering more cooperation and providing better conditions and advantages to the countries with increased power. This helps not only the countries being helped, but the countries doing the helping, thereby increasing the amount of people helped without having to increase the amount of money spent on programs.
The Bank also has careful restrictions on the qualifications for getting money, and discretion over which organizations in a country gets the money, which decreases the likelihood of the money being eaten up by corruption and incompetence before it has an impact on the people who need it the most, as happens in general block grants. I really admire well-constructed and efficient organizations that once started are self-powered, generating wealth and stability in the world leads to more funding for the bank, which in turn generates even more wealth and stability.
I think this kind of organization is the kind that gets to the heart of the problems of inequality and hardship in the world. It is difficult to be totally altruistic when your country has limitations of its own, but it is unanimously agreed upon (by people with balanced and healthy minds, at least) that leaving poor countries in the dust is unfair. However, this conflict is often incorrectly branded as a choice between two separate paths. In reality, helping other countries helps the whole world; the world, especially now after so much globalization; has become small enough that we can view it as a closed system in which (in most cases that is -- irrational and/or fundamentalist religious states still pose a problem in this area) a weak country weakens everyone else. and a strong country strengthens everyone else.
Reflection on Education
Reflection: WBO and fairness
The discussion about fairness is quite complicated and can’t be answered 100% for one side. If you saw someone on the side of the street visibly starving, you would be a heartless monster to let the person starve. However, starvation happens all the time in African countries, yet we don’t really lose sleep over it. We seem to be okay with this unfairness. The kids born to families who can’t provide for them really have no chance at getting anywhere in life or possibly even surviving to reach adulthood. Children born in the U.S. are much more likely to have plenty of food and live to 80 just for having the luck to be born there. I don’t think that’s fair at all, but we didn’t do anything wrong. We can’t immediately change the situation so that all kids have the same opportunities. However, organizations like the WBO help these disadvantaged kids. To put it in a simple, but not so simple terms at the same time, we can’t all agree that fairness is fair. But we can agree that we should do our best so that future generations are born into a world that is fairer. Fairness is confusing.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
The Value of Different Perspectives
History in the Making. Or perhaps it's just a re-run.
THAT SAID..:
We do have to listen to more perspectives, because if we have a blinded view of history, what precedence does that set? Remember, those who don't learn their history are doomed to repeat it. Also, how can we understand world politics without understanding the people? While it's interesting to talk about the actors in international affairs, it's really the people that are the foundation of what we discuss, seeing that they are the rational force behind decision making, but are rarely discussed in the context of world affairs. Perhaps now we are seeing a shift away from the interests of the state to the interests of the people.
I feel that this is a pertinent quote/an excellent way to get out some of my frequent dislike of Ronald Reagan. This is the speech Mario Cuomo gave to the Democratic National Convention in 1984, and I feel that it outlines well how we have to stop looking at the prices of stocks and start looking at the value of our people as a whole:
"In this part of the city there are more poor than ever, more families in trouble, more and more people who need help but can't find it. Even worse: There are elderly people who tremble in the basements of the houses there. And there are people who sleep in the city streets, in the gutter, where the glitter doesn't show. There are ghettos where thousands of young people, without a job or an education, give their lives away to drug dealers every day. There is despair, Mr. President, in the faces that you don't see, in the places that you don't visit in your shining city."
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
It's all about perspective
The value of foundational or what-it-could’ve-been stories are priceless. Throughout history the strong and the majority have reined over the masses. For example, women throughout history have been silenced and oppressed. Even today in the U.S., women are still being marginalized. I recently read an article that states that for the first time in recent history, there may be fewer women in Congress in 2011 than 2010. Now this wouldn’t be such a big deal if Congress was around 50% female, except women make up about 17% of Congress. Even if Hillary Clinton had a real shot at the presidency, women still have a ways to go to be on equal grounds with men. Suppose women made up half of Congress when the healthcare bill was being pushed. I seriously doubt the bill would have taken so long and withered down the way it was. I remember reading about studies and surveys that show women are more proactive about health issues than men. I’m sure this is debatable, but I think healthcare reform is very proactive. When such a large segment of the population is not being heard, government cannot effectively provide its citizens with what they need. We will never know what would have happened had women had equal footing with men, but we can work to make sure we know what it means with examples in the future.
