A brief word on plagiarism

As all of you know, the point of writing an Op-Ed is to impress the reader with your brilliant analysis of a problem of international dimensions.

You state the problem, pose a hypothesis that explains or solves the problem, then you produce evidence (facts) as well as expert opinion that supports your unique views.

But some of you have instead gone to various web sites, pasted the views of others into your papers, and presented them as your own views. This is not writing or analysis.

If you are still not clear on what constitutes plagiarism, you can go here for something I wrote on the topic for a class I taught in Baku in 2004. Remember, I want to know what you think! Really!

Final class meeting: Robert Kaplan's view of the future

For Friday, we will discuss not only cultural globalization, but then we will turn our attention to Robert Kaplan and his gloomy picture of the future world: political, environmental, and social. You don't have to accept Kaplan's prognosis, but we will want to examine his views in depth.

We will have hard copy of the following chapters from his book ("The Coming Anarchy") in class and will read aloud, just as we did on the first day with Thucydides.

Try to read one of the following:

So for the most important chapter (also called "The Coming Anarchy"), go here. It's loooonnnnggg. (See the page numbers on the bottom of the screen, or just click on "print view" near the top of the article on the right.)

Another chapter is equally provocative, and is called "Was Democracy Just a Moment?" It is shorter. Go here for the article, and remember to read the whole thing by clicking on successive page numbers at the bottom of the screen.

Finally, the shortest chapter/article is called "The Dangers of Peace" and is here.

And cultural globalization? You probably won't have time, but see the syllabus for "Naomi Klien," a well-known critic of globalized capitalism. Another good source is Benjamin Barber, who we have mentioned before. Go here for his famous essay on "Jihad vs. McWorld."

Great stuff! See you tomorrow!

For Thursday, 19 November - Globalization

Globalization is a huge topic, and we can only skim the surface. Try doing a little research on your own and come to class with a definition of globalization. Is it an economic phenomenon? Cultural? Is it real or a myth? I will ask you what globalization means!

(Hint: the Wikipedia article on globalization is not bad at all...)

Not a lot of reading for Thursday!

Here is a great article from the Houston Chronicle on how a globalized, free-trade world has affected coffee growers in Central America! Really worth reading!

Optional: Thomas Friedman is very pro-globalization, and he has written several best-selling books on the subject. It may be a bit difficult to follow if your English is not excellent, but you might try to read or skim the first chapter of his book, "The Lexus and the Olive Tree." It is here.

Friedman does a good job of linking both the economic engine and cultural consequences of globalization. But so does Benjamin Barber, who focuses on the cultural/political nexus in his famous article "Jihad vs. McWorld."

Sweatshops and child labor

A "sweatshop" is a factory or assembly plant in which people work in harsh conditions for very low wages. The pattern is that they are often from rural areas and migrate to the urban sweatshops in the hopes of raising their standard of living. Human rights groups often condemn sweatshops as places that exploit cheap labor, usually in horrific conditions.

Optional: Here is a web site run by American students who have worked to end the exploitative conditions in sweatshops all over the world.

Nike is often accused of sweatshop labor practices in Asia and elsewhere. Here is just one of many ant-Nike sites. Nike admits to using children in their factories here.

Required: Nicholas Kristof has written about Asian sweatshop labor - one controversial aspect of globalization. Go here for his appraisal that maybe this kind of labor has its virtues.

Required: Also see this article published in January of this year on the advantages of sweatshops.

For Wednesday, 18 November: Environmental Issues

We are running slightly behind schedule, which is fine, since Thursday is a free day. We can rearrange things as we go. For Tuesday, we will continue our discussion of weapons of mass destruction. Make sure you have done at least some of the assigned reading for Tuesday on the environment, since we will likely turn to that topic in the last hour or so.

Wednesday cover the environment and Thursday, globalization - two big topics. We could devote one entire course to globalization alone, for instance. At least we will try to cover the major topics as well as some fascinating case studies.

For a complete list environmental readings, see "Day 13" of our syllabus. For globalization, see "Day 12." But below you will find the minimum required reading assignments.

One of the fascinating aspects of all this is when globalization and the environment affect each other - for instance, when free trade, low tariffs and an unquenchable global market result in serious damage to ecosystems.

