| COURSE OUTLINE: |
Discussion
Topics and Readings
Topic I: Visions of the ‘future of world politics’ – Mapping the
terrain
- *Fukuyama,
Francis, “The End of History?” The
National Interest, Summer 1989; essay available at/
accessed Dec. 17, 2013, at: http://www.wesjones.com/eoh.htm. [also at:
http://ps321.community.uaf.edu/files/2012/10/Fukuyama-End-of-history-article.pdf]
- *Kaplan,
Robert, “The Coming Anarchy: How scarcity, crime, overpopulation,
tribalism, and disease are rapidly destroying the social fabric of the
planet,” The Atlantic
Monthly, Vol. 273, no 2, (Feb. 1994), 44-76.
Accessed Jan. 6, 2014 at
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1994/02/the-coming-anarchy/304670/?single_page=true
- *Huntington,
Samuel, “The Clash of Civilizations? Foreign Affairs 72
(Summer 1993), 22-49. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014 at
http://www.polsci.wvu.edu/faculty/hauser/PS103/Readings/HuntingtonClashOfCivilizationsForAffSummer93.pdf
- *Barber,
Benjamin, "Jihad vs McWorld" in Charlton and Riddel-Dixon, eds. International Relations in the
Post-Cold War Era. Scarborough, Ont.: Nelson,
1993. [March 1992] accessed Dec. 17, 2013 at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1992/03/jihad-vs-mcworld/303882/.
- “Four
Who Changed the System from Within,” 'Strange Rebels' club of 1979:
Deng Xiaoping, Ayatollah Khomeini, Pope John Paul II, Margaret
Thatcher. By Crawford Kilian, Today, TheTyee.ca,
accessed Jan. 6, 2014 at
http://thetyee.ca/Books/2014/01/06/Four-System-Changers/?utm_source=mondayheadlines&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=060114
Topic
II: Religion and global politics
- *Monica
Duffy Toft, Daniel Philpott, Timothy Samuel Shah, God's Century: Resurgent
Religion and Global Politics, W. W. Norton &
Company, 2011 (288 pages).
- FYI:
Jenkins, Philip, “The Next Christendom,” The Atlantic Monthly,
October 2002, Volume 290, No. 3. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014 at
http://www.theatlantic.com/past/issues/2002/10/jenkins.htm
- FYI:
Andrea Paras , “ CIDA’s secular fiction and Canadian faith-based
organisations,” Canadian
Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 33, No. 2, June 2012,
231–249.
- FYI:
Rick James, “Handle With Care: Engaging with faith-based organisations
in development,” Development
in Practice, available online at:
http://www.informaworld.com/DIP, n/d.
Topic
III: United States, Empire and the World
- *“Why
We Fight,” a documentary video, by Eugene Jarecki, 2005.
(1:39/ BBC), accessed Jan. 6, 2014 at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO7-GBRx1xM [no sound track on web??]
- *James
W. Skillen, “With or Against the World?” Public Justice Report,
First Quarter, 2005, Vol. 28, No. 1, based on excerpts from a New Book
by Jim Skillen, available at
http://www.cpjustice.org/files/withoragainst.pdf. (5 pp.)
- *Abraham
Lowenthal, “The United States in the early 21 st Century:
Decline or Renewal?” (8 pp), accessed Dec. 15, 2014, at
http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-10-29-the-united-states-in-the-early-21st-century-decline-or-renewal/
- *James
W. Skillen, “What Role Among the Nations?” Public Justice Report,
Second Quarter 2005, Vol. 28, No. 2, based on excerpts from a New Book
by Jim Skillen, available at
http://www.cpjustice.org/files/whatrole.pdf (7 pp.)
- *
Jeremy Scahill, (epilogue) “Perpetual War: How Does the Global War on
Terror Ever End?” from Dirty
Wars: The World Is a Battlefield, Nation Books,
2013. Epilogue available at
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/10/29-2.
- FYI:
Bernard Weisberger, “Taking Exception to Exceptionalism,” September 18,
2013, published by Moyers & Company, accessed Dec. 15, 2013, at
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/18-6.
- FYI:
Jonathan Chaplin, “Staring Power in the Face: Time for a Global Debate
on US power.”
- FYI:
USA coups abroad
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/08/19/map_7_confirmed_cia_backed_coups#sthash.76dzdZoc.dpbs
Topic
IV: Economics, Globalization and Poverty
- *
Niall Ferguson, The
Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World, video
(2 hrs).
