Monday, January 27, 2020

The United States Relations With Pakistan And India Politics Essay

The United States Relations With Pakistan And India Politics Essay Realism has made the United States building its policies toward South Asia. Since the end of Cold War, the United States and India actively improving relations with each other, meanwhile the importance of Pakistan and the United States declined. Since the Kashmir incidence between India and Pakistan, both countries remain in tension and conflict. When the United States administrations decided to focus its partnership toward India, it resulted on the growing distance relationship between the United States with Pakistan, but the September 11 attacks suddenly restored Pakistan strategic importance to Washington. With the new strategies, the United States has to balance its policies toward India and Pakistan. ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK Realism has been the dominant theory of foreign affairs since the concept of international relations theory.  [1]  The universal goals of realism are security and power, with the key concept of power and interest. Realism assumes that its key concept of interest defined as power is an objective category which is universally valid, but it does not endow that concept with a meaning that is fixed once and for all. The idea of interest is indeed of the essence of politics and is unaffected by the circumstances of time and place.  [2]   The United States realists would focus on strengthening security ties in Asia and work to establish clearer threshold with the growing power Chinas leadership. The United States administration has moved in this direction, as represented by the strategic partnership with India and the recent pivot to Asia.  [3]  Realists stated that there is no eternal friend or eternal enemy, only eternal national interest. The U.S. eternal interest is to preclude a hostile power from dominating Europe or Asia. In order to maintain that interest the United States built a global alliance system to contain the Soviet Union during the Cold War era, and wanted India, the dominant state in South Asia to join it.  [4]   THE UNITED STATES RELATIONS WITH PAKISTAN AND INDIA In a security alliance since 2004 and strategic partners since 2006, the United States and Pakistan for decades experienced major shifts in the nature and tone of their relations. In the post-9/11 period, assisting in the creation of a more stable, democratic, and prosperous Pakistan actively combating religious militancy has been among the most important U.S. foreign policy efforts. Vital U.S. interests are seen to be at stake in its engagement with Pakistan related to regional and global terrorism; efforts to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan; nuclear weapons proliferation; links between Pakistan and indigenous American terrorism; Pakistan-India tensions and conflict; democratization and human rights protection; and economic development. As a haven for numerous terrorist groups, and as the worlds most rapid proliferator of nuclear weapons, Pakistan presents a combination that places it at the top of many governments international security agendas.  [5]   India, the regions dominant actor with more than one billion citizens, is often characterized as a major power and partner of the United States and counterbalance for Chinas growing power. Washington and New Delhi have since 2004 been pursuing a strategic partnership based on shared values such as democracy, pluralism, and rule of law. Numerous economic, security, and global initiatives, including plans for full civilian nuclear energy cooperation is underway. This latter initiative, launched by President Bush in July 2005 and provisionally endorsed by the 109th Congress in 2006 (P.L. 109-401, the Hyde Act), would reverse three decades of U.S. nonproliferation policy. It requires, among other steps, a Joint Resolution of Approval by Congress. Also in 2005, the United States and India signed a ten-year defense framework agreement that calls for expanding bilateral security cooperation. Since 2002, the two countries have engaged in numerous combined military exercises. Major U.S. arms sales to India are planned.  [6]   Further U.S. interest in South Asia focuses on ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan rooted in unfinished business from the 1947 Partition, competing claims to the Kashmir region, and, in more recent years, cross-border terrorism in both Kashmir and major Indian cities. In the interests of regional stability, the United States strongly encourages an ongoing India-Pakistan peace initiative and remains concerned about the potential for conflict over Kashmir sovereignty to cause open hostilities between these two nuclear-armed countries. Both India and Pakistan have resisted external pressure to sign the major nonproliferation nuclear weapon treaties. In 1998, the two countries conducted nuclear tests that evoked international condemnation. Proliferation-related restrictions on U.S. aid were triggered, and then later lifted through congressional-executive cooperation from 1998 to 2000. Remaining sanctions on India and Pakistan were removed in late 2001.  [7]   THE UNITED STATES POLICIES TOWARD PAKISTAN Most of the United States policies in Pakistan emphasize a security-oriented approach that could risk derailing trends by eliciting even stronger anti-American nationalism among the Pakistani people.  [8]  The policies are as follows: Pressure counterterrorism on Pakistan. In May 2012, The Security of State Clinton requested more Pakistan efforts to clear its territory of terrorist sanctuaries. U.S. officials remained acutely concerned about the apparent impunity with which Pakistan-based extremist and militant groups are able to act.  [9]   Weaken U.S. Pakistan relationship to strengthen U.S. India relationship. This issue made Pakistan more reliant on its partnership with China, also in response to this issue, Pakistan actively improved its nuclear weapons. Leahy amendment provisions by withholding train and equip funding for several Pakistani army units.  [10]   According to the U.S. Department of State, the overall human rights situation in Pakistan remains poor, and that lack of government accountability remains a pervasive problem; abuses often go unpunished, fostering a culture of impunity.  [11]   Foreign assistance and coalition support reimbursement.  [12]   Pakistan is among the leading recipients of U.S. aid in the post-9/11 period, having been appropriated about $24 billion in assistance and military reimbursements since 2001. By the end of 2011, the U.S. Congress had appropriated more than $8.3 billion in development and humanitarian aid, and nearly $7 billion for security-related programs over ten years.  [13]   THE UNITED STATES POLICIES TOWARD INDIA The United States experienced challenges in maintaining its relations with India to manage disagreements on five potentially divisive strategic issues: Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy, China policy, arms control, climate change, and high-technology cooperation. The Obamas administration policies adopted to solve the issues listed as follows: Deploy 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan should reassure those Indians who view the fight there as a test of U.S. staying power in South Asia.  [14]   Devote increasing time and energy to cultivate the U.S.-Chinese relationship. Indians are asking whether Washington envisions a role for India in maintaining a balance of power in Asia, or whether the Obama administration views India as tangential to U.S. priorities there.  [15]   Renew U.S. efforts to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). If China wants to do so, too, India will be pressured to follow suit, even it is unlikely.  [16]   India is the worlds fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Both Washington and New Delhi support investment in green technologies, but internationally mandated and monitored emissions reductions are political problem in India, where they are often seen as a drag on growth and an affront to Indian sovereignty.  [17]   The United States emphasis on national security export controls and intellectual property protection has excessively restricted licenses and transfers.  [18]   India remained on the U.S. Special 301 Priority Watch List in 2011 for failing to provide an adequate level of IPR protection or enforcement, or market access for persons relying on intellectual property protection.  [19]  Moreover, since 1998, a number of Indian entities have been subjected to case-by-case licensing requirements and appear on the U.S. export control Entity List of foreign end users involved in weapons proliferation activities.  [20]   RECOMMENDATION The U.S. military aid has done little to stem Islamist militancy in Pakistan and may even hinder that countrys economic and political development. For that reason, Indonesia should voice its disagreement to this policy. The United States policy should have been targeting effective nonmilitary aid, perhaps especially that which would strengthen Pakistans civil society such as nonproliferation, governance, economic growth, and also support Pakistan initiatives that could promote its regional stability. The United States and India share important interests: both seek to restore global growth, protect the global commons, enhance global energy security, and ensure a balance of power in Asia. Indonesia administration could recommend enhancing the level of transparency in their relationship. Closer cooperation such as on counterterrorism would mean closer coordination on developments regarding Pakistan as well. They must therefore increase the scope, quality, and intensity of their cooperation at every level. Some of other United States policies in the South Asia are based on Washington strategic interest, but if Obamas policies able to ease the tension between India and Pakistan; Indonesia administration might support them, having acknowledge that the war can lead to nuclear war. CONCLUSION History shows that the relations between The United States with India and Pakistan have been based strictly on military and economic support.  [21]  Strategic interest has been the most important factor for U.S. policy toward South Asia. The policy has been a part of a U.S strategy to prevent external power from dominating Asia. From the U.S. perspective, the Soviet Union was that power in the Cold War era, and China emerges as the most likely candidate for the power in the post-Cold War era. The United States failed to change India and Pakistan nuclear policy and decided to lift part of the sanctions. President George Bush administration at first treated India as a focus of relations in South Asia, but the September 11th attacks restored Pakistans importance to the United States. In order to win the support of India and Pakistan for anti-terrorism, the United States lifted all the sanctions against them, provided Pakistan with loans and strengthened military cooperation with Pakistan. Due to terrorist actions in India, tensions between India and Pakistan repeatedly flared up. The United States had to step in, to evade the escalations that might become war, or even more nuclear war. But the United States is unable to help solve the Kashmir dispute. As long as the United States still see China as the threat to its global power, they will treat India as its partner in South Asia. As long as the anti-terrorist campaign continues and the Afghanistans conditions established, the United States will need Pakistans cooperation; hence the United States will try to maintain its current policies toward India and Pakistan.