The Blind Men and the Elephant
When a subject or school of thought, such as World Politics, is taught and discussed in the same way, with the same assumptions, for a long time, it becomes easy to start assuming that that particular way is also the only correct way to go about it. This is more often untrue than not, and can even be a dangerous assumption to make. There is an inherent value in analyzing world politics from multiple perspectives, even more so than many other schools of thought, because the very concept of world politics incorporates bringing together many different perspectives on issues that affect many different actors, all of which are the ones who have said differing perspectives. Without that element present, world politics cannot legitimately include the word “world” in its name. And when dealing with a subject so dependent on multiple perspectives, brushing away different views on the subject itself as unnecessary or incorrect seems very hypocritical and self-defeating.
Alternative foundational stories about global politics are valuable in its study, because they help us to look at things we take for granted in a different light, and realize that we may be drawing lines in the sand based on artificial assumptions that are not universal, but we have accepted as such in the absence of alternate explanations. When we only have one way of going about things, it becomes easy to define the “proper” approach to a problem, or the “valid” explanation of a phenomenon, without taking other approaches or explanations into account. When this happens, things begin to appear in terms of black and white, truth and lies, when really, the only thing they do is conform, or defy, the generally-accepted foundational story about a very broad idea. An idea that is usually a human construct invented to categorize a certain collection of the random and multi-faceted actions that make up world politics, not to label a discrete, single phenomenon. Adding different stories about the nature of an issue, or concept, or convention makes said nature more complex, more inclusive, and more natural, while avoiding the pitfalls, logical fallacies, and oversimplifications that come with making up laws and definitions based on the combination of a short period of observation and contradictory or incomplete informations passed down from past, perhaps obsolete times; all taken from one particular perspective.
For example, Tickner placed particular emphasis on marginalized populations, who are deeply affected by the exact same issues that policymakers and experts wrestle with in the elite sphere of international diplomacy, but unlike the latter, have no voice. This is a problem that badly complicates, misleads, and reduces the efficiency of the systems in place meant to deal with said issues. Marginalized populations such as the very poor, the uneducated, women (to varying degrees depending on the country), children, and minority populations not only have a perspective on global politics very different from the perspective of the powerful, highly educated, well-connected officials working in governmental state departments; but they are very different from each other; and very different from the rich, the educated, men, adults, and majority populations. The non-marginalized populations have not just a voice, but many different voices with which they can influence the experts who have the power to agree to make changes in some aspect of global politics, while the marginalized populations do not. This means that only half of a story is being told. It doesn’t make the half that is told invalid, it just makes it incomplete. No single story is the complete story, only when all different perspectives are taken into account, and all different versions of what makes up the foundation of global politics are told and given equal weight, does the “real” story emerge. Like the proverbial blind men with an elephant, a single story can be a very accurate portrayal of what it deals with, just as a blind man touching the elephant’s trunk can give a perfectly valid and accurate description of the trunk. It is only when the trunk is declared (by, perhaps, if we want to make this metaphor even more obvious; an english-speaking blind man to another english-speaking blind man, ignoring the non-english-speaking man holding the elephant’s ear) to be the whole elephant; that is to say, when a particular story is billed as the whole truth, do problems arise.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Reflection: National Security
The trip to the Pentagon on Wednesday meshed very well with the issues we have been discussing in class this past week. One of the topics we kept circling is why we, as a population, consider issues like terrorism to “qualify” as part of national security, while other sources of American deaths and danger, such as high speed limits, do not. Some of the debate seems to be about how according to public perception, terrorism is more dangerous, even though car accidents kill many more people on average. However, while this observation is very likely true, I do not believe it is the whole answer. Neither danger, nor the perception of it, are the qualifications for national security -- cancer is considered an extremely urgent and dangerous issue, but no one considers it part of national security. It seems instead that while national security includes domestic policy, it must also include an external threat to the country’s safety.
