Unrest Assured: Why Unipolarity Is Not Peaceful

2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 9-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuno P. Monteiro
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Strategic Choices ◽  
Regional Conflicts ◽  
Self Help ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Global Status ◽  
The Cold War

The United States has been at war for thirteen of the twenty-two years since the Cold War ended and the world became unipolar. Still, the consensual view among international relations theorists is that unipolarity is peaceful. They base this view on two assumptions: first, the unipole will guarantee the global status quo and, second, no state will balance against it. Both assumptions are problematic. First, the unipole may disengage from a particular region, thus removing constraints on regional conflicts. Second, if the unipole remains engaged in the world, those minor powers that decide not to accommodate it will be unable to find a great power sponsor. Placed in this situation of extreme self-help, they will try to revise the status quo in their favor, a dynamic that is likely to trigger conflict with the unipole. Therefore, neither the structure of a unipolar world nor U.S. strategic choices clearly benefit the overall prospects for peace. For the world as a whole, unipolarity makes conflict likely. For the unipole, it presents a difficult choice between disengagement and frequent conflict. In neither case will the unipole be able to easily convert its power into favorable outcomes peacefully.

Peace Education: Imagination and the Pedagogy of the Oppressed

1987 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marguerite Rivage-Seul
Keyword(s):  
Peace Education ◽  
Moral Imagination ◽  
The United States ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Arms Race ◽  
Human Welfare ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Nuclear Arms Race

Arguing that peace education in the United States is constrained by its tenacious adherence to technical reason, Marguerite K. Rivage-Seul underscores the need for peace educators and their students to cultivate "moral imagination." The author first examines concepts of moral imagination recently advanced by educational theorists and peace educators, and demonstrates that these concepts also fail to transcend the limits of technical thought regarding the nuclear arms race. She then carefully develops a view of moral imagination around the ideas of Paulo Freire and Franz Hinkelammert; one that is grounded in an understanding of human intersubjectivity, and in the ways in which the poor "read" the world and perceive possibilities for human welfare beyond the status quo.

This American Moment

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caron E. Gentry
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Reproductive Health ◽  
International Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Alternative Response ◽  
Christian Realism ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
The Status

This American Moment focuses on the concept of anxiety politics by arguing that America is in crisis. Those who uphold or participate in racist and misogynist politics are threatened by changes to the status quo, such as the economic gains made by women and therefore respond with reactivity and defensiveness. This book examines first, the Black Lives Matter campaign as the latest disruption of the raced structures that define America and the anxious reactions that seek to protect and maintain the race structures; second, the particular economic, bodily, and reproductive health vulnerabilities that women face that have amalgamated into America’s War on Women as anxious reactions to maintain patriarchy; and, finally, the how racism and misogyny unwittingly and rather unexpectedly led to the election of Trump and opened the door to fascism in the United States. The book argues that these are all destructive outcomes of anxiety and responds by envisioning a creative intervention: arguing that an alternative response to anxiety is to think creatively about our relationships, society, and politics. The author poses this as feminist Christian realism, an update of Reinhold Niebuhr’s Christian realism, arguing that religious approaches still have a place in politics and international relations.

Nations and Nationalism

2021 ◽  
pp. 578-592
Author(s):  
Scott Paeth
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Community ◽  
Abuse Of Power ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter examines the development of Reinhold Niebuhr’s thoughts on nationalism. Over the course of his lifetime, Niebuhr continually returned to the question of nationalism as a factor in international relations, revising his understanding in light of the particular circumstances confronting the United States and the global community. His early writings on German Americanism yielded to a more sceptical analysis of nationalism as a manifestation of collective egoism, but one which could nevertheless provide important resources to human communities. The threat of Fascist nationalism in the 1930s caused him to yet again revise his understanding of nationalism, as a revitalized form of democratic nationalism became necessary to confront it. The Cold War presented the context for Niebuhr’s mature reflection on the subject, advocating for a form of chastened nationalism, which was aware of both its responsibility to confront evil in the world, as well as its own tendencies towards self-delusion and the abuse of power.