Required reading: The market for coltan is one example, and the story is told by a New York Times correspondent who trekked (at great risk to himself) into the African jungle to document the lives of the people who mine this mineral. Go here for the article!

The Aral Sea has been described as "the world's number one environmental disaster." The catastrophe was not caused by globalized markets but by short-sighted planning in the former Soviet Union. We will talk about the Aral Sea in depth.

Required: Here is a great, short article by Dave Holley of the Los Angeles Times. Dave writes about how the northern half of the Aral Sea is beginning to recover, thanks to enlightened environmental policies and a World Bank loan.

Optional: This 16-page article in the American magazine "Harper's" really captures the dynamics of the Aral Sea tragedy. Read it if you have time and are interested.

Kyoto and climate change

Huge topic. We can only cover the basics in class.

Required reading: Here is a BBC article on the Kyoto Protocol background, although it is five years old. And here is a useful overview of global warming issues.

Pacific rim leaders at the APEC summit failed today to reach a climate deal ahead of the UN Copenhagen summit meeting next month, where climate change will be discussed. Go here for a story on next month's UN summit.

Peak oil

Are we running out of oil? Will this lead to economic disaster? "Peak oil" is a theory that predicts when local oil fields and global oil will become exhausted. It is a controversial theory, and not universally accepted.

Optional: Everything you could ever want to know about peak oil is here, on a site run by the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas.

Resource curses, democracy, etc.

Be sure to ask about "resource curses." What are they? And you might want to look into Thomas Friedman's somewhat controversial assertion that there is a negative relationship between the price of oil and democratic development - at least in oil-producing states that are not fully democratic.

Optional reading: Go here for his famous article on "petropolitics." And see one of his graphs below. Don't take it too seriously; it's an illustration designed to encourage discussion.

Population

I will discuss population growth at some length in class. There's already too much to read (given our crazy schedule of meeting every day), but you might want to familiarize yourself with Thomas Malthus, especially his theory of population growth, sometimes called the "Malthusian Catastrophe" or the "Malthusian Disaster," etc. Here is a pretty good Wikipedia article on the subject.

For Monday, 16 November: Weapons of Mass Destruction

For background information, look at "Day 11" in your syllabus. Lots of good research links!

Also, go to fpa.org or cfr.org and do some research into weapons of mass destruction on your own!

Here are some readings. But consult the syllabus for more if you wish...

Here is an excellent interactive primer by PBS (the American public broadcasting network) on weapons of mass destruction. Navigate around the site to learn about these weapons.

Chemical and Biological Weapons (CBW)

Optional but highly recommended - The following article is challenging if you are not fluent in English, but it is an excellent and disturbing overview on the Soviet (and Russian) bioweapons program, one that continued long after the US and the USSR signed an arms control treaty that banned such weapons. In other words, the Soviets (and very likely, the Russians) engaged in massive cheating for years after they signed the agreement. WARNING: Some of the narrative in this article is VERY graphic, describing in detail the symptoms of smallpox. The article is here.

Check out this site from PBS. It has some fascinating information on CBW.

Nuclear Weapons

Read at least a couple of the following articles:

What about Iran? Lots of information on the web. Do some digging on your own.

Here is a useful article by Bernard Lewis that neatly sums up the essence of nuclear deterrence, but asks if these lessons are relevant to an actor such as Iran.

Here is a New York Times article from September indicating that Iran has virtually everything it needs to build a nuclear arsenal.

Go here for the Council on Foreign Relations' very useful background piece on the Iranian nuclear program. Click on some of the links for more information.

Optional but recommended, this article on how al Qaeda or a similar group might construct an atomic bomb.

Also optional if you are interested:

Not only do the Iranians have thousands of centrifuges (necessary for producing highly enriched uranium) but go here for apparent evidence of the assistance of a (lone?) Russian scientist in the design of Iranian nuclear weapons. The article mentions that the document in question "is described by officials familiar with it as a detailed narrative of experiments aimed at creating a perfectly timed implosion of nuclear material."

"Implosion" sounds like a plutonium device. You can ask me in class what this means.

