POLS 170 Blog Group 0202

                                 Then Vice-President Joe Biden met with current Chinese President Xi Jinping.                                                                                    https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/22/politics/joe-biden-foreign-leaders/index.html                The US Is No Longer Alone At The Top For the majority of the past three decades, the United States has greatly enjoyed its position as the only superpower in the world. Once the Soviet Union fell there was no true competition to the United States for about 20 years....

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/us/politics/us-russia-ukraine-sanctions.html https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60473233 https://www.economist.com/europe/2022/02/21/vladimir-putin-orders-troops-to-two-breakaway-republics-in-ukraine

 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-russia-ukraine-united-states-creating-panic/ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60490660 https://www.axios.com/russia-ukraine-oil-gas-prices-biden-96079a8b-66c9-4b14-bcb4-7f9305a95578.html

 https://www.vox.com/22917719/russia-ukraine-invasion-border-crisis-nato-explained https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/OXAN-DB267103/full/html https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-60454795

 https://www.wsj.com/articles/germany-halts-nord-stream-2-after-putin-orders-troops-to-ukrainian-breakaway-regions-11645529981?mod=hp_lead_pos1 https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-alleges-ukrainian-incursion-kyiv-says-moscow-makes-up-fake-incidents-11645453512 https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-60454795

  https://www.americanprogress.org/article/how-the-united-states-should-respond-if-russia-invades-ukraine/ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/19/ukraine-separatists-military-mobilisation-russia-liveblog https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56720589

 https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/articles/a-narrow-window https://www.vox.com/2022/2/21/22944995/russia-vladimir-putin-orders-troops-ukraine-east-donbas https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/20/us/politics/russia-china-ukraine-biden.html

       https://softpower30.com/country/united-states/   Soft Powers In the United States In class, we discussed soft powers and the meaning behind them. Soft power is the country's ability to co-opt instead of coercing. So, I’m going to look at the status of soft power in 2019 compared to 2016, since our soft powers have declined since then. There are many topics that fall under the setting of soft power, and although ranking quite high on the list, there is still much room for improvement for us. Soft power is made up of 3 pillars which are political values, culture, and foreign policy. First off we will look at the strengths of the soft powers we have now. Overall in the entire world, the United States ranks fifth for soft powers. Looking deeper into the list the United States is ranked number one in the world for digital, culture, and education. This has been this way for many years though. It will likely continue to stay this way since the United States ...

  There was one question we were left with during class; which was are politics moral? This argument stems from the opposing beliefs of Hans Morgenthau and J. Ann Tickner and their six principles of political realism. Morgenthau reveals his belief that there are no universal morals in politics, while Tickner opposes this and states that all actions are moral. The debate from class leads us to think about how people act in politics and if they take into consideration their morals when making decisions. I believe that anyone has the ability to act immorally and typically in politics morals are not taken into consideration when making decisions. To gain in the political atmosphere people must put their morals aside due the fact that power is stronger in politics. Finding justice in international politics simply does not work because countries are acting in their self-interest, and typically not thinking about how policies or decisions will affect the rest of the world.  The sta...

K-Pop: A Political Strategy K-Pop: A Drive Towards Soft Power Diving into the world of K-Pop means exploring a musical genre that has captured the world’s attention. With catchy beats that culminate largely from cultural/social influences, K-Pop has resonated with fans all over the world, namely those in North Korea and the United States. The question that arises is how K-Pop can be used politically as a means of fitting South Korea’s reconciliation efforts with other states? Soft power, as Joseph Nye would put it, is “when one country gets other countries to want what it wants might be called co-optive or soft power in contrast with the hard or command power of ordering others to do what it wants.” The Thucydides reading shows us how detrimental and fatal lack of soft powers can result in when a group or state can’t strategize allyship. In the case of popular culture, states can use soft power through popular culture as a means to define their global reputation and manage/steer politi...

  https://news.virginia.edu/content/russia-ukraine-crisis-whats-going-and-why-americans-must-pay-attention Balance of power and security dilemma in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict In class we covered topics about balancing of power between states and the security dilemma. The two terms that were covered in class are related in terms of a state wanting to be well preserved and secure. Balancing power between states causes states to rise against another more powerful state for its own security, while a security dilemma causes states to be more secure making others feel less secure. These concepts can be applied to states and nations all throughout history and even in our world right now. From the news today we see how Russia  has tensions with Ukraine which could very well lead to war based on what Russia has been doing at the Ukrainian border.  The conflict between Ukraine and Russia has a long history, and today the conflict that is now boiling up to the surface is bas...