Just a few months ago in September, I wrote a piece for The Concordian Politics called “Charting a Course”. The gist of the piece was basically the idea that the United States needs to disabuse itself of the notion that it can unilaterally shape the affairs of the world to its liking. In the United Nations the…
Tag: international relations
The rise of Scottish independence
These are perilous times for national constitutions in the European Union. The present political order is slowly moving in a direction characterized by potent separatism that threatens to break up several states, some of them longstanding players on the international scene. If the devolved government of Scotland gets its way in a referendum planned for…
The decline of American power
Last week this column explored the phenomenon of China’s recent rise to power and how this is presently changing the nature of the international system. While readers will be directed to that piecefor a better understanding of what precisely China’s emergence as a central global power means for China, what still needs to be better understood…
Charting a course
Anybody who’s been following the 2012 campaign for any length of time has most likely been inundated by pundits from the left and the right with the idea that this year would be a reprise of Bill Clinton’s 1992 classic “It’s the economy, stupid” and to a large extent this has been the case. A…
Power politics in the 21st century
The Cold War was probably the most high-stakes and globally encompassing theatre of Great Power struggle the world has ever known. Never before had two states of such immense power and international influence competed so vigorously to carve out indomitable spheres of influence, militarily checkmate the other, and – probably most significantly – promote such…