Of course, given the fact that in the national security strategy, securing the nation against threats to it means taking domestic actions that on the surface have nothing to do with a particular danger, this issue has a difficult time separating the domestic and foreign policy spheres. What is the best way to protect the U.S? Strengthening ourselves at home to eliminate weaknesses, or striking out to eliminate the threats themselves? The national security strategy stresses both approaches, but its obvious that the latter triumphs in matters of crisis. The discussion of overreaction seemed to constantly become entangled with the point that we have very different approaches to foreign and domestic issues. In foreign issues, we want government, strong government, and lots of it, to act directly upon the people and forces who threaten us and eliminate them. In domestic issues, we have an opposition that sometimes borders on paranoia to government intervention, from regulation of the economy to the clash between federal and state issues. We profess that this is because we would rather have the freedom to do what we want without going through rules and regulations, rather than put up with such interference and become safer and better off. Yet when foreign threat occur close to home rather than far away, we still allow the government to get deeply involved, to the point of wiretapping and holding people with dubious cause when the situation is -- in the point of view of the American people -- dire enough.
When we visited the Pentagon, I was disappointed that our planned briefing was cancelled, but it seemed appropriate that it was cancelled for the reasons it had -- a situation had cropped up somewhere overseas, and people were called away to attend to it. I don’t know if everyone would share this with me, but I am sure that if we were visiting the Department of Justice, for example, and our presenters suddenly got called away, I’d feel much less charitable towards them than those at the Pentagon. In foreign affairs, it is rather impressive and commendable that these people drop everything to ensure our security, whereas in domestic issues, it wouldn’t feel nearly as justified.
Perhaps it is because in foreign affairs, there is usually a clear-cut “them”. There is Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, the Taliban. Even when there isn’t a face or title to attach to the threats, they are still a “them”. There are undemocratic regimes that strip women of natural rights, corrupt leaders that blatantly rig elections without consequence, and violent factions that kill people for being a member of a certain race. These are un-American. These are enemies of the United States. With domestic issues it’s much harder. There may be some labels we can apply, but they tend to be contradictory and vague, and highly dependent on the times -- CEOs, bank executives, criminals who deal in everything from drugs to high-level fraud, deluded liberals, teacher’s unions, corporate sponsors, crazy conservatives, oil companies, car companies, insurance companies...how vague and riddled with qualifiers are these “threats”, in the eyes of the public (and the media) as opposed to the seemingly clear ones faced in foreign affairs? How exactly do we “overreact” to the financial system’s failings without hurting ourselves in ways much more obvious than the convoluted, long-term, and highly indirect ways we hurt ourselves when we overreact to foreign threats? We overreact to foreign threats because we can, because there is, or we think there is, something there to react to and defeat. It is hard to secure our nation against domestic issues, because we have the notion -- sometimes correct, sometimes woefully shortsighted -- that domestic action will affect the American people much more than foreign action will.
Reflection: Oh The Places We'll Go
The United States government has reached a critical junction that will decide the future of the nation: do we continue down the slippery slope of national security overreaction, or do we deal with the domestic problems that we face here at home? After our trips to Christ House, and then to the Pentagon, it was obvious that the United States has chosen the former, at least for now.Congratulations!Today is your day.You're off to Great Places!You're off and away!
You have brains in your head.You have feet in your shoes.You can steer yourselfany direction you choose.
There comes a point where the government is too involved in the security of their nation. I'm not saying the United States is there yet, or we should just open our borders or end scanning in airports, but I find it odd that people are so frightened by any hint of government intervention in the economy, yet those same people are perfectly fine with the government monitoring every part of their lives from the day they're born until the day they die.
In 1979/1980, every night, you would hear Walter Cronkite, after he concluded each of his evening news broadcasts about the update on the hostage situation in Iran. While the securement of the American diplomats was a serious issue and the Carter administration should be praised for bringing them home safe, you never would hear him say how many people died due to drug overdose on that day. You would never hear how many kids went to bed hungry lastnight. Or how many citizens live below the poverty line. Are they not important?
