- Cultural Region (Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Oceania, or Latin America)
- MLA Citation
- Concise (no more than 5 sentences) summary with a clear thesis statement
Thursday, August 28, 2014
FI - Question #53
To complete question #53 on the "Foundations Investigation," select an article from a PRINT issue of Current History. Your comment should include the following:
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Region: South Asia
ReplyDeleteCitation: Thiranagama, Sharika. “Sri Lanka’s Lingering State of War.” Current History 113.762 (2014): 163-64. Print.
Summary: During the late 1980’s, the Sri Lankan State was at war with the Sinhalese Nationalist Insurrectionary Group and though the war is over, violence continues to ensue. In November of 2012, 154 tortured bodies were found in a hospital in Matale and forensic evidence dates these back to 1986-1990, which was around the time of the fighting. The conflict has officially ended, but both sides are accused of recent violations of human rights and humanitarian laws. On February 24, 2014, Navi Pillay released a report suggesting that the United Nations investigate Sri Lanka and the inhumane practices of the parties involved. Pillay believes that the Sri Lankan government has become ineffective and corrupt and that the international community needs to become involved in the ongoing violence.
Region: Middle East
ReplyDeleteCitation: Pollack, Kenneth M. "Iraq Faces the Brink Again." Current History Dec. 2013: 349-55. Print.
Summary: Iraq is falling behind drastically as a developing country. With oil prices rising and a lot of remaining violence, Iraq is slowly falling behind other developing countries. It does not help that there is "spillover" from the Syrian Civil War. There are many civil wars happening in the countries around Iraq, which makes the possibility of Iraq having a civil war much more frightening. Iraq has elections coming up in 2014 which can hopefully get rid of some arising problems.
Region: Middle East
ReplyDeleteCitation: Cirincione, Joseph. "A Mideast Nuclear Chain Reaction?" Current History (2008):
439-42. Print.
Summary:A competition to build nuclear bombs has started in the
Middle East. This concerns many people since Iran is very close to
succeeding. However, most residents of the country would like nuclear
energy but not nuclear weapons. The major concern of Iran's nuclear
weapons is that now most of the countries in that area have nuclear weapons
and the possibility of a nuclear war are greater.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteRegion- Europe
ReplyDeleteCitation- Matsaganis, Manos. "The Catastrophic Greek Crisis." Current History Mar. 2014:
110-16. Print.
Summary- This article details that the causes of the raise in public debate involving the European Union in Greece are it's deep recession and political conflicts. In 2009, the PASOK government announced that the budget deficit was 15.6% as apposed to the 3.7% recorded earlier, causing public outrage. One of the political conflicts occurred when Minister Michalis Laipis was caught driving his car without a licence and counterfeited registration plates. In summary, the outrage in Greece as caused by deep recession and political conflicts.
Region: Latin America
ReplyDeleteCitation: González, Francisco E. "Mexico's Drug Wars Get Brutal." Current History Feb. 2009: 72-76. Print.
Summary: Since Mexico's crack down on drugs in the 2000's, battles between militia and drug dealers have become brutal. When an american DEA officer was tortured then murdered while undercover in Mexico, the USA suspected that high ranking individuals in the Mexican government were also involved with drug traffickers. In the recent years, President Felipe Calderón has declared a war on the drugs. In conclusion, a military attack against drug smugglers has caused a violent reaction, and has revealed evidence of drug-related corruption at all levels of government, and now Mexico is trying to clear it's sheet by cracking down on drug trafficking.
Region: Sub-Saharan Africa
ReplyDeleteCitation: Mkandawire, Thandika. “Can Africa Turn from Recovery to Development?” Current History 113.763 (2014): 171-77. Print.
Summary: In the Current History article, “Can Africa Turn from Recovery to Development?” Thandika Mkandawire discusses the potential for and difficulties of Sub-Saharan Africa accelerating its development to catch up to other continents. In the 1980s, International Financial Institutions (IFIs) created policies that attempted to help Africa but were unsuccessful and caused economic decline. Economic recovery began in the mid-1990s because of government democratization, more profitable trade terms with high-growth countries, and increased investments in public infrastructure; this recovery has led to the current but probably short-lived commodities boom. However, it will be difficult to turn from recovery to development for reasons including deindustrialization, undiversified exports, poorly-executed IFI policies, general and impersonalized reform, and the failure to educate Africans for the workforce. Despite these drawbacks, the more freedom in policy-making and abundant natural resources give Africa an opportunity to fully recover and continue development, a challenge involving many different aspects of economy and social problems.
