World Politics

All Pages in this Section

Interviews

Publications

External Links

Introduction and recent updates

Introduction

The section "World Politics" addresses a broad range of topics with a political and economic nature, including world order, globalisation and international relations.

This section answers questions such as:

How are the EU relations with Russia? And with Africa?
What is International Relations about?
How is the relationship between US and Iran from a radical geopolitical perspective?

Like in other sections, you also find pages with external links to useful publications and websites.

Recognition of new states

February 2010

William Worster currently serves as a lecturer at the Hague University and Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Dr Worster's contribution provides a legal perspective on the recognition of new states. Addressed issues include sovereignty, statehood and the Montevideo Convention:

Sovereignty: two competing theories of state recognition - William Worster

"The constitutive theory states that recognition of an entity as a state is not automatic. A state is only a state when it is recognized as such and other states have a considerable discretion to recognize or not. Moreover, only upon recognition by those other states does the new state exist, at least in a legal sense."

Federico Bordonaro's view on 2009

January 2010

Federico Bordonaro is professor of geopolitics at Center of Excellence for the Stability Police Units and Rome’s University "La Sapienza". He gives his view on 2009 by analysing important geopolitical trends including the Nabucco, Southstream and Northstream projects:

A Geopolitical Review of 2009 - Federico Bordonaro

"The year 2009 has accelerated already existing geopolitical trends: the consolidation of Chinese influence in international diplomacy, Beijing’s pursuit of military might, Europe’s struggle with its lack of political-strategic cohesion, the US attempts to regain the upper hand in Afghanistan and to fight against its perceived loss of prestige, the growing hysteria about possible implications of allegedly man-made global warming."

Geopolitical Review of 2009

December 2009

In this article, geopolitical specialists that have earlier contributed to the website tell us what they consider the most critical geopolitical development in 2009. The discussed developments include the United Nations Climate Conference in Copenhagen, implementation of the Lisbon Treaty and a couple of decisions of US president Barck Obama. This quote is from Simon Dalby:

Looking back at 2009: key geopolitical trends - Various contributors

"The moment that President Obama announced the decision to rescind the previous policy of putting missile defence facilties in Europe may turn out to be the most significant geopolitical event of 2009."

Recommended contributions

Politics in the Middle East

October 2009

Dr Andrea Teti (Lecturer in International Relations at University of Aberdeen) speaks about key challenges for the Middle East, such as human rights and international influences.

Middle East: Political Reforms, Regional Powers and External Actors - Andrea Teti

"For liberalising and democratising reforms to work, each major power with influence in the region would have to make short-term sacrifices in the notoriously difficult balance between short-run political stability which provides incentives against reform and for ‘stability’, and the long-term positive consequences which are expected from the development of democratic and economically developed states."

Great power visions of Russia

August 2009

Martin Müller (Assistant Professor, University of St. Gallen) addresses Russia’s re-emergence as a great power. A great power that flexes its military muscle and asserts its influence not only in the post- Soviet space but also beyond. But what is behind Russian great power thinking?

The inevitable flaws in Russia’s great power project

"The colour revolutions in several post-Soviet states are associated with Western agency, which aims to weaken Russia by snatching away its former brother states."

Economic development in Africa

July 2009

Pádraig Carmody (PhD from the University of Minnesota) is Lecturer in Geography at Trinity College in Dublin. In this interview, Mr Carmody addresses issues such as economic liberalization, globalization, aid effectiveness and the economic legacy of colonialism:

Africa: economic development and globalisation - Pádraig Carmody

"The current 'good governance' discourse tries to blame national elites for the poor management of African economies without examining how those elites are imbricated in broader global power structures."

African-European relations

June 2009

Veit Bachmann (Associate Lecturer and PhD Candidate at University of Plymouth) elaborates on recent fieldwork in East Africa. Why did he choose his research questions, geopolitical concepts and methodologies? What were the main results of the fieldwork? Which research topics would be interesting for future research?

Veit Bachmann - Geopolitical Briefing on African-European relations

"A more systematic comparative analysis of differences between official strategies and local perceptions of the EU and its geopolitical role between various countries in sub-Saharan Africa and between various regions in the world is needed."

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