POLS 170 Blog Group 0202

  https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/russia-will-challenge-economic-4720758/ In 2012 Russia joined the World Trade Organization. However, Russia has been involved with trade and negotiation with the World Trade Organization since 1994. Russia is one of the producers of crude oils, grains, metals, wood, and plastic. So, since Russia is threatening to pull out of the World Trade Organization is a major deal. The fact that Russia may pull out of the WTO is due to the conflict that is currently occurring with Ukraine. If Russia pulls out, there will be a massive effect on global trade. Whether that effect is within the first 5 years or the next 100 years, somewhere down the line there will be an issue. We are already seeing an issue take place by the conflict causing trade tankers to either be diverted away from the black sea, or tankers being stuck at ports being unable to unload their goods. One family-owned company called Interunity Group ​is currently struggling because of this. The...

  Support for the ICC The International Criminal Court is a large organization that works toward taking down powerful people who have performed crimes against humanity. There are many countries involved in this court with the goal of prosecuting individuals for genocide, war crimes when national jurisdictions for any reason are unable and unwilling to do so. The United States should become a part of this organization because of the significance of punishing people for unacceptable acts.  This international court works to hold powerful people accountable for crimes against humanity.  The authority the United States holds could boost the courts status and give them a better ability to arrest dominant individuals. One main criticism of the court is the pace at which it is prosecuting people. The involvement of an influential country like the U.S could help progress the court to achieve more convictions. As well, the message the court is sending by trying to bring inter...

Article: https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/23/imf-ukraine-war-russia-economic-impact-georgieva-gopinath/ For my third Blog I decided to look how the Russian and Ukrainian war might affect the global economy. The question that arises is how will this war affect the global economy, will it reshape and restructure the economy along with disrupting the supply chains that were built over decades. With these countries at war we can see the importance of the IMF, international monetary fund, and how it has helped to stabilize Ukraine. The IMF plays an important role in the global economy and can help aid countries even in times of crisis, to ensure that a country will not ultimately collapse. The IMF does a lot more than just helping countries that have financial struggles and has the power to keep a country at war in a stable economy.  From the standpoint of the IMF, they are looking to help the country of Ukraine to keep a functioning country, and they are monitoring the economy of Rus...

  Should the U.S. have rejoined the UN Human Rights Council? In October of 2021, The United States rejoined the UN Human Rights council three years after former President Trump and his administration pulled out. For many, the UN Human Rights Council has been an opportunity for countries who have abused human rights in their countries to serve on and be elected to. The council has had serious flaws– flaws criticized by former Presidents Bush and Obama. However, Biden and his administration argue that rejoining the UN Human Rights Council will be an opportunity to maintain the United States’ global presence and offer reform to the council. While I wished to stay hopeful in our current administration’s ability to reform the UN Human Rights council, I’m weary due to the historical context of the UNHRC and the ways it has fallen short on fulfilling its promise on protecting human rights. The UNHRC was created in 2006 in response to the previous UN Human Rights commission. As part of...

 On the Inadequacies of the UN             The preamble of the founding charter of the United Nations (UN) establishes that the organization was assembled to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,” “reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights,” “establish… justice,” and “promote social progress” (un.org). While the UN does help maintain a positive international status quo, it is our responsibility as global citizens to recognize its shortcomings. In its ineffective governance of founding powers, fundamental inability to police the United States specifically, and disappointing climate change action, the United Nations has failed to live up to its base goals.             The UN Security Council (UNSC) is the most obviously flawed UN mechanism. The UNSC is comprised of 15 members, five of which are permanent and possess veto power. * The other ten positions are...

  When looking at the crisis regarding Ukraine and Russia many aspects of this conflict still remain unsure. No one knows how or when this terrible conflict will end. The one thing that does seem to be consistent is that this war is pushing every theory since the Cold War to the brink. It seems that right now we are the closest to World War Three or a nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis,  though we are not that close. When looking at game theory it seems that the West and Russia seem to be in gearing up for some sort of game of chicken. The west and Russia have had mutually assured destruction for almost 80 years and many believe that having nuclear weapons would be a deterrence, but it seems right now it could bring us more destruction than anything we have ever seen before.  Right now the United States is walking on eggshells with its hands tied when it comes to the Russian situation. At this point, sanctions have been put in place that is dealing extreme damage ...

M. Kamari Clarke’s position, “Justice Can’t Prevail in a Vacuum,” felt the most persuasive and appealing to me because of its global view on how the ICC affects countries that have been colonized. She notes the importance of acknowledging the structural inequities in postcolonial Africa and how its impacts still persist to this day. Clarke makes it a point to say that while the ICC can be useful in some circumstances, we cannot overlook the type of justice we are trying to seek. In trying to seek justice, we cannot solely use law to address the inequities that many Western/global powers have been involved in.  It’s likely that the approach to resolving conflicts/criminal justice in Africa and other colonized states cannot address the actual interests of the people that will be targeted. The people that are the ones that are impacted by the structural violence and inequities that come with resource extraction, enforced impoverishment, how wealth is distributed, etc. If the ICC wants...

              Following my reading of each argument, the one that stuck out to me the most came from Kamari Clarke. Clarke essentially argues that the International Criminal Court cannot and should not pursue a form of justice that fails to account for historical context. This is particularly true for formerly colonized states that have struggled to re-establish themselves in the post-colonial era. I think this argument spoke to me because it seems startlingly similar to many questions that the United States currently confronts domestically. Americans frequently wrestle with the true nature of justice and whether or not it should include a critical understanding of history’s human rights crimes. This is most obvious in the cases of reparations and affirmative action. Issues such as these, that fundamentally include a group that was formerly subjugated by an oppressor class that largely still holds power today, represent a chall...

