This article by Joseph Nye reviews a deep probing of various kind of powers, outlines the diffusion of power away from state-to non-states actors, deep probing of various kind of power, and analyzes transitions between states that have rose and fallen. Persuasive has been the liberal-realist strategy by Nye. This is evidenced when he point out that American are capable of stemming political decline and even extend economic prosperity through considering a smart strategy of power that do not allow seeking primacy and instead go for alignment with the rest of the nations. The work has traced the leadership lessons from Sun-Tzu to George W. Bush, indicating some of the historical events as well as the impact they have had over the span of centuries. Qualities that mark successful and failed leaders have been defined.

It seems like hard power still remains of significant within a world of states that are trying to protect their independence and a ready to violence non-state groups. This formed the core of administration of Bush towards the new national security strategy. However, Nye indicates that the neo-conservatives who are the advisors of he president tend to make a huge miscalculation. This is because they have concentrated their focus on using America’s military power in forcing the rest of the nations to follow their will, yet they have decided to narrowly focus on soft power. Using soft power provide a platform to prevent terrorists from being involved in recruiting supporters from among the moderate majority; a major tool that should always be used by America.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kaplan Article

This article by Kaplan point out a warning that the early 21^st century especially within undeveloped world is likely to experience environmental degradation, urban overcrowding and disease, breakdown of central governmental authority, tribal warfare, and affiliated rise in crime. He reveals that the most important thing is peace which according to him will definitely make the average citizen to become self-absorbed, complacent, as well as forgetful of history, and the view the historical generalizations always tend to come very fast and furious, which may seem to be so isolated from factors such as politics, culture, education, mass media, and technology as a whole, that leaves readers who persevere past the scintillating title essay undefined and disoriented. In his essay, Kaplan is determined to raise a red flag in the current optimism about the direction of global affairs in the 21^st century.

After the end of the Cold War in the late 1980’s, a wave of optimism was produced all over many of Western world. Regardless of the experienced fierce regional conflicts that left the period of 1990’s scared, such optimism somehow endured in the American public consciousness. What seemed to e the way forward was the worldwide growth of democracy as well as free trade that would ensure peace and prosperity for all, and on the hand the 21^st century find democratic capitalism to be the best way for human societies to organize themselves. Kaplan views most of people in 21^st century to look like they are not aware of what is happening or simply have chosen not to think.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Samuel P. Huntington

This article by Samuel P. Huntington provokes and tries to analyze the state of world politics once the communism had fallen. He provide an explanation of the way “civilization” have in a way replaced nations as well as ideologies which is currently the driving force in global politics, and focuses keenly on the current climate and future possibilities of our world’s volatile political culture. The thesis that is outlined in this article is a future cultural form the divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict. Huntington categorizes the world’s culture into seven current civilizations, Latin American, Western, Japanese, Confucian, Slavic-Orthodox, Hindu and Islamic. He only judge Africa as a possible civilization depending the level at which an individual views the development of an Africa consciousness came to develop.

As much as the argument of Huntington holds that the end of ideological confrontation between liberal democracy and communist will definitely see occurrence of future conflict majorly along the borders between civilizations at a micro level. The argument also point out that conflict is predicted at macro level between states from different civilizations of different kinds in order to gain control of the international institutions as well as economic and military power, and such mix conflicts tend to be normal indicating that nation-states are new phenomenon within a world that has been dominated for various of its history by conflict between civilizations. Such statement seems to be unsure since inter-civilization conflict driven by geo-political factors rather than cultural differences tend to be an equally or even more persuasive manner of viewing most of its history.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John J. Mearsheimer. ‘Back to the future: instability in Europe after the Cold War’ International Security 15, 1, Summer 1990,

 

The argument of this article by Mearsheimer is that the prospect for major crises as well as war in Europe may markedly increase with the end of Cold War and a possible emergence of a multipolar structure. Such conclusion deemed as pessimistic depends on the argument that the distribution as well as the military power’ character tend to be the root causes of war and peace. In case the region is left by the superpowers then various effects will be realized. Some of the principal policy prescriptions include efforts to forestall the re-emergence of hyper-nationalism in Europe, a continued presence of U.S. in Europe even upon withdrawal by Soviet Union, encouraging especially in Europe a process of limited nuclear proliferation.

The best option for war and peace tend to lie more in the structure of the international system as compared to nature of individual states. Indeed there seems to be an indication of likelihood an increase in the prospects for major crises and war in Europe in case the Cold War will end hence emergence of a multipolar structure. Using neorealistic framework to explain the absence of major war during the past 45 years in addition to the contrast with the bloody period prior to the Cold War. Although hyper-nationalism and other domestic factors happen to affect the probability of war, the military power still plays an important role. War and peace across the nations is a very sensitive phenomenon which needs a much deeper understanding of the factors that are connected with them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Keohane, Robert and Joseph Nye (2000). Globalization: What’s New? What’s Not? (And so what), Dimension of globalism pp.104-105)

The article tries to analyze what globalization entails generally, if there are changes that have been realized as currently, or is there something which has still remained since the realization of globalization. Globalization began as people travelled across the world to search for goods and money, as people lives began to change, and so was the exchange of the existing cultures and political ideas. Britain taking the forefront in adopting free trade policy forms of communication continued to be set up in other places around the world to pave way for trade as well as political exchanges. The article describes factors that have favored the achievement of globalization across the regions and some of the delaying factors towards attaining globalization. It also acknowledged the journey that globalization has taken to reach its level currently. Although the full potential has not yet been attained there is hope that globalization will reach further to its potential and assist more in the aiding different generation find a better and a more convenient way of achieving their goals in life as they reach out for one another across the universe.

Currently globalization tends to be more dominant as compared to previous days and having more influential factors. The argument is that its basis has existed for over 200 years taking up speed and development sometimes experiencing relapse along the journey. As a result globalization is currently felt further just like many of the countries have been affected by it. Likewise additional MNC’s have come up, a factor that was not experienced within the very many parts of globalization development.