Threats to Global Security Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Threats to Global Security - Essay Example The nation-states drafted or enlisted vast segments of the population base to build huge armies, navies, air forces, and nuclear weaponry, and the military command of each nation used this force with unrestrained power, even against civilian populations. The â€Å"old† war pattern led to hundreds of millions of individual deaths across the world during the course of the 20th Century. In a different interpretation focusing on media, Heidi Schaefer writes in â€Å"Old Wars New Wars†: â€Å"The famous photograph of a man being executed by a shot to the head by South Vietnam Lt. Colonel Ngyen Ngoc Loan, Saigon Chief of Police... taken by Eddie Adams, in 1968, on a side street in Saigon and later won him... a Pulitzer prize. In Adams’ obituary, the Washington Post wrote on this defining image of the violence of war in the latter half of the 20th century: ‘It was war in its purest, most personal form.’† (Schaefer, 2009) Thus, in evaluating the defin ition of â€Å"old† wars, it can be stated that on the global or international level, â€Å"old† wars operate on the Clausewitzian model of â€Å"total war† and mass-mobilization of societies that cause immense amounts of social and economic destruction. On the local level, â€Å"old† wars operate as in the Eddie Adam’s photo, the brutality of a man shot in the head, the passion of the scene, the emotions, and desperation are all caught on camera and recorded as a â€Å"total history†. In using this understanding to build a conception of â€Å"new† wars, these can be seen as â€Å"conflicts† that operate on a limited or isolated basis globally, generally in failed States or in surgical military operations led by the hegemonic powers. Where â€Å"total war† characterized the old paradigm, â€Å"contained war† is symbolic of the new. This may also include increased systematization, de-personalization, and abstractio n of violence so as to understand that State violence becomes more â€Å"stylized† in the operation of â€Å"new† war, as in a â€Å"cosmopolitan† police action. Additionally, there is a greater tendency to covert action, marginalized conflicts, lack of media coverage of non-central States, and disappearance of history that suggest in the local operation of â€Å"new† war, there is an inherent secrecy or hidden aspect that relates to containment, and can be seen as contrary to the Eddie Adams model. This means the media may not be centrally present in the â€Å"new† wars; the violence may not be recorded and broadcast in graphic imagery, but rather masked and stylized by the State in Hollywood manner in order to continue status quo operations with violence contained to the destruction of media-driven stereotypes of â€Å"foreign enemies† and â€Å"terror†. In reviewing the academic literature on the definition of â€Å"old† war and â€Å"new† war, there is a consistent theme of scholars writing on the subject to identify the 9/11 attacks as ushering in a new paradigm in the conduct of war. In "Old Laws, New Wars: Jus ad Bellum in an Age of Terrorism," William K. Lietzau writes: "At 8:46 on the morning of 11 September 2001, a handful of terrorists propelled the globe into an era of profound change... Whether or not recognized, acknowledged, or asserted, 9/11 and the response thereto brought forth a nascent legal regime that will alter the way nation states apply the rule of

What effect does socioeconomic status have on the voting behavior of Essay

What effect does socioeconomic status have on the voting behavior of blacks - Essay Example rent paper focuses on the examination of the possible effects of socioeconomic status on the development of a particular voting behavior by black people. The literature and the empirical research presented throughout this paper prove that the voting behavior of black people around the world can be influenced by a series of factors; socioeconomic status has been found to have a role in the development of specific voting decisions by black people. Of course, the dependence of voting behavior on specific social, political and financial factors cannot be doubted; however, it seems that this influence is stronger in the case of minorities or people with a specific racial background. Regarding the structure of the specific paper it should be noticed that a general presentation of the factors influenced the voting behavior of the public is used in order to introduce the issue under examination and explain the reasons for which the effects of the socioeconomic status on the voting behavior o f black people can have a long lasting effect. As already noticed above, the voting behavior of all people around the world is influenced by specific factors. The above phenomenon has been extensively studied in the literature and many different views have been stated. In accordance with Bass et al. (1998, online article) ‘it is important to consider the effect of residential mobility on registration and voting behavior; movers resemble stayers on motivational factors related to voting; the requirement that citizens must register anew after each change in residence constitutes a key stumbling block in the path of a trip to the polls (Squire, Wolfinger, Glass, 1987 in Bass et al., 1998, online article). In accordance with the above, the voting behavior of citizens can present different characteristics in accordance with the political and the social conditions of a particular era; in the same context, when specific factors are used in order to alternate the voting behavior of people