  When looking at the arguments about the Internation Criminal Court I agree most with Ted Carpenter as he brings up great reason for the lack of due process on the court alongside other issues. One of the first issues he brings up is how a dictator or any offender who knows they will get prosecuted if the surrender will end up causing more damage in their downfall. If it is confirmed they will face consequences come to their defeat he is right that it seems they will be willing to do anything to therefore stay in power. This could end up putting even more people at risk just for the basically symbolic gesture of sending these people to face their crimes in court. Ultimately this reasoning on its own seems incredibly backward in the court’s goal. Additionally, the author also brings up the major due process issues. First of all, it seems many pieces of evidence and testimonies are allowed that would never be allowed in domestic courts. This includes people who can just make claims ...

Reading Response  The most persuasive position from the ICC reading was “The Court Deserves our Full Support” debate by Margaret M. Deguzman. In her position she urges people to recognize what the court has done to help humanity internationally. Deguzman explains that the court relies on the cooperation of states even though these actors are typically implicated in the crimes. This makes it extremely difficult for the court to operate and use the tools it needs to hold actors accountable for crimes against humanity. This current operation of the court has been able to collect support from most of the world's states, which encourages support for convictions of criminals in high places of power. As the ICC continues to grow in the future, it will also develop more backing from other world states.This court has also opened a number of investigations and concluded several trials. Although it seems that the court has not completed enough to bring global justice, it is making...

Neo-Colonialism Disguised as U.S. Humanitarian Intervention Introduction When we discuss “failed states” or fragile states, we tend to undermine some of the causes and contributors to their conditions. As we were shown in class, a failed state, though nuanced in definition, can usually possess common characteristics ranging from human rights abuses, civil war, lack of economic development, lack of political control, and many more. Somehow, discussion of how we can “fix” these “failures” overlook how many of the big powers– the United States, UK, and China– have contributed to the political, economic, and social unrest globally. All having engaged in extremely racist and harmful colonialism in heavily concentrated areas considered to be failing–while these failed states might be considered “sovereign” or “independent,” there is a large possibility that their fragility is a consequence of its historical path of forced dependency on its former colonial states....

  The Effects of Nuclear Warfare https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/devastating-effects-of-nuclear-weapons-war/   With everything going on recently with Russia invading Ukraine, there has been a lot of uncertainty in the air about whether there will be another world war. If this does occur, there is no certainty that a country won’t use nuclear weapons in a desperate or last attempt situation of victory. For that reason, I’m going to look into the effects and aftermath of nuclear warfare in the world.  To start off, Russia just recently invaded Ukraine on February 21, 2022. This is a big deal because there are some powerful countries backing both sides. Since other countries have a likely chance of starting another war. The last time there was a world war, nuclear weapons were involved. Those weapons made a massive impact on the world even after the war. The two major attacks in World War II. were Nagaski and Hiroshima. Between those two attacks, 150,000 to 215,000 pe...

  Caitie Eckna 3/2/22                     Does the World Bank Always Help? The war on poverty can negatively affect the poor. Western organizations involve themselves in developing countries and areas, coming up with ideas that could potentially lessen the amount of poverty. One place where this is evident is in Uganda, where The World Bank tried to implement a dam to change the area's economic status. “NGOs: Fighting Poverty, Hurting the Poor”, by Sebastian Mallaby, works to prove that this activist organization prevents the world bank from helping these poor areas. The purpose of the World Bank is being able to implement actions to promote economic growth. Although Mallaby describes these activist groups preventing positive change in poor areas, these organizations are working to protect the environment and the voiceless. The plan for Uganda was to develop a dam at the end of the Nile river to improve the eco...

     The Iraqi Government within this past year had largely peaceful elections in October, however efforts to continue the election have been stalling. For the Presidential seat in Iraq there has been a struggle due to the parliamentary quorum not being met in the designated time period. The dilemma is the president, once elected, designates the prime minister to form a council of members which is endorsed by parliament. With this new revisionist power system in Iraq not being sorted out, a security dilemma begins to unfold in Iraq’s national security because of terrorist groups such as the Da’esh. The national security of Iraq is at risk because of these organizations, but the representative of Iraq assured the United Nations security council that this would not disturb the strive for better peace in Iraq.  With claims that peace will still be attained, Iraq has looked to its multi-polar system of the United Nations and has asked for greater efforts to a...

Why Do We Talk About Nuclear War like it is an Acceptable Possibility?                 With  every moment we spend discussing nuclear war, we legitimize its practice. In reality, nuclear war would be utterly catastrophic and ultimately irredeemable for most all nations. Therefore, states - such as Russia - should not even consider using nuclear weapons when deciding which course of action to pursue in matters of war or international exchange. Furthermore, pundits and citizens of the world should not discuss nuclear war as if it is anything but the potential end of humanity as we know it.   This past week Russian leader Vladimir Putin put his nuclear deterrent forces on “high alert” (NBC). This choice to call attention to, and thereby threaten the world with nuclear weapons in response to a sloppy beginning to the Russian invasion of Ukraine sets a frightening precedent. Afterall, in the grand scheme of international relations...