World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

Park Geun-Hye is the new President of South Korea, and its first female president.   She is the daughter of a former military ruler of South Korea and the election was a closely-contested one.  But it was also an election that focused on domestic economic issues.  Her party, however, is a little more hawkish and there might be a stiffening of the policies toward North Korea.

The UN Security Council has been debating a resolution condemning Israel’s decision to built additional settlements in East Jerusalem, the E1 area.  It seems clear that 14 of the Council’s members support the resolution, but the US has threatened to veto it.  In a rare show of diplomatic pique, the Council members decided to make separate speeches supporting the resolution.  The speeches were directed toward the US in an attempt to demonstrate how isolated the US position had become.   The US, however, said it still intends to veto the resolution.

When it comes to guns, the US is clearly different from every other country in the world.  The gun culture in the US is based principally in the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution which states that “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”  Most Americans believe that the 2nd Amendment has to do with hunting and self-defense, and this belief is true of a majority of gun-owners as well.  But there are some Americans who believe that the 2nd Amendment’s primary purpose is to safeguard the right of violent revolution against the government, in a manner consistent with the writings of John Locke and the spirit of the American Revolution.  This smaller subset of the American population is the group most adamantly against any ban on the military-style assault weapons.