Group 1 Global Security Studies

            The situation surrounding the acquisition and trade of Burmese rubies directly mirrors the situation in Sierra Leone during the 1990s. During the early to mid 2000s, news of the human rights abuses in Burma surrounding the trade of rubies and jadeite peaked when in 2008 the Bush administration signed the Tom Lantos Block Burmese JADE (Junta’s Anti-Democratic Efforts) Act (Human Rights Watch). For decades, the precious and rare varieties of rubies were flowing out of Burma, making the government wealthy, but the average citizens were suffering. Burmese rubies were not as sensationalized as the Blood Diamonds that were coming out from the mines of Sierra Leone; but the people in Burma were fairing no better than their counterparts on the west coast of Africa. The Burmese government was controlled by a military junta termed the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), who were notorious for their “abysmal human right...

The differences between what government officials and people from afar think about the problems of the rising sea levels in Tuvalu versus the attitudes of Tuvaluan people highlight a major problem in how countries go about aiding others. There is a big difference between what external countries think is best for a country facing a crisis, and what the people of that country actually need to be helped. Talking to the civilians of a country and gathering first hand knowledge of the attitudes of those civilians should be the first step taken when trying to give aid and support to that country. The citizens of Tuvalu are facing a national crisis: given the trend in rising sea levels and the fact that Tuvalu is mostly only 2 meters above sea level, it is predicted that in the next few years or decades, most of the country will be under water. The problems facing Tuvalu have started to garner international attention. The Pacific Islands, and Tuvalu and particular, have become widely unde...

When thinking about North Korea many questions can be asked about its population and even its leaders but a major question that has yet to be fully understood is how does a regime control the whole country? The problem within the country is that the government has everything and the people get the scraps that the higher up people decide worthy to be thrown their way. This can be easily seen with the only electrical output that you can see from pictures from space is the capital of Pyongyang and everywhere else it is black with little spots here and there throughout the country. The whole country being in a state of an electrical blackout can be okay if the country itself is not doing that well in aspects of their economy and their own natural resources but this is coming from a country that is attempting to create nuclear weapons and clearly has the money to invest into this and continue their trade with China so the argument that North Korea has no choice but to let its people suffer...

The supportive relationship China has with its neighboring country North Korea dates back to the Korean War. China’s political approach to supporting North Korea arose from the mindset of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ During the Korean War, China fought in support of Communist North Korea in retaliation of the United States interfering in South Korea. While the US and China have an unspoken pact to try and keep peace, it is quite clear that the two super powers disagree far more than they agree. Ultimately, China supports North Korea merely because they do not want to suffer from the instability it might cause if the state were to collapse under its current regime. While the human and individual security in North Korea is at risk from all the humanitarian injustice it’s people are enduring, the national security of the state has been far more constant with this regime. The insecurity of its people is only one cost of maintaining stability of the nation. To the North Korean g...

       In the 1990s, at the end of the Cold War when tensions in eastern Europe were easing and western Europe and the United States were enjoying a period of relative peace, the notion of ethnic cleansing or conflict of cultures was not prominent in the international community. After World War II, the international community set forth policies and law to ensure a genocide or unification of a single race would never plague any nation and that global diversity was a positive implication. However, the fall of the Soviet Union and the ending of the Cold War appeared to usher in a period of progressive ideas to promote stability in eastern Europe; however, ironically, the sudden independence of the former Soviet-controlled Balkan States led to a rise in nationalistic pride where religion was used as justification for war and ethnic cleansing.  The reunification of Germany and the fall of the Berlin Wall, both symbols of the fallout after World War I...