Perhaps it's because when discussing security there is a clear enemy. We see them on television, denouncing the United States and promising retribution for American occupation of land abroad. The economy isn't going to go on CNBC one morning and say, "hey, sucks to be you guys, but I'm increasing unemployment another half a percent. Oh yeah, and 4 million more Americans are now below the poverty line." While it's obviously unclear what reaction would be in such a bizarre situation, one would imagine that it would bring the problems of economic instability to the forefront of American concerns, even more so than it is currently.
Neither problem is going to be "solved." There isn't a magic solution of government programs and regulations that is going to solve the problem of economic insecurity in this country. Likewise, the national security of the United States is Poverty is always going to continue: so long as there are rich people there will be "poor" people. Terrorism will live on anyway you look at it.
America's "day" is now, and for all we know, the sun may be setting on this day sooner than we realize. What direction should we choose? Should we secure our people from the ravages of economic and social neglect, or secure ourselves from those who will never like us anyway? The economy is certainly not a friendly apparatus, but it is not malevolent. Squashing terrorism is a futile exercise. It's like a rash on your skin. Keep scratching it, and it will get worse. Let it alone, and it will eventually fade away. Again, neither of these problems is going to be fully solved, but in my opinion the decision on the future priorities of the United States should be clear. It's up to you.
You're off to Great Places!Today is your day!Your mountain is waiting.So...get on your way!
Reflection: The Pentagon and the war on terror
Unlike car crashes and diseases, we have universal faces to blame when we talk about terrorism. If we didn’t have figures like Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, I think U.S. actions would be significantly less justifiable. There are probably terrorists in every corner of the world, so the U.S. needed a compelling target to explain the invasion of Afghanistan. The attempt to capture Osama bin Laden and the capture of Saddam Hussein represent quantifiable goals. The war on terror, as discussed in class, can never be won. Even if we capture Saddam Hussein, there will be other extremists who’ll take his place. Because there will always be people who hate the U.S. and western ideals, we are never truly secure as we might want to be.
Reflection on the Pentagon
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Afghanistan, staying there makes us less secure
Keeping troops in Afghanistan not only makes us less secure from terrorists, but it also makes us more vulnerable to other global threats. There is the obvious fact that the troops in Afghanistan could be stationed somewhere where they could keep us safe better. I think the U.S. showed an imperialistic side to the world when it decided to keep troops there even when the rest of the world withdrew their troops. The other countries saw no need to stay in Afghanistan. While the attacks were definitely more personal for the U.S., Europe has been dealing with terrorist attacks for a long time prior to 9/11. Having other nations, especially allies, question U.S. motives can never be good for U.S. security.
The long-term presence of American troops in Afghanistan also shows the world that the U.S. may not be the all-powerful hegemon the world may thought it was. Had the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, found the criminals, and left swiftly, that would have left a strong impression of U.S. military might. I think if terrorists saw that they would be crushed if they mess with the U.S., they would be considerably less inclined to threaten it. The continued presence of American troops show weakness and inability to accomplish goals. At a time when the U.S. is trying to hold on to its economic power, showing military weakness only worsens its security in the global society.
The Difference between Security and Small Victories
Does the U.S. presence in Afghanistan make us more or less secure? It’s hard to say. On one hand, it seems to be human instinct to feel better when you are doing something to solve a problem, like securing against a terrorist threat, because then you know that at least you’re trying to do everything you are capable of and not needlessly endangering yourself by not acting. On the other hand, this does not mean that taking action for the sake of action will actually solve the problem -- sometimes, it just makes people feel better. However, given the fact that the nature of “security” is disputed, to say the least, how exactly can we tell if our actions make us more secure? One idea about the nature of security is the extent to which people feel secure, because there is no way to know about every single possible danger that could easily crop up at any moment. Another similar idea is that security involves dealing with any danger at hand, because if we cannot be safe from unknown unknowns, we should at least guard against what we know to be a danger, lessening the amount of danger however slightly. Do either of these idea apply to the presence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan?