‘I thought it was a very punk rock thing to say’: NOFX’s (sort-of) public apology and (in)civility in defining contemporary punk rock in online spaces

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen M. Bernhard
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Punk Rock ◽  
Music Festival ◽  
United States Today ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Online Spaces ◽  
Mass Shooting ◽  
History Of

As a music genre built on the foundations of questioning the status quo, punk rock has a long history of generating controversy. While many of punk rock’s offensive moments have been accepted and applauded by fans around the world, NOFX’s comments at the 2018 Punk Rock Bowling and Music Festival about the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting were met with immediate consequences for the band, who lost several sponsorships and the ability to play their own Camp Punk in Drublic music festival one week following the incident. After footage of the band’s comments circulated, they were met with a mixed, yet heated, response from fans, with much of the conversation arguing whether or not what was said could be considered ‘punk’. Some argued these comments further solidified the band’s reputation as a punk band and are therefore imbued with an inherent right to offend, while others believed these comments were unethical, poorly timed, and pushed the boundaries of appropriateness. Through the analysis of 381 comments in response to the band’s 31 May 2018 post on their official Facebook page, this article investigates the uncivil and civil discussions of the incident and the subsequent aftermath, while also addressing the broader conversation surrounding the current ethos of punk rock within the scene in the United States today.

The Sociology of a Not-So-Integrated Discipline: The Development of International Relations in Japan

2002 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takashi Inoguchi
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Japanese History ◽  
Recent Exposure ◽  
The Social ◽  
Causes Of War ◽  
The Us ◽  
The World ◽  
The Cold War

Stimulated by Ole Waever's (1998) examination of American and European developments in International Relations, this article examines the growth of the discipline of international relations in Japan, focusing on the major currents of the social science tradition since 1868 and the intellectual agenda of international relations since 1945. Postwar scholarship has reflected the main themes and questions of Japanese history — the causes of war, the struggle for peace, Japan's place in the world and Asia, and Japan's role in the Cold War. To an extent, the organization and substance of IR teaching and scholarship in Japan can be explained by reference to certain sociological and historical variables. Discussions about methodology have not mirrored the “great debates” of the United States, but the younger scholars are moving closer to the American pattern. Recent exposure to and interaction with American scholarship has become increasingly visible, allowing Japanese scholars to make important contributions to debates in the US.

scholarly journals The new Cold War and its Influence on the Formation of Ukrainian Foreign Policy Priorities

2020 ◽  
pp. 131-147
Author(s):  
O. Demenko
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Progressive Development ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Russian Federation

The article explores the state and development trends of modern international relations. It is noted that modern scientific thought has not yet developed unified approaches to characterizing the current stage in the development of international relations. At the same time, many scientists and political analysts assess the current state of international relations as a new “cold war”. In support of this position, they point out that in recent years a whole network of clashes, wars and contradictions has developed around the world, at the center of which were disagreements of the same nature as during the years of the first Cold War. At the same time, there is an opinion that the current relations between the West and the Russian Federation cannot be characterized as a new “cold war”. The status of Russia today cannot be compared with the status of the USSR, China is much stronger than the Russian Federation, and the United States remains the dominant force in the world. It is noted that, although the current conflict in many respects differs from the first Cold War, there are a number of general signs that suggest the similarity of modern international relations with the conflict of the previous historical period. The tools that participants in the conflict can use have changed, the role of ideology has decreased, and, on the contrary, the importance of the economy, technologies and the information sphere has increased, nuclear weapons have a different influence and geography, and the processes of globalization significantly affect the dynamics of international relations. But in a sense, the current conflict can be called a continuation of the first Cold War. Ukraine, along with some other post-Soviet countries, has become an arena of confrontation between the collective West and the Russian Federation in the context of the new Cold War. Based on this, the main priority of Ukraine’s foreign policy should be the effective implementation of the European and Euro-Atlantic integration strategy. Joining the Euro-Atlantic security system and approaching Western standards of democracy, law and socio-economic development will be the main guarantee of independence and further progressive development of the Ukrainian state.

