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.

Terrorism has many meanings, as well as it serves for multiple purposes. There are different variations on how to define terrorism, the FBI defines terrorism as; “Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance or social objectives.” Terrorism associates with the crime specific conditions of a country or place that reveal the opportunities that allow criminal behavior to become possible. This is insightful as it correlates with the activities of many terrorist organizations like ISIS, whose goal is to establish a state ruled by a single political and religions leader through the use of violence.

The essential features of terrorism ensures it’s importance within international relations because even though terrorism is a transnational crime, all transnational crimes are of international concern and can become an international crime. This raises concerns for security between borders and states. Some of these concerns can be described as, the risk of an attack by criminal groups that can move in between states and spread to several parts of the world. As a result, this threat of security has led to the several responses, like the creation of new criminal offences, broadened legal definitions of terrorism, improved funding for state agencies involved in countering terrorism and the grant of greater authority of the detention and arrest.

I watched a video about Mutually Assured Destruction and it was interesting because this theory in my opinion has a big presence in the world of international relations. There hasn’t been a war between major powers since 1945 and based on this theory of MAD, with the creation of nuclear weapons. It can be said that it a war deterrent because essentially no one wants to die. In the video, it states that a few requirements must be met for MAD to take place, which is states must have a clear sense for survival, states should have a large quantity of destructive nuclear weapons and each state is assured of a second strike meaning no state is able to completely bomb the whole region.

The reason why this is interesting, is because of the current meme between Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump of where even with MAD. The fear of both states going on a nuclear war was prevalent. I believe this is due to the fact that both states clearly have enough nuclear power to destroy half the world, so one wrong move could lead to the deaths of billions.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLB5965C13F4B0B2DA&v=y1KP9V_I8CQ&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=WilliamSpaniel

In the reading, I learned about International Armed Conflict, which is when two or more states with legal armed forces have a conflict with each other. When this occurs, there is a set of guidelines states follow which is stated on the Geneva Convention. The purpose of the Geneva Convention was to regulate the conduct of armed conflict and to limit the effects of it. They protect people not taking part in hostilities and those who are no longer doing so. However, this raises the question of what happens when states do not follow the guidelines provided by the Geneva Convention.

The Geneva Convention dictates how prisoners of war and citizens should be treated during times of war. While there is no punishment stated in the document, violation of it can lead to outrage by many states which leads to different kinds of punishments such as trade sanctions or other forms of economic punishments for the offending state. This was interesting because many states have ignored the protocols, for example, Syria, Libya, or Afghanistan. What would happen if a big power country the U.S. violates it?

Post-Colonialism focuses on how governments, societies, and people of previously colonized parts of the world interact when it comes to international relations. It brings attention of the after effects of colonization that still have an impact on this world. This thinking provides a perspective on the factors that create a hierarchy in international relations. Post-colonialism questions the way states think, why they thrive to obtain more power.

While doing this reading on Post-Colonialism, something that interested me was how they shared similar aspects with feminism. In the reading, “Postcolonialism forces us to reckon with the everyday injustices and oppressions that can reveal themselves in the starkest terms through a particular moment of crisis.”(Chapter 9: Post Colonialism) it sheds a light on the everyday injustices and oppressions that was present in the past and even today. For example, race/gender/class, these are some of the things post-colonialism explores.