One of the biggest transnational issues is the global pandemic COVID-19. With the rapid emergence of this virus, countries around the world were unprepared to face this virus. Currently, the death toll has amounted up 1.6 million with over 20 million active cases as of December 14, 2020. During this crisis, we have seen a poor global response from all countries especially the big powers running the world. However, soon after COVID-19 was announced as a global pandemic, countries had to cooperate with each other as this was a matter that required global support. Even so, this was the moment that ordinary people were able to visually see the poor international relations between states.

On the reading, one thing that stood out to me was how International Relations analyzed this situation. It took the perspectives of many actors on this issue, such as the World Health Organization’s position in this crisis and several political leaders like Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. It focuses on the lack of global cooperation after Trump’s withdrawal of funding for WHO based on the allegations of poor management on this virus. With lack of funding, WHO’s resources are limited even though the world was relying on them to develop a vaccine and a cure. Furthermore, it looks into the future on the effects of many policy changes and damaged organization relationships. It compares previous crisis with the current one, for example the Economic Crisis of 2008 where it was handled in a very professional manner. Overall, this is an example of how International Relations is so essential as it provides a wide variety of perspectives allowing states to make the best decisions in the future.

With the population constantly increasing, the environment surrounding us is bound to change. Furthermore, the rapid industrializations and fast urban expansions are negatively affecting our environment, undermining the Earth’s capability to sustain life. International Relations takes a deep dive into the environmental works that needs to addressed as approaches to environmental protection between many states have had a bad record of creating a solution where it would have an actual impact on the well being of our environment. There are two main environmental issues currently that have gained the most attention which are climate change and biodiversity. Climate change is the global warming effect caused by humans emitting greenhouse gases, and biodiversity, where the loss of variety of life in the world due to causes like destruction of ecosystems for natural resources or industrialization.

There have been many efforts to tackle these issues, like holding ‘megaconferences”, large scale events, like the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 or the 2015 Paris Agreement. An interesting point in the reading, “The right to a healthy environment and the global commons are ideas that suggest that it is our shared duty to take care of our collective environment because everyone has a right to enjoy their environment and use some of its resources for their survival”, which brings up the fact that it is our right to have a healthy environment as it is stated on Article 25 of the UDHR, the right to a standard living adequate for the health and wellbeing of himself and of his family. That would mean that we are the ones violating our own human rights, which makes this whole topic even more complex for me.

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On the night of 1998, General Augusto Pinochet, a former Chilean dictator was arrested. He was under arrest for crimes against humanity based on an international warrant. Furthermore, other specific allegations included the murder, torture, hostage-taking and genocide of Chileans and other nationals. This moment was a very big symbol for the rest of the world as it set two important precedents. It created the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allowed states or international organisations to prosecute individuals no matter where the crimes were committed nor the nationality of the perpetrators and victims. The other, was that it withdrew the immunity of heads of state or ex heads of state for human rights violations.

Ever since this moment, no matter where the government is located they are held accountable for any violation of human rights. Furthermore, no dictator would be allowed to use the immunity of being a heads of state and ex heads of state. With this arrest, many activists, lawyers, victims, and NGOs to establish transnational networks to pursue human rights accountability. Many individuals and governments who have committed crimes against humanity have been tried at court ever since then.

In my opinion, this was a good start for holding the perpetrators accountable for their actions. As all human rights should be prioritized. Even so, what about big powers like Russia and China? Are they still invincible to being tried for crimes against humanity?

Sources:

https://theconversation.com/general-pinochet-arrest-20-years-on-heres-how-it-changed-global-justice-104806

After WW2, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was drafted by representatives from all legal and cultural backgrounds around the world, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly. It was a response to the “barbarous acts which…outraged the conscience of mankind” during WW2. By adopting this document the world, it would mean to be the foundations of humans rights for freedom, justice and peace. This article contains thirty articles that will outlines the rights and freedom that belong to all individuals and it states that these rights cannot be taken away from anyone. It is universal, indivisible and interdependent. These rights to this day continue to form the basis for international human rights law.

There are organizations like Amnesty International, a global movement, whose main focus is to protect and fight for human rights that belong to all individuals. Many prominent figures like Muhammad Ali, support this movement which raised awareness for this cause.

Source:

https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/

https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/universal-declaration-of-human-rights/#:~:text=The%20UDHR%20was%20adopted%20by,for%20freedom%2C%20justice%20and%20peace.

Civil societies are spaces out of government, family and market where individuals and collective organizations further their common interests. There are hundreds to thousands of civil societies around the world. Some examples of these civil society organizations are community groups, NGOs, social movements, labor unions and etc. According to the reading of Chapter 7: Global Civil Society, “They have played a role in agenda setting, international law-making and diplomacy. Further, they have been involved in the implementation and monitoring of a number of crucial global issues. These range from trade to development and poverty reduction, from democratic governance to human rights, from peace to the environment, and from security to the information society,” which shows how big of a role they play in our world. As a result, these civil societies is a big part of international relations as it transcends national borders.

