Sorry About the Delay
I know it has been a while since I posted a “meaningful” post, but let me assure you that my lack of posting is due to a certain laziness usually associated with the summer months. To think that my last few months have been full of anything considered as lazy is quite laughable actually. In the last 6 weeks I completed 7 of my 19 credits this summer and am one week away from completing another 4. Accounting 211 and Art 003 are now both in my past and an update to the class descriptions page is forthcoming. Arab 001 is one week from completion, with Arab 002 immediately following and Stat 200 that began last week. This along with research and my work-study job have left me at a wanting for more time. Nonetheless, here are the meaningful updates.
SRA Resources
This, ever-evolving, idea has taken its final course of action I believe. It will no longer be hosting using WordPress, so the one person that checks it everyday will need a new bookmark. It will be integrated with the new SRA Club website that is currently being developed. I am sort of outside that loop, so I’ll have you check Digital Frontier for those updates.
Arabic
Yes, I am taking intensive Arabic this summer. Yes, it meets from 8am-noon 5 days a week with another 3 hours of homework each night. Yes, it consumes my life. All of that aside…it is fantastically interesting to learn a language with a completely new alphabet sprung from a totally different culture that has been around for centuries more than English. However, this adventure is equally difficult. The dedication to this intensive version of the course was unexpected to me, and I think my Accounting grade has proven that. Moving forward, I am very excited about learning the language even more because of the benefits it holds in the future.
International Politics — National Security Concentration
Pending a meeting with an International Politics adviser later in July, I am looking to do concurrent majors in SRA – Intelligence Analysis and Modeling Option and Int’l Politics – National Security Concentration. Without adding an extra fall semester to my career (because of my crazy summer I am enduring) I will be able to complete these two Majors with a possible Minor in Arabic. An Arabic minor is not in place yet, but the department head is my professor this summer and he assured us that one will exist before I graduate. All of this been said, check the Who Am I page for a serious update coming shortly after Arts Fest.
Counter-Terrorism Panel
I haven yet to get a hold of the people at Thomas building to reserve the room for this October 2nd event. This annoys the hell out of me. I think that the people I am looking for will be there now that Summer 2 has started, but I wanted to have the room reserved a month ago. Getting passed that, I am mulling through some questions to be posed at the event, drawing from lectures I’ve heard either in person or via the web. I hope all of you guys can make it out. Check this post for more details.
Quit while I’m ahead
Thats all for now guys. Thanks for continuing to check in to the site occasionally for updates! Be reassured that I am working on a full article-esk posts to spice up the dullness that the summer has created in this blog. Keep getting me hits and I promise to keep you coming back.
-Russ
Constructive Sovereignty
Constructive Sovereignty is an emerging theory pioneered by John Maszka intended to address globalization’s increasing onslaught against state sovereignty. The theory maintains that states are not the primary actors, their constituents are. Therefore, their preferences are not fixed. Since states merely represent the preferences of their constituents, they will only adhere to and ultimately embed those international norms that their respective constituencies will accept. Rather than push for larger and more powerful international organizations that will impose global norms from the outside in, the theory of Constructive Sovereignty posits that ultimately change must come from the inside out. That is to say, from each state’s own constituency. As each state’s constituents become more and more international, they will become more receptive to international norms and they will voice their acceptance of these norms both politically and (especially) as consumers.
It is therefore a central pillar of the theory that privatization is not only the driving force behind globalization, but also that private enterprise possesses the incentive to implement those international norms reflected in the preferences of consumers (profit). Private enterprise is also the primary consumer of proprietary data used to measure the preferences of consumers, and as such remains the most up-to-date source of changing consumer preferences. As private enterprise meets the increasingly international demands of consumers, it will itself become more international in scope. The cycle is self-perpetuating. In this way international norms are embedded and viewed with legitimacy by each state’s constituency, while state sovereignty is maintained and respected.
The theory of Constructive Sovereignty ties in nicely with Maszka’s model for combating terrororism. Maszka asserts that terrorism, regardless of its causes, is ultimately only possible with sufficient popular support. Consequently, only once we find a way to eliminate popular support for terrorism will we be able to eliminate terrorism itself. While some minimal definition is necessary to identify terrorism in a uniform manner, knowing what causes terrorism and collecting data on individual acts of terrorism is not as important as knowing how to stop it. When putting out a fire, while it is important to know what type of fire it is before attempting to put it out (e.g. applying water to an oil fire will have the same effect as using a flame thrower), firefighters understand that the key to putting out any fire is to remove its source of oxygen. This knowledge affords them a standard plan of action that varies only in detail (what kind of fire is it, and what is needed to remove the source of oxygen). Likewise, terrorism depends on popular support to sustain itself. Without popular support, the majority of funding, recruits and overall acceptance will disappear. Therefore, similar to putting out a fire, the primary goal for eliminating terrorism is to eliminate the sources of popular support. Measuring popular support for terrorism also affords us a method of measuring and predicting 1) the potential for terrorism in any given society, 2) the direction that acts of terrorism tend to be moving in (e.g. westward, eastward, or remaining static), and 3) broad trends in the support for terrorism, such as whether popular support is increasing among moderates, Westerners, etc…
^—–???
I don’t have the slightest clue.