Short notes Debates over R2P generally come from two camps, I feel like. The jockeys and the naysayers. The debate seems to be over sovereignty and who the ultimate arbiter of sovereign status ought to be. The jockeys say the international community, the naysayers say the state. Both are problematic in different ways.
Just some short notes for myself. Globalization as a process seeks to create an interdependent community of countries/supplier-producers/communities/etc. This sounds like a good thing (and it is for productivity and output), but there it also increases risk. What happens as people offload production and specialize is they take on risk. Whether that risk is the loss of general knowledge, the risk of depending on a volatile market, or the risk of dependency, what globalization does is two fold.
- Empire
- Humanitarian Negotiations Revealed
- The Sources of Self
On Cambodia, Social Transformation, and Democratization
[Ed. This paper was submitted as a case study on the use of transitional justice in Cambodia. The paper took a look at how the mechanism in Cambodia was implemented, its problems, and impacts on society.]
The case of transitional justice in Cambodia is one that presents a rich opportunity for study and interrogation. Cambodia has engaged in a process of transitional justice that has been unsatisfactory on measures of both micro and macro reconciliation. This paper will examine the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (EC) with an eye towards explaining why the Cambodian mechanism of transitional justice remains incomplete, and further, this paper will argue that there is hope that reconciliation can be attained through alternative means of transitional justice that remain unexplored at the level of political elites.An exploration of land reform & understandings of development
[Ed. Submitted for a course on international development] The relationship between land reform and development has been a story of constantly increasing complexity. Through the cases of Brazil, Kerala, and Zimbabwe, issues of land reform and development will be critically examined and it will become evident that the historical relationship between land reform and development—that is, capitalist development—is situated in the wider process of modernization. Historically, the relationship between land reform and development has been one of linear progression, and it continues to be the case. The case studies all show, in one way or another, the persuasiveness of the linear relationship between land reform and development.Today, I was on the TTC, at a transfer station and I saw something that made me wonder about how power in relationships work. It provoked in me a reflection on how power is structured, gendered, and seen in society. It was pretty mundane (from some points of view?) but it struck me as... well... violent.
Tonight, I reprised a vodka sauce penne recipe (graciously shared by Chef John over here) that I picked up a while ago. Needless to say, sometimes I forget how easy cooking delicious food is. This recipe turns out fantastic every time. I think, though, that may have something to do with my using way more bacon than he does.
I’ve recently started wearing wool socks. Best. Thing. Ever.
By all accounts, our adventure in Syria is succeeding. The regime is under heavy pressure from the UNGA to stop what it is doing, economic sanctions (our coercive intervention) seem to be playing a part in wrecking havoc, putting much pressure on the Syrian government to stop. However, I have a really big problem with what we are doing. For all the stock I put into the principle of R2P, what we are doing in Syria seems to me to be, in some regards, very irresponsible. On the one hand, people are being slaughtered by their government.
Democracy is concerned with the public. The spatial concept of public space applies to all sorts of things: parks, roads, rights, discourse and voice.
Capitalism is concerned with the private. Ownership, property define the pillars of capitalism.
How then does one manage the tension between these two seeming polar forces?
