Political Science

Contemporary International Problems

Question 1
System thinking implies dynamics within an organization arising from different approaches that are designed at separate points of view. For instance, managers in organizations design a number of aspects with clear structure, procedure, and strategy with an aim of building an organization of their interest. A scholar known as Etienne Wenger points out four factors that are central for understanding complicated organization process. The four factors include participation- reification, local and global, designed- emergent, and finally identification and negotiation power. These four ideas are vital in addressing existing frictions when interacting (Stancy et al, 2010).

 System thinking can help managers come up with programs which may be very important and enhance learning. For instance, a well designed relationship between global and local can help the two distinct bodies develop a relationship that may help them start benefiting from another. However, if the designed is not well structured with proper strategies, then the desired relationship may not be achieved. Similarly, practice is quite vital in deriving success. For instance, a manager may have very well defined procedures but for them to produce the expected results then they must be put into practice. If they are not put into practice, then the required results may not be met (Stancy et al., 2010).

Reification in the real world implies having perceptions, evaluations, as well as attributions that makes something which is non-existent to be viewed as existing that is to say our awareness of things we experience, the meaning we give them do not exist in real world (Billing, et al, 2009).
Reification is associated with some dangers. It makes people see regularities where they dont exist. People often forget that words will always mean words and not gestures.  This false correctness should be avoided by many who come up with assumptions that if something is named then it therefore exist as a tangible object (Mark, et al, 2000).

Question 2
Before 1870, there were strong alliance systems in Europe. However the period after 1870 saw the alteration of an alliance between Bismarck of Germany with Austria- Hungary and Russia at a time when Germany had realized greater levels of industrialization. Germany moved on and formed an alliance with Italy in order to isolate France further due its fear of Germany aggression. On the other hand, Russia was also out looking for all possible ways on how to access Mediterranean and gain advantage in southern part of Europe and form nationalistic movements in Ottoman Empire. By 1876, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empires which was later settled in Berlin through peaceful negotiations in 1878 under Bismarck support.  This resulted into formation of a dual alliance between Germany and Austria- Hungary in 1879 which was later joined by Italy in 1882, hence formation of Triple Alliance.

In 1885, again there was another Balkan crisis where Germany still supported the interests of Austria-Hungary at Russian expense. This led to realignment between Germany and Russia which was terminated in 1890. Russia thereafter formed an alliance with France and Britain which was called Triple Entente. These two alliances, that is, triple alliance and triple entente, divided Europe leading to continuous competitions which saw the coming of many problems that made these alliances threatening to declare violence in entire Europe. They were these conflicting ideas between these alliances that led to First World War in 1914 (Mark, et al, 2000).

Question 3
Huntingtons in his article the clash of civilization noted that the world was going back to full civilization where conflicts in future will result from clashes among civilization. This theory has been broadly criticized on three distinct basis which are ignoring indigenous conflicts, oversimplification and wrongly predicting what happened after its publication. The theory presents a future full of great divisions between humankind dominated by cultural conflict. Huntington classified the worlds culture to seven forms of current civilization based on religion as follows  Latin, Hinduism, American, Islamic, Confucian, western, Slavic orthodox and Japanese (Graham, 2004). To him African civilization depends on how ones conscious viewed African development.

He further points out that the end of confrontation between communism and liberal democracy will see conflicts taking place in future among civilizations at country levels whereas macro level may witness occurrence of conflicts among states with different civilization with an aim of controlling international institution as well military and economic powers. To Huntington the mix in conflicts is seen as normal. The new events around the world are not necessarily caused by the clash between western and non western civilization but most have occurred because of the need by western countries to demonstrate there military and economic superiority over the non western counterparts. His theory ignores indigenous cultures and other religions for instance Buddhism yet they have been in existence for many years (Graham, 2004).

Question 4
Defining national interest has become very difficult due to existing political systems which are characterized with corruption, bureaucracy, tribalism and hatred for one another this has left many people yearning for change in order to realize there interest like accessing better education, provision of better health services, improved infrastructure development, creation of employment, equitable distribution of resources and above all good governance. Absence of this fundamental thing has left many people unable to define there national interests.

The state of a nation is considered an earlier defining factor in international relations but with increased globalization, nation states are becoming more and more porous and perhaps their powers waning. The declining power and influence of national state has made it practically difficult to exert national influence and each and every nation become dependant on the other due to interconnectivity in global economy, political, and social factors.

Question 5
The issue of U.S president involvement in Vietnam was an idea which I hope was good as there was need to stop communist behavior in Vietnam because of fears that other countries in the world may follow the example of Vietnam. There was need to protect the democratic South Vietnam government from insurgencies engineered by North Vietnam which were against a government elected in a more democratic way (Ellen, 1954). Although some people may have a different dimension, it should be indicated that U.S had to do all it can and stop the North Vietnamese because these political insurgency was to cause a gradual decline in production of Vietnamese rice which is used in many countries. Remember, the war was destined to cause a sharp fall in the economy of Vietnamese since the war would have hampered all economic activities, affected the progress of neighboring countries like china, Cambodia, Thailand among many others that rely on Vietnamese rice. Considering the political climate of the time, U.S with assistance of other countries had to rise up against Vietnam. It should be pointed that those countries which taught that the best was to keep them out of Vietnam War were enemies of democracy (Ellen, 1954).

Question 8
Russia was one the world super powers in the ancient time and a long term federal government. The countries current population was approximated to be 141 million in 2009 though experts say that there are possibilities of fall in population to around 125 million by 2050. Russia has abundance of natural resources which constitutes around 21 of the world of the worlds raw resources, 45 of the worlds natural gas, 13 oil and 23 coal. The strategic power and economy of Russia was very strong until World War II when its economy was shattered down this was as a result of difficulties in implementing fiscal reforms to raise government revenue. For instance in lower prices were realized for its oil which is the major export. Geographically Russia is strategically situated to serve as an epicenter between east and west as well as south and north

The countries efforts to re- structure its security is still limited due to poor military leadership, lack of enough funding, low level of education, and high rates of communicable and HIV infections, indiscipline cases among the army, low pay, and other demographic factor. All these have led to difficulties in transforming Russia army.         On the contrary, America is the world superpower known globally as having diverse and most changing population due to immigration and differences in birth rates. The country was initially a rural nation but due to rapid urbanization witnessed in 20th century remarkable change was realized in the economy from manufacturing industry thus increased productivity. The country has got significant coal reserves, natural gas and hydro- electric power and greater development in computer software with a functional and well motivated military command charged with providing security for America globally. After Second World War, American security officer became the commander of U.S forces in Europe. This is an implication that American security is far better than Russia. (B.E.E.A, 2009).