POLS 170 - International Politics

                                                                        Paris climate accords The Paris Agreement, which required the United States to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions, was a horrible deal for American taxpayers, energy corporations, and every single American who relies on inexpensive, reliable energy. It was also not ideal for any of the countries involved, therefore Trump made the correct decision by pulling out of it. The first reason it was a bad deal was its economic impact it would have on the United States. If the Obama administration's Paris energy restrictions were implemented, they result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, harm to American industry, and a loss of $2.5 trillion in GDP by 2035. The United States was also paying ...

  Jack Cahalane Professor Shirk POLS 170 April 20, 2022 Global Cooperation and the Issue of Climate Change Arguably the most pressing issue facing future generations is the global issue of climate change. As stated by author Nhina Le in Are Human Rights Universal or Culturally Relative?,  “Among the scientific community it is no longer controversial that anthropogenic climate change is real and a significant threat to the well-being of both current and future generations. But it is also widely acknowledged that human development is an important way to address high levels of global poverty, that such development is energy intensive, and the cheapest sources of energy available are not likely to be clean energy types” (Le 2016).  Up until the 18th century, the changing of the climate and global warming was largely parallel to the natural processes of the Earth correlated to the eccentricity of Earth’s orbit relative to the Sun. Yet, with the onset of the Industrial Revolu...

  Cassie Lawler International Politics: POLS 170-03 Professor Shirk Due: Wednesday, April 20, 2022 Blog Post #4 The Unintended Consequences of NGOs Non-governmental organizations are non-profit that operate outside of the government, are independently organized and run to further a political motive, whether that motive be in the realm of humanitarianism, labor protections, or environmental, among many other things. Although the overwhelming majority of the time, these entities are well-meaning with aspirations to pick up where the government leaves off and serve a purpose for the greater good, they are typically not as advantageous for those they seek to help as they intend. The major caveat among NGOs in modern society is that they reap unintended consequences upon creation at whatever community, national, or international level they require mainly due to the fact that they crowd out government services and impede the existing and future efforts for the cause. Unfortunately, this ...

  Blake Burchill International Politics  Blog Post 4 Redefining Terrorism  The attacks on 9/11 were the beginning of a new era of terrorism. It made the US realize that this is a reality that could happen again and they needed to do everything in their power to stop potential future attacks. This leads to a terrorist watchlist overseas and at home but this brings up the question of what individuals and groups makes are considered terrorists. Every year there are attacks in the US and while each is terrible, not all of them are considered terrorism. If a white man shoots up a school, he is considered to have mental problems but if a Muslim man does the same thing, it is a terrorist attack on American values. In the perception of Americans, the color of your skin and your nationality can make you a potential terrorist, “Since 2001 the terrorist has come to be imagined almost exclusively as Muslim or Arab” (Husain). If a group or individual is deemed as a terrorist, the gove...

Authors Katri Bertram, Ngozi Erondu, and Madhukar Pai write, “Historically, global health has been mainly a top-down, North-to-South enterprise led primarily by white, elite men. (Bertram)” The repercussions of the system’s failures have made themselves more prominent than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic; lack of transparency from medical companies, the disproportionate distribution of resources, and unnecessary reserves have resulted in an underrepresentation of low-income populations and countries.  Within the medical field, there are often disproportionate representatives for criteria that are affected by health differently, for example gender. The article Silenced Voices in Global Health explain that both women and people from low income countries are underrepresented in leadership positions within the health community. This case of not being taken seriously can be detrimental to the people they represent and exposes the hierarchy among gender, race, and ethnicity. This...