Iran's "Arak" reactor is ideal for the production of plutonium. This article, for instance, delves into the potential of this reactor.

Friday: Terrorism

Think about how terrorism has changed in the last twenty years. We will definitely discuss this in class, but I just want you to ask yourself, based on your own awareness, how terrorist goals and methods have changed.

Here is what Edward Said said about September 11th attack on the World Trade Center. His words are, in my opinion, very insightful:

It wasn't part of any negotiation. No message was intended with it. It spoke for itself, which is unusual. It transcended the political and moved into the metaphysical. There was a kind of cosmic, demonic quality of mind at work here, which refused to have any interest in dialogue and political organization and persuasion. This was bloody-minded destruction for no other reason than to do it.

Required reading: We will look at a number of terrorist organizations and their methods. One of these is the Tamil Tigers, who were finally defeated last month after some thirty years of violence in Sri Lanka. The BBC has background pages on Sri Lanka as well as on the conflict here. And this is a great story on life in the Tiger organization!

Required reading: Probably the most respected expert on terrorism is Brian Jenkins, who works for the RAND Corporation in the US. Here is an Op-Ed by Jenkins in the Christian Science Monitor.

Optional: here is a very interesting interview with Jenkins in an Italian newspaper.

Required: Robert Pape is takes a very methodical, social scientific approach to terrorism. He looks at the data and derives conclusions from what the data indicate. Here is a short New York Times Op-Ed by Bob that explains his theory in easy-to-understand language.

Optional: If you are very ambitious and would like to read Bob's academic article that really examines the data, go here. We will talk about this in class, but I don't expect you to really understand everything that Bob is saying in the article.

Optional: Here is a background piece on Hezbollah.

Optional: This article asks what bin Laden really wants. What is his overall goal?

If you want to research terrorism, look at the MIPT terror database here. It's an outstanding resource!

For Thursday - Middle East, Pt 2

On Wednesday, we discussed the major events in Israel's history and its current predicament. For Thursday, we will look at states such as Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran and ask who the major individual actors are as well as groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas.

See the class syllabus for a complete reading list (including optional readings), but here are some required readings...

Iraq:

Realist political scientists were almost universally opposed to the war in Iraq. Why? Go to this Op-Ed for the argument.

Some idealists were for the war, arguing that Saddam Hussein was an "Islamic fascist" who was too dangerous to be allowed to continue in power. One such person making this argument was Christopher Hitchens, the erudite, left-wing social critic (and an admirer of Leon Trotsky). Go here for his powerful argument in favor of the war. Read the whole article, not just the first page.

Modern Iraq is a very artificial state whose borders ignore the complex ethnic pattern in the area. Here is a BBC article on the Kurds, an oppressed minority in Iraq who have no state but who live in Iraq, Turkey, and parts of Iran and elsewhere in the region.

Optional: Here is a very useful timeline of the Iraq war from the Council on Foreign Relations.

Lebanon:

Lebanon's situation is very complicated, since the government is powerless to stop Hezbollah, which runs a de facto government on the border with Israel. Here is a biography of Hassan Nasrallah, who is one of the two or three most powerful figures in Lebanon.

Remember when we looked at Israel's wall, and discussed the fact that it has protected Israel from suicide bombers? Well, today's BBC story says that Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, now has rockets that can reach Tel Aviv. Go here for the story.

Iran:

All we can do is scratch the surface. But we will want to examine the political situation, including the recent presidential election, when hundreds of thousands of Iranians took to the streets to protest what they saw as a rigged election in which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected. I will leave it to you to find some information - maybe on cfr.or or fpa.org or the BBC. But do some reading - not a lot, but some.

Optional: Iran is beset by ethnic strife, with Kurds, Persians, Azeris and Baluchis living in separate but overlapping areas. The Azeris in particular have grievances, and in the recent past there have been violent protests. Go here and here for information on the Azeri issue in modern Iran.

That's it!

Syllabus and documents

I've tried another strategy for uploading documents. When you click on the syllabus link on the left or on my article from the Vancouver Sun either here or in the Middle East, Pt 1 reading assignments (below), you can now view the documents thanks to a web-hosting service called "scribd." Once the document appears, you can zoom in, zoom out, go to full screen, or print.

