Archive for category Foreign Affairs
Book Review: Postmodern Citizenship
Posted by Nick Cowen in European Union, Foreign Affairs, Immigration, Multiculturalism, Social Cohesion on 06/02/2012
By David Conway
Title: Citizenship in America and Europe: Beyond the Nation-State?
Author: Michael S. Greve and Michael Zoller
Publish Date: 2009
Publisher / Edition: AEI Press, 2009
The collapse of the Soviet Union transformed the political landscape of the West no less profoundly than it did that east of the former Iron Curtain. Long moribund but virulent nationalisms were quickly aroused in the Balkans, as were equally intense tribal rivalries in several of the Soviet Union’s former client states in sub-Saharan Africa. Ensuing civil war and violent conflict led a large exodus of refugees from these troubled regions to seek asylum in the West, along with many economic migrants, whose numbers were swollen by the large international population flows that attended the sudden global expansion of capitalism also triggered by the Soviet Union’s collapse. In Europe’s case, foreign immigration was further augmented by the opportunity the Soviet Union’s collapse presented Germany to reunify and many of the Soviet Union’s former satellite states in East Europe to join the European Union.
Population growth and the risk of pandemics
Posted by Nick Cowen in Foreign Affairs, Health on 07/11/2011
By Emily Clarke
Last night thousands of viewers watched as “Spanish Flu” swept through Downton Abbey, taking the life of one of its residents. With no antibiotics, the effects of the 1918-1920 flu epidemic were devastating as approximately 25-30% of the world population was infected and 40 million people, mostly between the ages of 20 and 40, were killed. Although channelled through the medium of ITV drama, it is nevertheless important to take note of this deadly episode as we reach an important milestone in the history of humankind.
Caution: Penalty for burning bridges is solitary confinement
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Foreign Affairs, Politics on 01/11/2011
By Emily Clarke
The vote that granted Palestine full membership of the UN Cultural and Educational Agency (UNESCO) could potentially have wide-ranging consequences for the role of international organisations within international affairs and their relationship with the United States.
From Our Man in Tehran
Posted by admin in Foreign Affairs on 30/10/2011
Iranian Man in local restaurant: there are two parts to Iran, the people and the government – and they are like this . . . (indicating wide and widening split).
Lady at the airport the female dress code: that they hate it and so they wear more and more makeup . but they are taken off in busloads, made to swear they won’t do it again and fined.
Der seltsame Fall des Dr. Jekyll und Mr. Hyde
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Economics, European Union, Foreign Affairs, Politics on 21/10/2011
While British politicians gear up for a debate on whether or not to hold a referendum on EU membership, and discussion swirls around how the British public feels about Europe, perhaps more important is how the German public feels.
Our man in Turkey
Posted by Jon Davies in European Union, Foreign Affairs, Religion on 27/06/2011
Turkey’s bloodless civil war is between pious Muslims who want the public space to be dominated by their interpretation of religion, and less dogmatic Muslims who believe in the strict separation of state and mosque (Burak Bekdil, Hurriyet June 7 2011)
Europe can be seen as bracketed by Turkey to the south-east and Great Britain to the north-west. These two large ex-imperial countries – with very different (though inter-locked) histories, constitutional traditions and recently-elected governments – would seem to have some things in common. As the Ottoman Empire became the nation-state of Turkey, and the British Empire also became a nation-state, both countries had perforce to re-structure their relationships with the other nation-states of the world, and in particular with their immediate geographical neighbour, ‘Europe’.
