International Security and the Liberal World Order--Fall '23

Samuel Huntington in his Essay “Managing the Clash of Civilisations” posits that cultural and civilizational identities would shape the future landscape of international relations. According to Huntington, the world would witness a “clash of civilizations” where major cultural entities, rather than nation-states, would be the primary actors on the global stage.

There is a term in the essay “Thucydides’ trap” which describes tensions and dynamic between one rising power and one ruling power. It imparts the idea that when a rising power threatens to displace a ruling power the most likely outcome is war. Right now I see an ongoing economic war between China and USA. China trying to displace dollars and increase the flow of Yuan. It is trying to claim its territories wrongly. The countries that USA do not support China is extending its support towards those countries. On top of that there are cultural differences between these two countries. China is a high context country, their tone of communication is implicit and subtle. Whereas USA is a low context country their way of communication is verbal and straightforward. For that reason sometimes what China does is unacceptable or shocking to USA. For instance, the propaganda of China sending over spy ballon to USA has an interesting cultural twist to it.

China and the U.S. have different explanations for why the balloon was flying over. the U.S. ; Beijing maintains it was a “civilian unmanned airship” for weather research simply blown . The U.S. says it was a “high altitude surveillance balloon” attempting to spy on strategic sites within the country. Because, USA shot down the ballon, Beijing declined all of USA’s hotline call, instead of clearly communicating. Officially, China’s defense ministry said it declined a call about the balloon because the U.S. decision to shoot it down “failed to create a proper atmosphere” for dialogue and exchange between the two militaries.” On the other hand, The Pentagon said it remained open to communication and doesn’t seek conflict. Sending a balloon to a sovereign nation’s sky without any alert is undoubtedly offensive, but in Chinese perspective they did not breach their boundaries.Beijing has long called for the U.S. to follow principles of “mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation” . If two countries do not sit together and talk about their differences, a small incident can ignite a big war.

For this week’s blog post, I examined the article “Environmental Threats to Security ” (Hough 2018, chapter 6) as well as Blitzer, Jonathan’s “How Climate Change is Fueling the U.S. Border Crisis.” The New Yorker online. 3 Apr 2019. The articles deeply dive into an issue affecting humanity across the planet at an alarming rate. Climate change has affected harvests, climate disasters, migrations, and livelihoods in the last two centuries. Efforts to combat climate change have been brought to the forefront of our environmental discussions. This is an ecocentric threat and an anthropocentric catastrophe enriching our lives.

The thought piece on Climate change and whether it could be taken more seriously using language. Climate Change could be an anthropological rather than a virological threat. The use of environmental hazards detaches us from the implications affecting humanity as well. It’s been a long, arduous climb when we think of previous actions against climate change. A great writer of the 20th Century, Rachel Carson, in Silent Spring, helped spread the knowledge of Climate change and how it could affect the future of humankind to the larger population. It took over 50 years to free her information to the public because of blocks from oil corporations. These organizations spread smear campaigns across the nation in an attempt to discredit her research. 

Climate change disasters are seen in the article Environmental Threats to our Security. This article draws attention to how Climate change is affecting Guatemala. The majority of immigrants to the United States have been from Guatemala. Drought and lack of resources have led to mass migration of those leaving towards the equator to the north. As Northern Hemisphere nations slow and curb the expulsion of pollutants into the air, It has allowed the rest of the Southern Hemisphere to catch up as its “only fair” industrialization has pumped out pollution on a massive scale, and our attempts to curve it has led us to a dilemma. The polluter’s dilemma illustrates the problem that Western nations face when discussing what to do about climate change. Essentially, these nations want to avoid taking the fall to reduce these emissions. Reducing these emissions, though preventing a larger good, would extensively disperse those living inside the country. The amount of pollution is also not equally distributed, and if another country feigns following an agreement to reduce emissions, it will put itself ahead of those countries. The dilemma is that the countries producing fewer emissions don’t trust that the countries producing more significant emissions will also stop, thus creating the paradox.

As we discuss solutions, waves of immigrants are fleeing their highlands for a more fantastic future. Most migrants are exclusively adults older than 50 and children younger than 16. These families have nowhere else to turn to, and if sent back, will return. There is nothing to return to. These immigrants reach the U.S. to escape this loop. However, the limits of the United States are being tested as the U.S. still sends billions of dollars across the seas. Its own infrastructure is crumbling from within.