Thursday Cartoons Did Their Civic Duty

Did you?  Good for you if you did!  Unless you voted like this guy:

 

Election Day, Nov. 3, 2009

It’s the first Tuesday in November, and over 30 states are having elections, which means that a lot of people need to vote.  If you have already, congratulations!  If you haven’t, find your election center at Rock the Vote’s site.  Vote!  Participate in the great polity we call the United States of America.

Belated Thursday Cartoon

Because Saturday was Halloween, and this is actually possible in my neighborhood:

CCT 754 Blog Post: R2P and International Norms

There are many kinds of institutions – networks of relationships – today.  There are networks of both domestic and international activists, some with cross-cutting ties between the two levels.  There are the networks of state relationships – trade, security, law, culture, through institutions such as the WTO, NATO, the UN, countless formal bilateral agreements, as well as bonds of friendship and statesmanship between leaders.  On the one hand, these institutions may be said to be very effective, as they have allowed us to go 60+ years without a World War, have allowed us to respond to countless emergencies and horrors, from September 11, 2001 to tsunamis in South-East Asia.  On the other hand, these institutions have failed to enact new international norms, including environmental standards (Kyoto), common agreement over the management of oceans (Law of the Sea), or the forceful condemnation of the targeting of civilians in violent conflicts, whether with a genocidal purpose or simply to inflict mass casualties (R2P).  Furthermore, norms that once stood solidly, such as the Geneva Conventions, are now at risk as more and more states openly torture, led by the US.

Regional Relationships and Development Infrastructure

Blogging Question: Assuming you are a development strategist in a developing country. Characterize the country and its situation. On that basis, how might you design a network-based development policy?

CCT 754 Paper Topic

It’s getting the time of the semester that profs start requesting paper topics be chosen.  For CCT 754, I have to actually post a brief intro/outline of my paper topic, and do so tonight, which means that I should probably actually chose a paper topic.  My current top contenders are:

1. A continuation of my previous post on R2P: how does the existence (and complete failure) of the R2P doctrine stymie the international discussion on conflict intervention?
2. Under which circumstances does technology democratize international relations, especially activism, but also diplomacy?

#1 seems like a fairly straightforward (and possibly easier topic), but since it is a networks class, I’ll probably have to look at the networks of military action and international diplomacy at a bilateral and also regional/international level (NATO, UN) and then of course historical/colonial ties and how those influence current events.

#2 is a more recent, and probably farther reaching question, and one that I definitely intend to pursue, but I’m thinking that I’ll write about #1 for this semester.  R2P is a subject I’ve been struggling w for a while, and it feels good to be motivated enough by the assignment to finally begin work on it again.

So there’s my paper topic.  Now to write an actual summary of it for class….

R2P or Not(2P); That Shouldn’t Be the Question

NB: This post for CCT754 is admittedly very incomplete.  I’m working on an idea for a final paper for the class, and this post serves, not even as an introduction to that idea, but as an intro to the universe of ideas from which it comes.  I ultimately don’t think I will write about R2P, but I’ve needed to say some of these things for nearly 2 years now, and finally did.  As the topic evolves, I’ll be sure to post.