First of all, it is true that in Afghanistan, the U.S. is seeking out a real, tangible danger to U.S. citizens, unlike the operations in Iraq, where the dangers to the U.S. were speculative at the very best. The Taliban in Afghanistan were responsible for supporting and giving sanctuary to Al Qaeda, and therefore are a direct threat to the U.S.’s security. However, and this is a rather large “however”, how exactly do we mitigate that threat? The Taliban is not a nation-state that can surrender and “lose” a war, and Al Qaeda is not a single entity that can be defeated by a strong enough push from the U.S. Fighting the threat in Iraq has greater similarities to fighting organized crime than to fighting a war, and we measure the success of fighting crime by fewer deaths due to crime, lower crime statistics, fewer criminal convictions. Organized criminals do not all stand up, organization by organization, and surrender to the police. The same concept applies in Afghanistan. Just because the criminals are foreign, it does not mean they are the work of a foreign state. Therefore, while having troops in Afghanistan can make us “feel” safe, we cannot really expect to have a single clear-cut victory, because for one, unlike in domestic affairs, the U.S. cannot police the whole world simultaneously and indefinitely; and for another, terrorist attacks on the U.S. are not nearly frequent enough to provide reliable statistics.
In addition to this, given this idea that we cannot completely win against a danger that is not a single entity but simply a series of actions stemming from the same general idea, there’s the question of whether, if we cannot possibly foresee all the dangers that could arise, if simply feeling safe and secure means security. I believe that sometimes it does, but only if it does not influence our actions that could raise the total number of seen and unforeseen threat even higher. As discussed in class, it frequently is true that if we act as though we are at war, we tend to induce actual war. If we are sure that we are at war in (the distinction between “in” and “with” does not have as much meaning to the people in Afghanistan who are affected by our presence as it does to us, far away in the United States) Afghanistan, the obvious reaction in Afghanistan would be to react accordingly. Therefore, in theory, having troops in Afghanistan could actually be seen as making us less safe in the long run.
Of course on a smaller scale, this is much more complicated. The fact that our problems in Afghanistan were caused by what we did more than what we, at this moment, are doing makes a lot of difference. On a small scale, we are technically lessening dangers of more 9/11s by weakening and disrupting the organizations who caused it. However, our troop presence in Afghanistan does not make us, as a nation, in the long run, more “secure”, because there is no discernible, naturally-occurring, obvious end in sight, no victory like the toppling of the Nazis in World War II. The only way to solve this overarching threat is to allow the ideas and social conditions that fermented the ideas to die off. In the meantime, we are racheting up resentment towards us by acting (or at least being perceived as acting) as though we are at war in a situation where conflict cannot be framed in terms of war. Also, in the meantime, we may prevent some particular American deaths by weakening our strongest enemies and derailing specific plans, but to say that these few acts actually makes us more secure, as a nation and in the long run, is a gross oversimplification.
The Facade of Security
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Securing Ourselves, but Keeping Promises Abroad
I have mixed feelings about the war in Afghanistan. I'm pleased that this administration has placed more focus on the country in its national security strategy, which was sorely lacking in the previous administration. Afghanistan certainly is more of a threat to the security of the United States than was Iraq, and it only seems fair that more military emphasis be placed on a country that was actually a threat to the US than was just a threat to itself (I'm not putting down the unparalleled effort our troops exhibited in Iraq, and they deserve all the praise they get and more).
However, I have to keep asking myself, what is a "win" in Afghanistan? There isn't going to be a signing of a surrender by the Taliban or Al Qaida on an aircraft carrier, or a white flag being raised from their headquarters. Because, think about it, what is the "headquarters" of these organizations. They aren't nation-states, and therefore it's more difficult to gauge success against a group that (for the most part) doesn't have a clear leader, finite military forces, and a known area of influence. It's easy to have the standard bearer of an enemy in war or conflict be the Nazis in WWII. It had a clear leader, it had a finite military in the German forces, and it was known what territory it was taking or already occupied (to as best extent as it could be known). So what's a win? The Taliban or Al Qaida isn't going to surrender as it's not a nation-state, and it's certainly feasible to think that continued influence by the United States in an effort to suppress a terrorist organization would only embolden those who are fighting against us.