Sunday, January 19, 2020

John Locke: Human Understanding Essay -- philosophy, knowledge

When considering knowledge, Locke is interested in the ability for us to know something, the capacity of gathering and using information and understanding the limits of what we know. He believes this also leads him to realise what we perhaps, cannot know. [1] He wants to find out about the origin of our ideas. His main stand-point is that we don’t have innate ideas and he aims to get rid of the sceptical doubt about what we know. The innate ideas which Locke sets out to argue against are those which â€Å"the soul receives in its very first being, and brings into the world with it†. [2] â€Å"Let us suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters†. [3] This quote depicts the idea of the â€Å"Tabula Rasa†, that at birth are minds are completely empty like that of a blank slate and it is our experiences which draw on the blank slate, in order to form thoughts and ideas. He has two types of argument against innate ideas; direct and indirect. The indirect argument can be seen as the more positive of the two, and the idea of it is that we are able to explain all knowledge we have without innate ideas but from other sources. The direct argument is the more negative view, and focuses on the problem of universal assent which Locke believes to be an insufficient idea and also necessary and absent. He expands from this by saying that modified universal assent is too inclusive and depends on the order of discovery. So really he is saying that the argument for innate principles doesn’t work, especially with regard to universal assent. He believes that if universal assent existed, it could be explained in other ways and therefore is not innate. However, Locke doesn’t believe that universal assented principles can exist at all and thi... ...t innate epistemic principles – revised December 1996 3. Reading: Ariew & Watkins 270-290 (Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Book I Chapters I and II, Book II Chapters I - VIII) 4. https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/lockeessay/section3.rhtml 5. https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/lockeessay/section4.rhtml 6. https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/lockeessay/section4.rhtml 7. https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/lockeessay/section3.rhtml 8. https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/lockeessay/section6.rhtml 9. Reading: Ariew & Watkins 270-290 (Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Book I Chapters I and II, Book II Chapters I - VIII) 10. http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/lockeessay/quotes.html 11. https://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/lockeessay/section1.rhtml 12. http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/lockeessay/terms.html

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Analysis on Things Fall Apart

