European Identity and the Challenges of Turkish Accession to the European Union

In 2005, Turkey entered into negotiations for membership with the European Union. Turkey has been an important strategic ally to the European Union in the Middle East, explaining the mutual desire for closer ties between the two. While these negotiations showed promise early on, it has become increasingly apparent that Turkish accession to the European Union will not come easily, if at all. Officially, the European Union cites Turkey’s shortcomings on issues such as human rights as the reason for the stall in negotiations. However, upon closer inspection, it is evident that there is more at play, particularly as the European Union has been inconsistent in their approach to addressing human rights violations. Member states such as Poland and Hungary, which have recent human rights violations, have not faced the same kind of condemnation that Turkey has from the leaders of the European Union. The reality is that the European Union is largely united by its shared Europeanness and Christianity. As a result, due to questions over Turkey’s Europeanness and its large Muslim majority, the European Union is apprehensive to afford it full membership. It can be said that the European Union has maintained that Turkish accession is still possible in order to continue reaping the strategic benefits from close relations with Turkey.

The Domestic and Geopolitical Ramifications of the Vietnam War on South Korea

The Vietnam War is a widely examined topic in the field of international relations. However, it is often viewed in terms of the strategic triangle between the United States, China, and the Soviet Union, instead of their allies. While the atrocities committed by the United States in the Vietnam War are often condemned and scrutinized in English literature, those of South Korea, their closest ally, remain less so. This essay outlines the South Korean government's political, economic, and ideological reasons for supporting the United States in Vietnam, the positive and negative consequences of this support, and the atrocities Korean troops committed against Vietnamese civilians. It argues that the legacy of the Vietnam War in South Korea is characterized by denial and neglect to this day. This essay finds that denial and neglect were experienced not only in Vietnam, but also in South Korea by veterans and the Korean government.

An Examination of American Diplomacy During the Tehran and Yalta Conferences

Since the end of World War II, the United States has been a leading proponent of liberal internationalism and Western democratic values around the world. Modern historians generally agree that the post-war order, which produced multi-national institutions and promoted democracy, free trade, and peace, was largely shaped by the United States and the other two Allied powers, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. This paper explains how the Tehran and Yalta Conferences served as early examples of President Franklin Roosevelt’s vision for international cooperation and American global leadership. Specifically, this essay analyzes how Roosevelt used these conferences to unite the other Allied powers in an effort to end World War II and establish the foundations for the liberal international post war order. To demonstrate the significance of these conferences and their role in the development of the liberal post-war order, conference minutes between the leaders of the Allied powers and their respective foreign policy experts are analyzed. Academic writings from military and international historians are also used to evaluate the execution and outcomes of the agreements reached during these conferences.

The Holodomor in Collective Memory

This paper concerns the role of genocide in collective memory and its function for national identity-building in post-Soviet Ukraine. Known as the Holodomor, Ukraine’s famine of 1932-33 has become an important part of the country’s national history. Upon gaining independence in 1991, the Ukrainian government set out to build and affirm a national identity distinct from Russia, grounded in Ukraine’s unique history and national myths. The claim to have undergone genocide as a nation in the Holodomor comprised part of this state-building project, though whether this claim is appropriate under international law has long been disputed. This paper examines the ways in which the Holodomor-as-genocide thesis was embedded in Ukrainian national identity, particularly under the administration of Viktor Yushchenko. Through the creation of new institutions, campaigns, and laws, the Ukrainian government sought to have the Holodomor recognized as genocide at the international and domestic levels, and to make its sacred commemoration a cornerstone of Ukrainian society. This narrative was deployed to unite the nation under a shared history of suffering that effaced politically inexpedient realities, such as cases of complicity in the Holodomor and the Shoah by Ukrainian elites. Narratives assigning blame to Ukrainian Jews and Russians alike delineated a narrow conception of the true Ukrainian nation to the exclusion of the alleged perpetrators. Further, it served to distance Ukraine from Russia by emphasizing the consequences of Soviet colonialism and the importance of Ukrainian collective memory as a matter of political sovereignty and cultural emancipation.

Reframing the Present

Since the 2013-14 Euromaidan protest movement and the ousting of the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych and his administration, Ukraine has been embroiled in a political crisis both domestically and with its neighbour, Russia. Namely, the Ukrainian state has lost the Crimean Peninsula to a Russian military incursion and remains engaged in the local Donbas War against pro-Russian insurrectionists. Alongside these events, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration has been waging an information war against Ukraine through its employment of Russian state media. In doing so, Russian state media has revived and internationalized Soviet historical narratives of the Great Patriotic War, discrediting the present Ukrainian state by associating it with historic examples of fascism. Thus, this paper argues that contemporary Russian attempts to reframe Ukrainian national history along a Russo-Soviet narrative, without consideration for the more authentically Ukrainian nationalist narrative, is irrespective of the Ukrainian historical experience and is a dangerous abuse of Great Patriotic War imagery in the present. Considering the legacy of the former imperial relationship between Russia and Ukraine, and the Russian state’s current interest in restoring bygone prestige, this dimension of the current threat to Ukrainian sovereignty should not be ignored.

OAS and Canada

The history of Canadian interaction with American states both unilaterally and through the Pan-American Union and Organization of American States is reviewed. The author argues that Canada has historically and continuously supported the OAS, and its member states, at a distance. Canada demonstrates a dichotomy of involvement; in few areas, Canada is deeply involved, and in many other areas, Canada is not at all involved. Canada's pattern of involvement appears to suggest a focus on non-reciprocal regional development as opposed to reciprocating involvement. This is dispite several calls from different levels of government that a broader, more involved level of involement would serve the OAS and its member states better.

Canada, the Congo, and Why Mining Is Good for Both Us

Canada is one of the world’s leading mining powerhouses, but in order to stay that way it needs access to new mineral reserves - and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has trillions worth. Due to the scale of the DRC's mineral deposits, Canadian mining companies have sought to explore and develop assets in the Central African nation in the past. These Canadian firms, however, have been the subject to corrupt governments and other issues. In the past, Canadian governments have sought to protect Canadian mining assets in the DRC only when they came under attack. That is to say, Canada's approach to foreign policy in the DRC has been reactionary. This paper argues that Canada ought to take a proactive approach to foreign policy in the DRC by supporting institution building and economic development which will, ultimately, benefit both Canadians and the Congolese. Canadian mining firms will be able to develop new assets, increasing profits for Canadian workers and shareholders. On the other hand, the Congolese will benefit from stronger institutions, economic development, and the ability for their country to effectively allocate the capital generated from a robust mining sector.

Canada and the International Human Rights Regime

Canada, a country of relative economic and military unimportance, garnered significant soft power and influence from its international reputation as a moral leader and protector of human rights. However, a deeper analysis of Canada’s role in the development and implementation of the international human rights regime reveals a continued emphasis on economic benefits at the expense of human rights. This and other inconsistencies are clear in Canada's dealings with historic and current cases involving indigenous rights and human rights abuses by Saudi Arabia, China, and Myanmar. Realistically, Canada requires capital-intensive resource development and trade deals with major economic and military powers that often lack actionable interest in the advancement of human rights. In the modern age, it can be said that although Canada had a significant role in developing the international human rights regime, with a broad collection of formal treaties, organizations, and processes and many informal norms and values, the country's supposed reputation is subject to influences incongruent with the protection of human rights.