It brings up the question of how these terrorist organizations cause the US such a problem in the first place. And when you think about it, the policy of intervention in foreign affairs on the part of the United States seems to have dug the US its own grave. While protecting US interests is important, we have tended to overreach into foreign conflicts. Korea, Vietnam, and various proxy wars have shown that there hasn't been much success in proving to the world of the US hegemony over global affairs.
But how has this foreign policy caused the problems we face today? Terrorist and fringe organizations tend to arise from certain socioeconomic factors: income inequality, exploitation, corruption, and downtrodden and war-torn economic conditions. That's why the US was eager to aid Western Europe following World War II, because the State Department was sure that various left-wing organizations would gain more steam among the disposed population of Europe. The United States, however, has provided the Middle East with not a solution to those problems, but the actual problems. Beginning with the Eisenhower administration, the US has acted strategically with regards to the Middle East, due mainly to the vast and valuable oil reserves that are prevalent there. In places like Iran, the CIA ousted a democratically elected prime minister, Mohammed Mossadeq, and installed a corrupt government which eventually cracked in 1979. And to this day we wonder why the Iranian and US governments have not always seen eye to eye. Same goes for Iraq. In the 1980s, the Reagan administration sold weapons to both the Iraqi and Iranian governments in order to essentially have the two militaries destroy themselves in order for the US to exert more control over the region without a hard opposition. The Reagan administration was also not averse to propping up regimes in foreign countries with our military, much to the detriment of the population in those countries. We have ourselves to blame for the rise of these radical groups in the Middle East. It's not a coincidence that our increased involvement in the affairs of the Middle East has been met with the increased membership of those populations with terror networks.
It reminds me of an episode from the West Wing, where a former president who can be easily be seen to reflect Ronald Reagan dies, and the current president's speechwriter Toby can't find any good things to say about what the Lassiter administration did for his eulogy, especially in regards to foreign policy:
"And I look at these great....and terrible old men, and I think: these men spent the better part of the late twentieth century trying to play God in other countries. And the regimes they anointed...are the ones that haunt us today."
Think about it: if you were living in Afghanistan, and you saw how much oppression foreign governments brought to your country, how would you react? Would you willingly go through your life without food, water, housing, schools, infrastructure, etc? Joining a terrorist organization may seem like an inevitable fate, so long as you don't want to starve.
The deploying of troops in Afghanistan seems to perfectly reflect the internationalist spirit the United States has embodied in recent decades following WWII. But has this spirit really made us safer? Being the hegemon is nice and all, but it provides dissident nations and populations with something to be united against. So long as there are terrorist or non-state organizations, the realist world model will live on. There will continue to be a balance of power act against the United States, so long as we continue to "meddle" (that's a strong word) in the affairs of other nations.
We have been placed in a tough situation: do we move forward, have a potential insurgency in Afghanistan, and reclaim our identity as the infallible hegemon? Or do we move in a more isolationist direction, possibly decreasing the influence of our nationalism over time, but also decrease the nationalism of other rogue nations/organizations? If we stay, we will be seen as the country that isn't able to secure a win in the War on Terror, assuming the present course is stayed. If we leave, we'd be seen as giving up on our friends (although Karzai is no friend) and set a dangerous precedent for future conflicts.
Overall, when you weigh the real current and potential future costs of the presence of US troops in Afghanistan to the potential benefits of a "victory" in that nation, it seems that there aren't enough pros to continue our mission in Afghanistan. In the short term, we will lose more troops, while gaining little in terms of international recognition and support. In the long term, we will make ourselves less safe, as we would create more resentment toward us abroad. You never know, the dissidence may not be limited to the Middle East. Europe and Asia could begin to spark an anti-American revolution soon. It's unlikely, but not impossible.
I realized that there's another quote from the same West Wing episode that is pertinent to this, so I'll close with it:
"Why do they hate us? Because we support their oppressors...we ARE their oppressors. You start saddling up camels in every country in the Middle East, you better be prepared to spend the next 50 years sifting through sand. Because this isn't some run on the beach. This is the new world order."