Antonio Church March 21, 2013 Things Fall Apart Analysis The purpose of this paper is to provide the audience with my analysis of Chinua Achebe’s â€Å"Things Fall Apart. † I am going to start off by explaining the setting of the book. I feel that these types of facts are important to the story in making it readable to the audience. If you understand where and when the story is taking place, you will get a good understanding of what the story is actually symbolizing. Once I finish that, I am going to discuss some of the key characters in the book along with some of the problems they faced.After that, I plan to fully analyze Chinua Achebe’s book that includes key themes, maybe some important symbols that make you dig deeper into the point of the book itself. This also includes the decisions of the main character that lead to rising action and/or falling action in the book. This is pretty much the meaning behind the book and helps the reader understand what the aut hor wanted us, as readers, to know as far as the main point of writing about the subject he or she chose. Then I am going to end it off with an ending statement of what I actually thought about the book summarizing what was talked about previously.Chinua Achebe’s, â€Å"Things Fall Apart†, take place in the lower villages of Nigeria, Africa. Further reading states these could possibly be the villages of Mbanta, Iguedo, and Umuofia (where it is most of the time) in the time period of the 1890s. The setting shows that the story could be about an African successor of some sort before even starting to read. The setting also sets the narrator’s tone for the story. It seems, by reading on, that the narrator is or was possibly a native of the villages by the way he talked and discussed 1 the actions of the characters.The narrator’s tone also show signs of sympathy for the characters which makes the reader believe he was once or still is a native of the village. Now I am going to discuss some of the key characters of the story and their significance in the story. After reading a couple chapters of the book, the reader can catch on to who the protagonist (main character) could be. I believe the main character is Okonkwo, a native of the village Iguedo. It was said that Okonkwo was a great warrior and he proved those words were correct by defeating the once undefeated Amalinze the Cat in a wrestling match.The Cat was undefeated for seven years before going down to Okonkwo. Okonkwo was trying everything he could not to be anything like his deceased father, Unoka. I remind you that Okonkwo was considered a warrior in his village because his father was the exact opposite. In the reading, the narrator states that Unoka didn’t like blood or the sight of blood so there was no warrior type qualities in him. Okonkwo prided on being active and being what he calls, â€Å"manly. † He always wanted to prove that laziness got you nowhere and he really despised lazy men because his father was nothing but a lazy man.His father would always borrow money and eventually lose any money he had. As a kid, Okonkwo remembered his father being unable to feed his family because he was so lazy and made them starve of hunger. So Okonkwo set the standards of a man to be everything his father wasn’t rejecting anything his father stood for. Okonkwo was married three times to three different wives and with that brought many children. While trying not to be like his father, Okonkwo eventually started having a hard time adjusting to the lifestyle he had. He started having trouble being a father and remaining relevant in the village he resided.As he started to realize that he cannot keep up, the reader was left wondering if he’d ever get it together. 2 The major conflict in this story has something to do with change. A change in tradition causes Okonkwo to become more irrelevant and his decision-making is weighed heavily to b e negative. The renovations in tradition of Umuofia, brought about by the whites, were eventually followed by most of the villagers that caused the tradition of the village to take a sudden change; a change that Okonkwo could not keep up with.The theme for this conflict could possibly be the struggle between tradition and change. I think this theme fits because it describes that there was a change from traditional (original) to something new, which would be tough for anyone at any time. Another conflict would be the obvious of Okonkwo trying not to be anything like his father. I don’t blame him by the way he described his father. No strong willed man wants to be a lazy, weak individual who can’t provide for his family. Every man wants to be strong, stand on his own two feet and succeed both financial and physically.Things take a abruptly negative turn when Okonkwo is eventually exiled for unintentionally killing a member of the clan. To my understanding, Okonkwo believ ed that it was a court messenger. Okonkwo then starts to feel weak because of this. He starts to think he has no power, no respect, or support from the fellow villagers. Of course, when your own all take a stand to turn against you, one will feel betrayed and ashamed. This led to Okonkwo believing that not only he has become weak, but his clan has become weak as well.So what does he do? He separates himself from the trouble; the anguish of depression and the thought of becoming anything like his father was something he simply could not take. So like any coward that cannot take the pressure of becoming a failure, he commits suicide by hanging himself. For someone who doesn’t want to be a disgrace, failure, and weak individual, he sure went out like one. 3 This was a good book to me. I believe that it had much significance to the Nigerian villages in which were discussed in the book.The author wanted us to know about Okonkwo and his struggle to accept change in a traditional en vironment. He wanted us to see how failure could eventually lead to depression and downfall. I feel that the author was trying to tell us that Okonkwo ended up trying not to be anything like his father but, in some cases, ended up to be just like him. By reading, I can say I feel that Okonkwo went out like a coward because anyone who commits suicide is nowhere near a strong willed â€Å"manly† man. His whole life, Okonkwo was trying to set an example for his deceased father by being everything he couldn’t be.This eventually led to his downfall because he was so strung on being this dominant individual; he lost sight of what was really going on, which was change. Change was the main reason life was eventually hard for him. But overall, I believe the book to be a great read. In conclusion, â€Å"Things Fall Apart,† by Chinua Achebe was a book about nothing less than a traditional man struggling to change. The setting was said to be in about the 1890s in the villag es in Nigeria. One village in particular, Umuofia was where most of the story took place.I’ve explained to you that Okonkwo was a native of Iguedo and was this great warrior of the Umuofia clan. His father, Unoka, was considered a weak, poor, and cowardly man. Okonkwo set out in his life to be everything his father couldn’t be. He later became a victim of change and found himself becoming weak and unable to provide just like his father. Unable to deal with the agony of becoming any split image of his father and realizing his clan was becoming weak, he decided to hang himself and commit suicide. The perfect story of how success plus anger and violence brings a strong willed man to become weak. 4

Friday, January 3, 2020

Philosophy Exercises Reasoning And Logic - 1965 Words

Philosophy exercises reasoning and logic in an attempt to understand the reality and answer fundamental questions concerning knowledge, morality, life and human nature. The ancient Greeks studied and practiced it, coining the term that meant the ‘love of wisdom’. Philosophers tend to answer the question of what is the meaning of life, how and why we know what we know, the existence of God and the meaning of consciousness. Philosophy shapes modern existence because it unlocks the secrets of knowledge acquisition and its use. The questions regarding environmentalism, abortion, capital punishment, end-of-life-care and welfare stem from philosophical questions. The following paper looks at the work of two great philosophers while attempting†¦show more content†¦Free will is the view that refuses any notion that will is completely determined and has the claim that moral judgments are meaningless unless the will is free, and it is a choice of actions. Freedom is not o nly a possible outcome but a necessary aspect if we are to become fully functional human beings. Socrates held the view that mind and its potentiality to choose a better over a worse allows humans the free will to make free choices between bad and good things (Plato, 2003). It also allows individuals to choose good and bad behavior. Socrates himself was against hard determinism although he does admit obvious aspects such as if he did not possess working limbs, then he would not have the ability to choose between staying in prison and running away. One must not be hindered by any circumstance to enjoy fully free will. In other words, to stay still or run away. According to Huxley (2006), Liberalism was also restricted in England from where Brave New World is based which limited people s actions and their actions were strictly controlled by the World State. It is stated that parliament voted against liberty, speeches about liberty were also prohibited. The liberty to be inefficient an d miserable was also prohibited. Individuals are conditioned by society. Free will consists in there being no external impediments to an agent doing what he pleases. The liberty or the freedom is the absence