But you will not be able to download copies onto your hard drive unless you sign up as a new user with scribd. It's a free service, so this should be no problem for you.

Let me know if it does not work.

I will post a reading assignment for Thursday later tonight.

Middle East, Pt 1

For Wednesday, we will look at the continuing impasse in Palestine.

You should be familiar with the overall history of Israel and the UN resolutions 181 and 242.

Look at the class syllabus for Day 7 and read some of the links to familiarize yourself with the main issues.

Here is a BBC overview of the history and issues. Click on some of the links and navigate the site. Try to familiarize yourself with Hamas and Fatah, the two groups vying for power in Gaza and the West Bank. For example, the Council on Foreign Relations has a lot of information on Hamas here.

Please do some research on your own and come to class ready to discuss UN resolutions 181 and 242. If you have time, find out what the first and second intifadas were. The research sites on this blog will get you where you need to go.

You must understand what the terms "one state solution" and "two state solution" mean. To do this, go here for a recent AP news story, and you might go here for information on the issue in the NY Times blog. And do read Thomas Friedman's article "One Wall, One Man, One Vote."

An Op-Ed on Jerusalem's future--and a possible solution--can be found here. Read it!

For Tuesday: Hyper-nationalism - Huntington's theories in the real world

Please make sure you have finished the Huntington materials.

For Tuesday, we will examine the phenomenon of hyper-nationalism, a force that threatens to tear apart states in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Caucasus. We will especially look at Chechnya's recent history, including the two Russo-Chechen wars and the Beslan school tragedy. What motivated Shamil Basayev? What are the goals of the Chechen nationalists? Think about these topics. There is plenty on the syllabus, but here is a short list of what we will read:

This BBC article looks at Basayev.

Here is an article in the New York Times written just after Basayev 's death. It asks whether the Chechen guerilla movement died along with Basayev.

A CBS news video of Beslan can be found here, and we will look at this and other videos, including a powerful documentary about the suffering of the Chechen people.

Also, try to read about Nagorno-Karabakh. You can do this on your own, or you can read this article about Karabakh's current situation, as well as this and this. A background piece is here.

For Monday: Clash of Civilizations

For Monday, read Samuel Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations? The Debate." This is the 29-page article originally published in the journal "Foreign Affairs," not the book.

The article is available in English here.

If you want to read it in Georgian, go ahead. But if your English is sufficiently good, I suggest you stick to English. We may want to read sections out loud, so try to print off a copy and bring it with you to class. The GIPA library supposedly has a copy. I don't know if it's in Georgian or English.

Also, please try to read the reply to Huntington by Fouad Ajami, the Mideast scholar at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies. His short article is here.

Everyone should read Edward Said's scathing critique of Huntington here. Said's article is very powerful; he thinks Huntington's analysis is simplistic and naive.

If you want to do more reading, here is an interview with Huntington just after September 11 on how events were validating his theories. And here is a video of Edward Said lecturing at the University of Massachusetts on what he calls "the myth of culture clash."

For Friday: Color Revolution reading assignment

You should be using the syllabus and not this blog for detailed, complete sources and reading assignments! But the minimum reading for Friday appears below. We will discuss the Color Revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia and ask why those revolutions succeeded but the Azerbaijani revolution in 2005 failed. Most of the reading covers Ukraine and Azerbaijan, but we will talk about the Rose Revolution in class.

Required - Ukraine

Go here for Time magazine's overview of the Orange Revolution.

President Yushchenko's coalition has splintered, with Yulia Tymoshenko calling for Yushchenko’s impeachment. Yushchenko has an approval rating of roughly 2%, far lower than President Saakaskhvili’s rating. Go here for the first phase of the dissolution of the Orange Revolution.

Yulia Tymoshenko will be running for President in January. Her chances were enhanced during the most recent parliamentary election, when she polled well even in Eastern Ukraine. Go here for an analysis.

Optional: If you are interested in the Orange Revolution and why the secret police did not shoot the demonstrators, read this article by Chris Chivers, Moscow correspondent for the New York Times. It is a fascinating account of the hour-by-hour negotiations at the highest levels of government, and shows how close Ukraine was to a violent police response against the people who camped out in the Maidan and marched in the streets.