The Realists and Their Critics

Worldview ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 19-23
Author(s):  
Ronald Stone
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Major Power ◽  
South Vietnam ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Domestic Reform ◽  
As If

It seems as if we are entering an era similar to the period after die Congress of Vienna. The cold winds of reaction have prevailed. The fires of domestic reform have gone out, extinguished by the excesses of some reformers and by the tactics of the forces of the status quo. The nation that gave birth to the A-bomb has succeeded in shocking the numbed consciences of the world by carrying out on a peasant nation die most destructive aerial bombardment ever unleashed. As Russia, England, Austria and Prussia conspired in Vienna to put out the danger of revolution, so now Russia, China and the United States are cooperating to save South Vietnam, the United States's ally, to halt the rain of bombs on die troublesome, sometime ally of the Chinese and the Soviets, to put out die fire mat threatened for so long to lead to a major power conflagration.

scholarly journals Global Status of Countries: Determination and Interpretation

2019 ◽  
pp. 216-228
Author(s):  
T. Deyneka ◽  
O. Shkurupii ◽  
K. Verhal ◽  
N. Bazavluk
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Parametric Estimation ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Agglomerative Clustering ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Scientific Principles ◽  
Global Status ◽  
Global Catastrophe

The study of the place and role of countries in the system of modern international relations is due to the need to identify asymmetries and contradictions that are inherent in a globalizing society. The paper is aimed at determining the global status of countries and to interpreting the present state of their positioning. Summarizing the scientific principles that form the idea of the state of the global society and options for its possible transformation confirms the relevance of the analysis on this issue. The paper presents an approach to the parametric estimation of the global status of countries, the necessity of which is due to the unresolved problem in the thematic field of these scientific studies. The methodological basis for determining the global status of countries is the synthesis of the effects of the internal factors of the national systems development by the spheres (economic, technological, social, spiritual and cultural, political, as well as the functioning of state institutions, and natural resource management), the synergistic effect of the interdependence of all components of such social and natural complexes (the effects of the aggregated endogenous factor) and the effect of globalization (the exogenous factor). By an aggregate assessment of the situation, the status of countries reflects the current picture of the world and the configuration of forces in the system of modern international relations and is also considered as a functional transformation of the globalized world. The method of scientific analysis is agglomerative clustering, conducted with a software algorithm and implemented in Python. An empirical analysis is based on data from international organizations for 2018. The analysis involves data from 142 countries. The research empirically confirms and theoretically proves the fact of the modern world asymmetry, which is a serious challenge to a globalized society. At the same time, the emergence of asymmetry is a warning; a signal of the existence of a threat of systemic contradictions on a global scale. Therefore, asymmetries contain not only the potential of destruction but also the potential for a qualitatively better restructuring of the world. Taking into account this fact and continuous monitoring of changes based on the assessment of the global status of countries allow to identify the options for the future development of civilization and to prevent such negative phenomena as global problems, risks, crises and others, including the global catastrophe. Keywords: globalization, globalized society, the global status of countries, country positioning, contradiction, asymmetry.

WOBBLY VITALISM: BERGSON, SOREL, AND THE INTERPRETATION OF REVOLUTIONARY SYNDICALISM IN THE UNITED STATES, 1905–1915

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Scott Brown
Keyword(s):  
Progressive Era ◽  
The United States ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Industrial Workers ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
American Thought

The vogue for the philosophy of Henri Bergson, and the popularity of vitalist ideas more generally, periodically claims the attention of historians of early twentieth-century American thought and culture. There is little appreciation, however, for either the broad epistemic significance of these ideas or for their profound ethical and political implications. This essay explores the activity of Bergsonian vitalism, particularly as applied by Bergson's radical compatriot, Georges Sorel, within the fractious conversation that attended the emergence of revolutionary syndicalism as a significant force in the pre-war 1910s. Understanding the ways in which this seemingly unprecedented menace to the status quo was understood facilitates a rethinking of the relationship between ideas and experience in the rise of the Industrial Workers of the World, and illuminates the attraction of radically empiricist approaches to interpreting social phenomena in the Progressive Era. Here, as elsewhere, Bergsonism challenged dominant materialistic and mechanistic explanations in the name of “life,” a seductive alternative for those alienated by, or suffering under, the juggernaut of urban-industrial modernization.

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