- *
“Four Horsemen,” Feature Documentary - Official Version – YouTube,
(1:38 min), by RenegadeEconomist, Sept. 13, 2013, accessed December 31,
2013, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fbvquHSPJU. [or
http://gold-wars.com/blog/%e2%96%b6-four-horsemen-feature-documentary-official-version-youtube/]
- FYI:
Niall Ferguson, The
Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World. The
Penguin Press, 2008, pp. 340.
- FYI:
“The Not-So-Great Professor: Jeffrey Sachs' Incredible Failure to
Eradicate Poverty in Africa,”
http://www.psmag.com/culture/smart-guy-jeffrey-sachs-nina-munk-idealist-poverty-failure-africa-65348/
- FYI:
Thomas Friedman, The
Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization,
1999.
Topic
V: Ecology and the future of world politics
- *
Draft essay by Hiemstra, “The ecological Question”
- *
“Life Beyond Growth: Alternatives and Complements to GDP-Measured
Growth as a Framing Concept for Social Progress.” Annual Survey Report
of the Institute for Studies in Happiness, Economy, and Society — ISHES
(Tokyo, Japan), 2012, accessed Jan. 6, 2014 at
http://www.isisacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/LifeBeyondGrowth.pdf (68
pp).
- *
Andrew Nikiforuk, short excerpts from: The Energy of Slaves: Oil and
the New Servitude, 2012, Greystone Books, 282 pages, (pp.
282).
Case Study: Middle East - Israel and the Palestinians
- *
Christopher Catherwood, A
Brief History of The Middle East: Constable and Robinson,
2006 Paperback, (320 pp), do chapters 9-10, possibly 11, pp. 189-263
(70 pp). [Seems to be available at
http://books.google.ca/books?id=oJDziK-4fkMC&pg=PA196&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false]
- FYI:
“Qumsiyeh: A Human Rights Web,” [accessed Jan. 6, 2014, at
http://qumsiyeh.org/] and Blog by Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh,
who teaches and does research at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities in
occupied Palestine. Accessed Jan. 6, 2014, at
http://popular-resistance.blogspot.ca/
Case
Study: Omar Khadr: War, terror, religion, & human rights
- *
Arlette Zinck, Love
Knows No Bounds, Camrose, Alberta: The Chester Ronning
Centre for the Study of Religion and Public Life, 2013, (30 pp).
- *
Dr. Stephen Xenekis, speech:
http://freeomarakhadr.com/2013/11/14/talk-sam-morison-omar-khadr-did-not-commit-a-war-crime/
- The
Law" with Attorney Samuel Morison, US Department of Defense, can be
found on YouTube. Sam Morison, the lawyer for Omar Khadr, outlined the
US appeal that seeks to overturn Khadr's conviction. He explains fully
the argument that Khadr committed no war crimes. I attended that
lecture and was disturbed by his question as to why Canadians would
find it acceptable for one of their citizens to
- be
tried by a Military Commission when that would be unacceptable and
illegal in the US. Of course, the only possible response is that Harper
decides which citizens have the protection and rights flowing from our
laws and even when the Supreme Court of Canada advised his government
to bring Khadr home he refused. If it can happen to Khadr it can happen
to anyone.
- FYI:
Stephen Xenakis, U.S. Brigadier General (ret), speaks about meeting and
getting to know Omar Khadr (45 min.) available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UXg8Nvh060 This lecture was given last
week at the University of Alberta. It is uniquely credible because of
Xenakis' background as a senior US military officer combined with the
hundreds of hours he has spent with Omar Khadr. When Dr. Xenakis
recounts his first meeting with Omar and states "I expected to meet a
terrorist... I walk in and here is absolutely one of the gentlest, most
decent men I have ever met in my life," this has to challenge those
inclined to accept the "heinous crimes" rhetoric we are fed by the
Canadian federal government when it comes to Omar Khadr. Xenakis
continues: "It's been a relationship now for close to five years... and
there hasn't been an instant - not an instant - when I have felt that
this man has been other than what he presents himself to be."
- FYI:
Andy Worthington, “Omar Khadr Condemns His Guantánamo Plea Deal, As
Canada Concedes He Is Not a “Maximum-Security Threat,” at
http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2013/12/18/omar-khadr-condemns-his-guantanamo-plea-deal-as-canada-concedes-he-is-not-a-maximum-security-threat/.
In general, see www.andyworthington.co.uk/
- FYI:
Paul Kortenhoven, “Can Violence Ever Lead to Peace?” (2 pp), retrieved
March 17, 2008 from http://www.crcna.org/pages/osj_pkadvocate.cfm, the
Office of Social Justice and Hunger Action (OSJHA) of the Christian
Reformed Church in North America.
- FYI:
“Unthinkable,” (DVD) 2010, Hollywood exploration of the use of torture
on terrorism, (97 min.) [Got].
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