Region: Middle East (and Europe)
ReplyDeleteCitation: Katz, Mark N. "Is Assad's Syria a 'Win' for Moscow." Current History 112.756
(2013): 283-84. Print.
Summary:The article “Is Assad’s Syria a ‘Win' for Moscow” is about the Russian involvement in Syrian conflict. At the time of this article, Syria was struggling with fighting over the leader of the country, Bashar al-Assad, chemical warfare was enacted, and there were multiple outside countries that took opposing sides. For example, the Western countries such as America, were advocating for the resignation of Bashar al-Assad, while countries, such as Russia, see Assad as a somewhat positive leader for the country. It is noted that while Russia is being allowed to aid Syria in its crisis, if the Russian effort fails, then Russia will be looked upon negatively for its poor influence in the Middle East.
Region: Middle East
ReplyDeleteCitation: Robinson, Glenn E. "Syria's Long Civil War." Current History: A Journal of
Comtemporary World Affairs (2012): 331-36. Print.
Summary: Syria's lengthy Civil War will ultimately end in an option of four ways: regime victory, opposition victory, deadlock with no end, or a deadlock ending with a political resolution. Each side needs to understand and fear the thought of the possibility of themselves losing, with this they could fall on the side of caution and urge to not continue the war out but simple end in a somewhat peacefully treaty. However, a victory in either of the sides would not be considered a joyful outcome; otherwise, if the regime wins this civil war it would leave Syria in a state of isolation and poverty and a likely third round to the war, or, if the opposition wins this would most likely lead to mass unjust killings of Alawites and a complete collapse in government. With the outcome that it remains in a stalemate with no resolution, would only prolong the war, drain resources, and keep Syrian's and other ordinary people in harm; furthermore, if the stalemate continues but ends with a sort of political resolution would be the best outcome for Syria's region by that it would allow a share of power to each type of group of ethnicity. All in all, America is wise to keep out of the Syria's Civil War and eventually something will have to bring this war to one of this outcomes.
Region: Europe
ReplyDeleteCitation: Matthijs, Matthias. "Britain and Europe: The End of the Affair?" Current History 113.761 (2014): 91-97. Print.
Summary: This article describes how, after continuing conflict between Britain and the rest of the European Union, Britain may finally decide to leave. After trying to enter the union multiple times, the EU finally accepted Britain in 1973. Since then, many Prime Ministers in Britain have attempted to stall the complete integration into the union. Whether the issue is overpaying to the union or refusing to convert to Euros, Britain constantly combats with the EU, since the country wants to influence the union without fully cooperating with its policies. Today, since the euro crisis, many Britons, such as Prime Minister David Cameron, feel that leaving the union is the best decision, but many other feel like the country could be hurt even more if it leaves.
Region: Middle East
ReplyDeleteCitation: Kodami, Bassam. "Clearing the Air in the Middle East." Current History May 2008:
201-06. Print.
Summary: This article was written in 2008, as the anticipation for the upcoming elections were at an all time high. In the eyes of Arab governments, Bush was one of the worst presidents for the US in a while. In order for the candidates to be successful, they need to let Arab and Muslim communities that the US does not view them as terrorists. Rather, they needed to focus on the isolated terrorists groups, such as al-Qaeda, and work with their governments to set up functioning democratic systems. In 2008, the key to fixing bad relations with the Middle East was to recognize the two main goals; suppress security threats (terrorist groups), and setting up democratic governing bodies.
Region: Latin America
ReplyDeleteCitation: Starr, Pamela K. "Mexico's Problematic Reforms." Current History 113.760 (2014): 51-56. Print.