Reflection: Americans can kill the Media Stars
In our articles, we read that the increasing neglect by the media to report on matters, as well as the stories the media (purposefully?) overblows in order to increase ratings, has put our country at a risk in the future. The 9/11 article discussed the very real dangers of the 9/11 attack, but explained that the media was all too eager to convince Americans that war, especially with a country that had nothing to do with the attacks on that fateful morning, was the right thing to do. Imagine the day when North Korea test launches a missile that doesn't fail miserably. I can only imagine that every single analyst (at least on FoxNews) that night will be crying out for a full invasion of North Korea. If we're still playing the realist game in world politics, even on a relatively smaller scale than in decades past, shouldn't the attempted nuclear proliferation of North Korea be expected?
The presidency is the most powerful job certainly in this country, and if not the world. But is the judgement of the president at the beck and call of what the media is reporting on that day? Or can the president unfairly use the media to his/her advantage? Don't Americans deserve a better leader than Bill O'Reilly or Keith Olbermann?
We'll get there, at some point. Soon enough the populace will realize that the media is a business, and that the news that they receive may not always be the news they need or want to hear. It's inevitable that something that grows so exponentially will eventually crumble beneath its own weight. However, we may not recognize the point where the American people have reached a consensus to make decisions for themselves, rather than having their government or their media making those decisions for them.
It may not be a spectacular sight with fireworks and marching bands playing, but it will still be an important milestone in our society.
Because sometimes, the light at the end of the tunnel "is just New Jersey."
Monday, November 1, 2010
The Rally to Restore Sanity (Did Jon Stewart get ahold of our schedule?)
This was a full week for World Politics. Interesting readings, interesting classes, (finally) a Wednesday lab, and the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. And everything had something to do with each other. Out of all three readings for last week, my favorite was “Simplicity and Spook” which I enjoyed so much that even though I had planned to just skim the beginning and finish reading on Monday, I wound up reading the whole thing at once. It seemed to put into words a great many things that I had been vaguely thinking about but never was able to put into words. We see ridiculous and irrational behavior in reaction to political and world events all the time, and realize, on some level, that it is ridiculous, but rarely do we stop to think about just what makes it ridiculous. People in a frenzy of worry make assumptions and hypotheses based on first impressions, worst case scenarios, or the first possible explanations that pop into their heads. This is fine when there is no alternative, but the danger comes when, instead of accepting or dismissing these reactions in favor of rational, reasoned explanations based on analyzing accumulated information, they cling grimly to their initial hysteria as though afraid of being “proven” wrong. And so we manage to go for long periods of time taking what was meant only to be a possibility as the truth. Later, we scratch our heads and wonder how on earth we ever were so stupid, but that doesn’t always stop us from doing the same thing again.'
I thought that this article, reading it just one day after a rally to literally restore sanity, was perfectly timed. Speaking of the rally, I was both exasperated and rather thrilled that so many people turned out. Being new to D.C., I’m not sure I’m qualified to make a judgement on just how overcrowded the Metro was, but when I have to take the red line north all the way to Rockville in order to get onto the red line going south to Judiciary Square next to the mall, because every southbound train is jam-packed, it’s pretty obvious there’s something big going on. However, the time and trouble it took was still an encouraging sign that people truly are fed up with overreaction, insanity, and exaggeration to make a public call for everyone in the country to just calm down and think for a minute. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert were hilarious as usual, and for the most part waved away political debate in favor of light-hearted lampooning and entertainment, but at the end, Stewart became serious, calling for the news media to report events with responsibility and reason instead of stirring things up until everything seems so insane we cannot tell who the real bigots, extremists, and, well, insane people are. This really struck a chord with me. After all, in America the people have a great deal of control over the actions of our government, and if we don’t have a clear picture of what the world is like, how can we possibly pressure our elected officials to act in a reasonable manner? Again, I would like to marvel at the serendipitous timing of the Rally and the schedule of our class. Perhaps it’s a good thing we went overtime on the Risk game.