Required - Azerbaijan

For first-hand reports on how Azerbaijan’s Color Revolution was planned and failed, read at least two or three of these articles:

Baku Opposition Prepares for “Color Revolution”

Baku Opposition Plans New Strategy

Azerbaijan Poll Marred by Arrests, Fraud Charges

Baku police crush opposition rally with force

For Thursday - From Russia, With Love...

REQUIRED: Read the the following article by Leon Aaron on Putin's foreign policy. He divides the Putin era into three segments: Putin I, Putin II, and Putin III. Which is the real Vladimir Putin?

Go here. You can get the pdf version here.

OPTIONAL: More from Leon Aaron, such as this piece on Russia's relations with the US.

And this is interesting, on the Russian domestic economy and Russia's future.

Steve Walt, one of America's leading Realist international relations theorists, wrote this short blog post on Hillary Clinton's recent trip to Moscow. He wonders if she was being incredibly naive.

If you want more, do some research at cfr.org, fpa.org, or the Jamestown site (see the sidebar on this blog).

Syllabus

Need a syllabus? Send me an ethergramme at karlrahder at yahoo dot com

Munich analogies ad infinitum

On Tuesday, 3 November, we will discuss "evoked sets" such as Munich. The Munich Analogy is the most cited and most tiresome evoked set of all time. Here is a very insightful article on the Munich Analogy and its uses by American politicians,

And this article entitled "Must We Put Up With the Munich Analogy Again?" from the History Network also puts the Munich Analogy into its proper perspective.

Op-Ed sources

Op-Eds (Opinion Editorials) are guest editorials written by distinguished thinkers, former or present government officials, and other news makers. They are also written by columnists of distinction. For instance, the New York Times publishes Op-Eds not only by former government officials and Nobel prize winners, but also those written by a stable of reporters and columnists of note.

Here is a great resource for New York Times Op-Eds:

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/opinion/index.html

Scroll down to the lower right corner, where you will find a box labeled “OpEd Columnists.”

The best-known New York Times Op-Ed columnists are listed there. You can go to any of them and click on “Columns” for a new page with the latest Op-Eds by that columnist, along with a search menu for their previous Op-Eds. (For instance, you can click on “Columns” under Frank Rich, and then on the new page, you can enter “Iraq” in the search field. After you hit the “go” button, you will get all columns by Mr. Rich with the word “Iraq.”)

This is a gold mine that you should take advantage of.

I recommend Op-Ed columnists Thomas Friedman, Nicholas Kristof, Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich, and David Brooks.

One very respected Op-Ed columnist and analyst is Charles Krauthammer, a fascinating fellow who is a physician, but who spends most of his time writing about world affairs.

Go here for a list of some of his Op-Eds: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/charleskrauthammer/archive.shtml

Here is a very useful page of Op-Eds by faculty at the Kennedy School of Government: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/news-events/news/op-eds

Here is a resource for Thomas Friedman's columns: http://www.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/thomaslfriedman/index.htm

Here are some of his Pulitzer Prize-winning articles: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/08/nyregion/_08commentary.1.htm?ex=1162702800&en=123c4911cffd3e26&ei=5070

Your Op-Ed can be written on just about any topic in international politics that interests you. It should be roughly 700 words – that is about two and a half pages, double spaced. Use the word counter on your word processing application. Easy.

Do not use footnotes in your Op-Ed. The Op-Ed style is not formal enough for that. It is the sort of article that should be both readable and well-argued. You can mention a source (and certainly mention evidence supporting your argument) in your Op-Ed, but tread lightly.

Oh, this is why you should never use Wikipedia as a source for a paper:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-11-29-wikipedia-edit_x.htm

The above is an article by journalist John Seigenthaler, who was defamed by false information published on Wikipedia.

Ironically, Wikipedia has an article of its own on the controversy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Seigenthaler_Sr._Wikipedia_biography_controversy

You will write one Op-Ed, due on Friday of the second week or Monday of the third week. I would like to see bibliographies, although real Op-Eds do not utilize them. You should use at least three legitimate (non-Wikipedia) sources.