Where IGO and INGOs are unable to fix, global civil societies present a solution as it is a combination of many people around the world, indifferent to race/gender/social status. They have contributed to many causes like LGBT rights, food security, climate change, and intercultural violence. As you can, see these issues are not only in one nation but all over the world. They play a big role in promoting causes and creating change.

International Organizations have a direct impact on our every day lives. For example, you messaging people across the world, traveling to another country, or following the procedures at an airport, these are all examples of how any of us can come in contact with several international organizations. These organizations help govern our world, along with states. In this reading, there are two forms of international organizations, such as international governmental organization and international non-governmental organizations.

International governmental organization(IGO) is founded often upon treaties or a multilateral agreement that involves more than two states. For example, the United Nations is a form of IGO that is composed of a universal relationship of over 180 countries around the world. Then you have, International non-governmental organizations(INGOs) that works at an international level or have international members. It is interesting to see, how me publishing this blog, almost the rest of the world is able to read this. This is only possible due to international organizations.

In the reading of Chapter 5: International Law, it describes international law to be rules and principles that govern the interactions between states and individuals. The contents regarding to international law ranges between domestic, regional and public/private international law. Something that I found interesting in the reading, was International humanitarian law, which is the law of armed conflict meaning laws that are applicable when states are at war. This law regulates how states should behave at times of war. For example, at times of war, the killings of humans are allowed but certain categories of people are to be untouched. These categories are for example, the sick and wounded prisoners of war and civilians. Important conventions like the Hague and Geneva have adopted these kinds of laws that transcend national borders.

This international law always bothered me because, states are bound to ignore the laws adopted by the conventions. For example, even though Japan signed the Geneva Convention which was established in 1929, they never ratified it so Japan did not need to abide by the laws. As a result, in WW2, Japan had committed several war crimes, including the violation of humanitarian laws in Korea and China. Furthermore, transnational terrorist groups are not bound by these laws, as a result how can these issues be prevented?

Poverty and wealth is the essence in which it is connected with everyone’s life. Poverty is a global problem that has been evident through history. It is an issue that the U.N., states, and many global organizations have been tackling over the years. With globalization, it is an important concept as it has an impact on global wealth and poverty. Globalization is a perception of how the world is becoming more interconnected by economic and technological forces. According to the reading, “globalisation has opened up many (primarily economic) opportunities, and this is evident in the reduction in numbers of those living in extreme poverty”, it is in my opinion a very bold statement as it made many people rich but even more people poorer. Globalization is criticized to be only beneficial to the U.S. while it exploits third world countries, using their cheap labor and consumption.

My view on poverty is that, humans are naturally selfish and without a global authoritative power to control the economy, it will never go away. There will always be inequality in wealth distribution where free market takes place.

Global Political Economy is a field of study that deals with the interactions between political and economic forces. It’s main focus is the human welfare and how it is related to state behavior and corporate interests in many parts around the word. States around the world have formed strong relations with multinational corporations and international organizations. As a result, it has changed the way we understand our roles in the global economy. To understand how to approach this big topic, this reading provides specific ways to understand how to manage a global economy.

The Liberal Approach provides a tangible way to approach complex issues of global economics in a way that it is easily understood. The liberal approach as I understand it, is a free market, where the government does not interfere with the market. This can raise a lot of issues, as a self regulating market will inevitably be disrupted by rising levels of income inequality, foreign take over of companies, or disagreements on how to handle an economic recession. Early heroes of the liberal approach, Adam Smith and David Ricardo, Smith argued that this process where consumers go for the highest quality for the cheapest price will entice successful producers to find the lowest cost method of production while still providing good quality. In furtherance, Ricardo states, “under a system of perfectly free commerce, each country naturally devotes its capital and labour to such employments as are most beneficial to each’. And, ‘this pursuit of individual advantage is admirably connected with the universal good of the whole”, meaning that this form is very beneficial to all sides as there will be greater consumption which then leads to more jobs. It is a win-win for everyone.

As terrorisms are considered to be transnational crimes. The structure of transnational terrorist groups is not fixed, as they are becoming increasingly decentralized as they take advantage of new technologies, forms of communication and other aspects of globalization. With the lack of central leadership, this allows terrorists to have a greater scale and scope of operations making it harder for these groups to be destroyed.

Interventions of terrorism comes in the form of international aid, military advice and training, and financial and military support to governments. However, there are cases where such aid can negatively affect ordinary citizens of the state being helped, for example in the ‘Chapter 14: Transnational Terrorism’ reading, “it imposes a state of fear on ordinary civilians, who find themselves under threat of strikes termed ‘surgical’ or ‘targeted’ by those operating them but which feel and are perceived as random by civilians in these areas (Coll 2014)” this became very controversial as it gave the terrorists the opportunity to paint the U.S. in a bad way as it caused local fear. The whole concept of terrorism is very flexible in my opinion because there is no exact type of terrorist, anyone is able to develop a strong sense in any political or social views and act upon it using violence. By looking at this perspective, unless there is a sense of strong unity in a nation there are bound to be extremists who will do anything to further their goals. As a result, no one is safe in this world and we are in a world of anarchy.