Blog Group 0602

It is both predictable and unpredictable of this happening war between Russia and Ukraine. To analyze the current situation, we have to split them with several groups: NATO, Russia, Ukraine, and America. On Jan 22nd, as Putin announced the independence of the East part of Ukraine, which was deemed as an inappropriate and disrespectful action on international society, he got criticized and disappointed by many leaders around the world. I would like to say that America and several countries in NATO have NO rights to censure Putin for doing that. I want to use a metaphor here to describe what happened in these years. NATO expanded their territory five times since 1952, currently holding Georgia in their space, which is quite next to Russia. However, Russia is never a member of NATO, and as people all know, Russia has been hostile towards America and many other countries for many years. (It might be way too exaggerated, but anyways Russia stood on the opposite side with lots of western...

  https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/21/biden-russia-ukraine-putin/ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/22/un-meets-after-russia-sends-troops-to-eastern-ukraine-liveblog https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/21/world/ukraine-russia-putin-biden

  Russia-Ukraine: What to know as world awaits next moves - ABC News (go.com) Ukraine declares state of emergency amid Russia tensions (msn.com) https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/23/russia-why-is-there-conflict-in-east-ukraine-and-what-is-putin-endgame.html

1.  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60468237  2. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/21/briefing/ukraine-russia-war-pax-americana.html  3. https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/22/world/russia-ukraine#russian-lawmakers-approve-use-of-military-force-abroad 

1.  Ukraine-Russia Crisis: What to Know in the Escalating Crisis | World News | US News 2.  Russia Couldn’t Occupy Ukraine if It Wanted to (foreignpolicy.com) 3.  World Leaders Condemn Russia's Actions in Ukraine | Time

 https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/ukraine/2022-02-21/russias-shock-and-awe  https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-02-22/ukraine-russia-crisis-what-to-know-in-the-escalating-crisis  https://time.com/6149943/donetsk-luhansk-putin-ukraine/ 

  It is hard to believe that 50 years ago women were still viewed as property of men. Take, for example, a woman who stands up to Congress to talk about domestic abuse in 1955. You can imagine how this would end up; She was probably either interrupted or shunned. It is a power move in itself saying that it happens elsewhere, and it is “not my problem”. At the time, home life was separate, so it did not have any place in Congress. Shrugging off such a rampant problem at home suggests more of a fundamental barrier for women, ones we still face today. There are many things left unsaid that should be in the forefront of the public's attention. I believe that not only is structural power to blame, but also productive power, as it is much more diffuse and something everyone does on a daily basis. Thus, it is hard to make change and break out of this. Even today, women are rarely found in positions of military leadership and in high-ranking roles in the political office. Although women’...

  Ciara Farrell Blog Post 1 In class we discussed soft power and the influence it can have over others with subtlety. The concept of soft power in the United States is prevalent when we try to intrude in other countries and culturally influence them to be more similar to us. This false sense of power is causing the US to think other countries want or even require their help to be more progressive. Thinking the US is better than other countries simply because it is “westernized” and “developed” in our perspective, it does not make it any better universally. Pushing the culture of the US onto others does not necessarily make those countries better off as a whole. US culture is not better than any other simply because the country generally refuses to understand culture in other places and how it is completely different. When I heard this information I connected it to what I have been learning about in my Cultural Anthropology class. We discussed the idea of ethnocentrism, which is try...

John Wallace  2/3/2022 Soft Power: A rising phenomenon or an ineffective alternative to hard power?   In the past twenty years, the world has become more interconnected than anyone could have possibly imagined. The large-scale perforation of smartphones and internet services across the world has pushed humanity to a new point of connectivity, a trend that certainly shows no signs of stopping.  With this interconnectivity, however, one must ask how it will begin to affect the status quo of international politics. For us to understand this, we need to look into the concept of soft power and how its effectiveness will only increase with globalization.  Soft power can work as an extension of a state's character and values, silently nudging people in their favor in the ever-expanding court of public opinion. For many nations in this day and age, war and other examples of hard power have lost their luster in the face of institutions such as the United Nations. With th...

  Kameron Schreffler 02/01/2021 "Why Race Matters in International Relations" by Kelebogile Zvobgo and Meredith Loken can be connected to another article I read in another class titled "Color-Blindness is Counterproductive" by Aida Harvey Wingfield. Wingsfields article can add another perspective regarding race in regards to International Relations. Wingfield says, "moving away from colorblindness can serve as a pathway towards anti-racism." (Wingfield, 2015). Later going on to say, "as whites came to understand themselves as members of a racial group which enjoyed unearned privileges and benefits, this compelled them to forge a different sense of white identity built on anti-racism rather than simply supporting the status quo." (Wingfield, 2015). We can connect this to Zvobgo and Loken's article regarding International Relations by taking an anti-racist approach explained by Wingfield. As Zvobgo and Loken's said, "mainstream IR does...

  Kevin Yin’s Blog #1 for POLS 170, 2/1/22 We have been discussing so many concepts and examples in these two weeks. The most interesting part that comes to my mind will be the relationship between China and Taiwan, or Hongkong. As a person who grew up in China for 20 years (had been studying in the U.S. for four years for high school, though), I have a wide angle to observe the reaction of different forces and the trends in those kinds of problems. As the discussion we had in our class and the idea Prof. Shirk stated, Taiwan is supposed to be treated as an independent country(state) because it has its own government. Furthermore, that government is able to keep the whole place in order, which should not be defined as the term “anarchy”. This should not be a snarled problem, at least not a complicated issue to observe from the sideline. However, the join of some international relationships makes the purpose and the property of this case chaotic. Public opinions, as we all kno...