Short Essay

By Author: Sherry Roberts
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The study of international affairs can best be understood through the competing ideas we learn from theories like radicalism, liberalism, and realism. Realism placed emphasis on the enduing propensity of conflicts among states. Liberalism identifies various ways of preventing and mitigating conflicts and conflictive tendencies. The radical tradition provides a description of how the whole system of state relations can be transformed. Among these three theories, I consider radicalism to be the best theory in helping us understand well the concept of international relations.
Realism has been the dominant theoretical custom at the time of the Cold War. The theory depicts that international affairs involve the struggle for power among states that are self-interested and also pessimistic with efforts of eliminating wars and conflicts. During the Cold War years, realism was the best theory since it provided simple yet powerful explanations of alliances, war, obstacles to the corporation, imperialism and other international phenomena showing the completion and rivalry of the Soviet Union and the United States.
Liberalism ...
... is a principle that came up to challenge realism. One of the aspects that liberal thought argued is that economic interdependence discourages states from the utilization of force against one another because warfare threatens the prosperity of each side. Another argument of the liberalism theory is that spreading democracy would guarantee the world peace since all democratic states are inherently peaceful, unlike the authoritarian states. The third argument on liberalism is that international institutions such as International Monetary Fund and International Energy Agency can help to curb the selfish state behavior through encouraging states to forego, immediate gains for the benefits of supporting International Corporation. However, this theory only shows the persisted exonerations for promoting international cooperation
Last the radical approaches are based on the orthodox Marxist theory which views capitalism as being the main cause of international politics. Where liberalism and realism took the state system for granted, the radical theory provide both the previous theories with a different explanation for international conflict and has the blueprint for transforming the currently existing international order. Based on radicalism we learn that capitalist states will always battle one another due to their incessant battle for profits. These capitalist states also battle the socialist states since they see in them the elements of their own d destruction. The radical belief on international relations helps to define the global system. The structure of the world today according to radicalism is a by-product of imperialism and also as a result of some economic forms in various parts of the world. Also the expansion of a country to the international arena according to Hobson John is as a result of three main factors. First is the over production of services and goods in developed countries. Second it can be as a result of under-consumption among workers or the lower classes living in developed nations due to low wages. The third reason is the over savings made by the bourgeoisies and upper classes in the dominant developed nations. Thus due to these reasons the developed nations are forced to expand abroad as we see in the world today. As a result the developing nations are currently highly dependent and more constrained by the developed nation’s actions.

2) Is the U.S. superpower in the foreseeable future?
Though the influence of the United States over other countries of the world is most likely to decrease in future, there is no any other country that can take up the seat of being the superpower nation in the coming foreseeable future. The main reason for the U.S becoming a superpower was not only due to its economic power. The economic aspect is just but a puzzle, however, beyond the economic size of the U.S other key aspects that have made and will continue to make the U.S be the superpower are;
First are information and entertainment: the world’s information and entertainment have been shaped by US brands ranging from the Hollywood Studios to CNN, Apple, Microsoft, Nike, YouTube, and Google. All these aspects have shaped the world’s information and entertainment sector.
Second, the defense of America is very strong as compared to the rest of the world. The nations spend most of its dollars on defense more than all the countries of the world put together. The third reason is the aspect of finance. The markets of the United States are much more transparent and open as compared to most markets of the world. The fourth reason that enables the United States to be the superpower in the foreseeable future is education. The United States owns seventy of the top hundred best universities of the world, and that is the reason why Apple, Google, Facebook, and all other Fortune 100 companies are from US educated graduates. Best education quality of the US is also the reason for pioneering in the Internet, advanced warfare defense, and the moon landing. Last, the US will continue to maintain its superpower position due to its energy. The country has secure energy that no other big economy countries have. China which is an upcoming superpower nation does not have the stable energy for it relies on oil being transported through highly dangerous pirate zones like Straits of Malacca and the Horn of Africa.

Work Cited
Barnett M. and Finnemore M. Rules of the World International Organizations in Global Politics. Cornell University Press Ithaca. 2004.
Mansfield M and Snyder J. Electing to Fight Emerging Democracies Go to War. MIT Cambridge 2005.
Ackerly A., Stern A., and True J., (eds) Feminist Methodologies for International Relations. CUP Cambridge 2006.

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