World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

The quiz on 22 February will be on the following readings:  Ambrose & Brinkley, Chapters 1-3, Tassava, and Fussell.  It will also be on the blog postings from 16-20 February 2012.

One of the long-term effects of globalization is to induce a convergence of wages and working conditions (at least theoretically).  For high wage countries, this means wages will go down, and this has certainly been the case since the 1970s.  For low wage countries, wages should rise, but this effect has not been as apparent.  Now, however, it appears as if this effect is beginning to take hold.  One of the largest suppliers for Apple products, Foxconn, a Taiwanese company that operates in China, has been plagued by worker protests and suicides because of working conditions.   It has responded to these problems, largely because of protests in the developed world, by finally raising wages.

We tend to look at the Israeli-Iranian conflict through the lenses of the United States, but we all need to remember that there are a very large number of alternative perspectives on the conflict.  There is a fascinating column in the Times of India which does an excellent job of looking at the conflict from the perspective of India–a perspective that fleshes out many of the dimensions of the conflict that we tend to ignore.

The Chinese government continues to tighten its control over dissent about conditions in Tibet.  Governmental concern can often be measured by how wide the net of control is extended.  The arrest of so many Tibetans returning from a meeting with the Dalai Lama suggests that the Chinese government believes that the recent protests are being choreographed from abroad.  Such suspicions often continue to deepen and broaden into a very wide network.  We should monitor Chinese actions further afield from Tibet and the Sichuan province.

The chess game between Iran and the rest of the world has become a little more complex as Iran has signaled a willingness to re-enter talks with the US and the EU on nuclear issues.  Re-opening the talks constrains those who wish to launch a pre-emptive strike on Iranian nuclear facilities (it is politically impossible to launch such a strike if one side has expressed a willingness to negotiate.  One should remember, however, that the Japanese were negotiating with the United States during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941).  The Netanyahu government and those within it who support a pre-emptive strike are clearly flummoxed by the move.  We should anticipate a revived effort to portray the Iranians as unreliable.  In the meantime, Iran has sent a destroyer through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean.  There are far too many balls in the air right now–let’s hope that everyone is an expert juggler.

One of the consequences of the debt crisis in the eurozone is that as some nations are forced to undergo austerity programs to reduce wages, other nations within the some (especially Germany) enjoy a competitive advantage.  The discrepancy occurs because the common currency, the euro, weakens as growth slows in the countries undergoing austerity–in effect, the euro devalues.  This means that the exports of the stronger countries are more attractive to countries outside the eurozone leading to even stronger economies.  The growing discrepancy between the weak euro countries and the strong euro countries will inevitably lead to political friction.  We’ll see if this friction has any effect on the cohesion of the EU as a whole.

The Oil Drum is a fascinating blog on energy related issues, and its most recent post is a fascinating summary of global energy consumption over the last century.  It is a very detailed post, so I won’t be asking any questions about it on the weekly quiz in American foreign policy.  But for those who wish to see how the use and sources of energy have changed throughout the period of high industrialization, the post is incredibly revealing.  The only possible conclusion is that the historical trends are clearly unsustainable–something has got to change.

The question of how income inequality affects economic growth is perhaps one of the most pressing questions facing the world at this moment.  Much of the historical evidence on income inequality suggests that it often leads to economic decline.  There is evidence that this outcome is increasingly likely in the developed world.

First, I need to apologize to the students in American foreign policy.  I had told you that I was going to ask questions on the quiz from 13 February, but the quiz actually had questions from another date on the syllabus.  This was a serious mistake on my part since I know that there is a strategy to studying, and I sabotaged that strategy.  I haven’t decided how to atone for my sins, but I will.  Perhaps I will  drop the grades for the quiz on 15 February.  Maybe I will count them only if the scores are higher than any student’s overall average without them.  I am a creative person, so somehow I will make it  up to you.  In the meantime, please accept my apologies.

How bad is it in Greece?  Really bad and getting worse.  I am beginning to think that the EU wants the Greeks to leave the Union.

The UN is scrambling to try to prove its relevance to the deteriorating situation in Syria.  There seems to some movement in the Russian position, but it is not enough yet to make a difference.  But the Russians are clearly feeling the heat of international public opinion.  Perversely, the instability in the Middle East has led to large economic benefits to Russia–oil price increases are bolstering the Russian economy.

Here’s an insider’s view of what is happening in Greece.  It is quite different from the media’s point of view.

“A personal journey to the heart of Greece’s darkness” Financial Times 15 February 2012

A new diplomatic tool has been added to world politics–rewriting the maps while a revolution is going on.  The Syrian opposition has been changing the names of places in Syria that refer to Assad’s regime on Google Maps.  The Syrians have protested to the United Nations, but to no avail.  I don’t think there are many historical precedents for such activities (although changes AFTER a revolution are rife).  I truly admire the creativity of the protesters.

The Egyptian revolution continues to confound.  This article from the Los Angeles Times is depressing since it documents a move away from gender equality in the revolution.  It is probably too early to tell whether this is a decisive setback or just a temporary one.

Russell Shorto has a very long article in the New York Times on the effects of the debt crisis on Greek life.  It is a very long article so I will not ask any quiz questions on it, but it captures all the complexity of this tragedy in motion.  A short snippet:

“By many indicators, Greece is devolving into something unprecedented in modern Western experience. A quarter of all Greek companies have gone out of business since 2009, and half of all small businesses in the country say they are unable to meet payroll. The suicide rate increased by 40 percent in the first half of 2011. A barter economy has sprung up, as people try to work around a broken financial system. Nearly half the population under 25 is unemployed. Last September, organizers of a government-sponsored seminar on emigrating to Australia, an event that drew 42 people a year earlier, were overwhelmed when 12,000 people signed up. Greek bankers told me that people had taken about one-third of their money out of their accounts; many, it seems, were keeping what savings they had under their beds or buried in their backyards. One banker, part of whose job these days is persuading people to keep their money in the bank, said to me, “Who would trust a Greek bank?””

The virtue of the article is that it puts the many human faces on the crisis.

The United States has announced new rules governing the role of women in combat.  The rules are not completely open-ended–some combat roles are still off limits.  Some countries offer women greater combat opportunities, which tend to be very important in determining promotions in the military.  Others are much more restrictive than the US.  As the world’s militaries become more technological and specialized, it will be interesting to see how the roles of women change.

The covert war between Israel and Iran continues as Iran targets Israeli diplomats abroad.  We can be certain that there will be a response to these attacks.  Most likely, the response will be dramatic.

Dani Rodrik, an economist at Harvard, has written a fascinating essay on the future of the nation-state in an era of globalization.  I have been reading on this issue since my undergraduate days in 1968–the outcome is less clear now than it was then.

The quiz in American foreign policy on 15 February will be on the blog articles from 9-13 February, and all of the readings on the syllabus for 13 February.