Summary: The article, “Mexico’s Problematic Reforms” available in Current History, highlights the Mexican president, Enrique Pena Nieto’s first year in office including impressive legislatures, followed by disappointing mistakes which means more to the public than his at first successful reforms. At first, the article describes over 95 initiated legislatures based on his “Pact of Mexico” that left strong incentives. The article goes on to describe that many of these failed due to a number of factors, but most importantly, the parties’ inability to make “inter-temporal commitments.” Basically, the article says how these self-inflicted damages only made Mexico’s recession come much quicker. The article ends by pinpointing Nieto’s mistakes, current workload, and future workload to fix Mexico’s current situation.
Region: East Asia
ReplyDeleteCitation: Calleo, David P. "How To Govern a Multipolar World." Current History (2009): 361-67. Print.
Summary: The world system is becoming more diverse because different countries such as China, Europe, and Russia are becoming more powerful. There might soon be a war on economics because global economy will become relentless and very competitive. To keep these problems from happening, the Europeans created EU, the European Union, which is supposed to keep countries together as they go on through history. Asian countries are debating whether or not they should create their own Asian Union. An Asian Union would prevent wars between Japan, China and America, and would balance out their trades. Balanced Unions are becoming more popular and more useful in today’s world.
Region: Central Asia
ReplyDeleteCitation: Chaudhary, Shamila N., Jr. "In Pakistan, a New Focus for Counterterrorism.” Current History 112.753 (2013): 152-54. Print.
Summary: The article “In Pakistan, a New Focus for Counterterrorism” analyzes President Barack Obama’s plan for global counterterrorism policy. Obama faces many problems such as the privacy of his plan and the growing domestic terrorist network in Pakistan. Chaudhary states that the new problem is not targeting senior Al Qaeda leaders, but instead to focus on the other terrorist groups that threaten the United States national security. To do this, Chaudhary suggests that the shift must include a strict budget and military environment.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteRegion: South and Southeast Asia
ReplyDeleteCitation:
Kurlantzick, Joshua. “Asia’s Democracy Backlash.” Current History. Nov. 2008: 375-80. Print.
Summary:
In “Asia’s Democracy Backlash,” Joshua Kurlantzick explains how democracy declined in South and Southeast Asia and the regions’ current states. In recent years, Asian countries have promoted transparent democratic systems as a façade to other nations, for they do not adhere to these systems within their own societies. Additionally, when the U.S.’s democratic foothold weakened as a result of the war on terror, China was able to influence Asians toward undemocratic societies. This led to mass riots that saw the return of Asian governments to their unstable, depressive pre-democracy conditions. However, even though backward progress was made, the popular, successful leader of Indonesia recognizes that democracy must be achieved, so there is still hope that, over time, Asian countries will return to democracy.
Region: Southeast Asia
ReplyDeleteCitation: Dalpino, Catharin. "Pluralism, Performance, and Personalities: Political Change
in Southeast Asia." Current History Sept. 2012: 235-40. Print.
Summary: In southeast Asia, there are many different political spectrum's such as in the Philippines and Thailand, Indonesia, and in Vietnam and Laos. The Philippines and Thailand have been in a democracy for three decades. Indonesia's democracy is still going strong as it enters it's second decade. Last, Vietnam and Laos still only have a one party system but have started economic reform, personal rights, and religious freedom.
ReplyDeleteRegion: Latin America
Citation: Robinson, James A. "Columbia: Another 100 Years of Solitude?" Current History Feb. 2013: 43-48. Print.
Summary: When Columbia was a terrible mess, it was the center of the international drug industry, kidnapping was widespread, politicians were assassinated, and guerilla groups have inflamed the country’s problems. The entry of new political parties had to be ignored by the electoral system. The government in Columbia generates other circumstances that tended to be reproduced. Despite this messy history, the nation has seemed to change in the past decade. Making a different Columbia requires tackling the basic way in which the country has been governed since its birth as an independent republic in 1819.
Region: Middle East
ReplyDelete"Iraq: Are We There Yet?" Current History Dec. 2008: 403-09. Print. The article
discusses how Iraq's political disputes offer a hint as to her future. The
article discusses how the government is weak, but abiding, and how
political factions are at conflict over the country.