March 2012
43 posts
Drone Use in the USA
Interesting article about drone use in the United States.
-Harris
Dystopia? Are we there yet?
Remember “The Terminator”? Remember when John Connor, who has been transported to the present from the future, is describing life on future earth for Sarah Connor? The landscape is ravaged by war. Humans dodge the enemy by darting around blown up vehicles and sliding around walls, desperate to evade detection. Food and water are scarce. Life is lived day after day in the pathetic act of just...
Drone Wars and Their Mental Effect
This week’s readings about the types of wars that are currently being waged make two essential arguments about its implications. The first is that the reliance on technology, more specifically drones, makes war much less risky for a war’s initiators and thus more tempting to them and dangerous to civilians located in areas where the conflict is. The second argument...
Here to Stay?
The theme of war’s pervasiveness, in war zones and non war zones alike, represents the most prominent theme from the readings. The articles discussed the normalization of war and the tools that render war so quotidian and implicit in every day society. These tools include technology that distance attackers from targets and render the latter more abstract. Additionally, these tools include...
http://www.vice.com/vice-news/sofex-the-business-of-war-part-1
Drones: Are We Ensuring Future Enemies or...
According to “War and Peace” by Derek Gregory, two new types of war have emerged after the Cold War. The first “transforms advanced state militaries (particularly in the global North) through an emphasis on stripped-down, highly specialized forces deploying cutting-edge technology with unprecedented precision. The other is waged by non-state militias and guerrilla forces...
Law and Modern Warfare
As we move forward into a future of rapid technological advancement and military capability, it is becoming increasingly obvious that many of the defining qualities of what is considered warfare have been rendered nearly obsolete, and are being quickly replaced by a new set of characteristics that would seem alien and impossible to previous generations. Large scale hand-to-hand combat involving...
War After Warfare
In his article, Derek Gregory, presents the fact that wars go on far longer than when treaties are signed and troops are withdrawn. He uses the example of landmines, which have a long term effect on the landscape, use-ability, and safety of the residents of areas that they were allocated. Landmines serve as a constant reminder of past wars, and can be portrayed as a nation’s lasting...
War and Not War
Since the end of World War II the definition of a war has changed drastically. Wars up to this point were distinct groups of people fighting against each other in battles where peoples lives from both sides were constantly at risk, and usually there was a clear winner when one side would run out of resources or surrender. However, with the advancements of technology and weaponry,...
Global War
Behind every attack in a global war has the strategic intent to gain some type of control or power or gain recognition of a specific issue that has been glazed over. War is a political and economic scheme to exploit and penetrate borders in order to portray a sense of a threatening higher power and induce complete destruction. In order for a war to begin, there needs to be proper...
Missiles as Shields: Expanding the World Police
The United States continues to pressure for the installation of massive missile defense shields outside of its territory. One example is the scheme to form an anti-ballistic shield spanning across Romania, Poland, Turkey and Spain. This highly controversial undertaking raises concerns over United States’ self-imposed position as a permanent world police.
There are many indicators that even the...
The "Space" of War
So, my typical process for writing these blog posts goes like this: first I read the readings, I brainstorm about stuff that interests me about them, and then I go on a fishing expedition for a relevant article I can use for my argument. The article often shapes what exactly I talk about. It’s usually pretty simple, only today it went a little differently.
After reading all the stuff I was...
Technology In Wars
The growth of technology changed the tactics of wars. In World War II, bombs were unguided and could land thousands of feet away from the target. Today, heat seeking missiles and laser guided bombs can adjust their flight to hit a target with great accuracy. This article describes Israel’s utilization of this kind of technology to protect itself from Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Israel...
War and the Economy : Why The Global South May...
In War and Peace Derek Gregory discusses the two kinds of ‘New War’ which emerged after the end of the Cold War, and the three spaces of advanced military, which are the abstract space of target, the alien space of enemy, and the legal-lethal space of exception. The first kind of New War refers to the Global North who use advanced technology, participate in globalization, and...
From a View to a Kill
Derek Gregory’s, “From a View to a Kill,” is the article that I spent the most time depicting and thinking about. The title itself was extremely powerful and had a great affect on how I would initially perceive the article without even reading yet. When reading, a connection to a recent tragedy immediately came to mind.
The military has been said to pride themselves on promoting the idea that...
Obstacles to Political Stability
Climate change could be directly linked to economic development. Global economy is highly dependent on resources(such as fresh water) which are not in abundant supply. There are serious implications associated with climate change that can and has for many decades changed the conditions in which people live. Starting from the era of colonialism, there has been the powerful nations who have had...
Military Urbanism and Global War
Apropos of next week’s readings and discussions, here is a recent opinion piece by geographer Stephen Graham. We’re reading a chapter from his fantastic book Cities Under Siege for Monday.
RN
Untitled...
Resource wars are inevitable fallouts from a limited world supply of valuable commodities that are in high demand throughout the world. Le Billon discusses several different evaluations of how resource wars are started and why they are prolonged. The location of resources and the state of the local government surrounding the resources can affect the type of conflicts that will occur there. If the...
Water Wars
There is considerable debate among many academics and laypeople alike as to whether or not our planets is overpopulated to the point where we run out of the necessary resources to sustain a comfortable or at least a basic lifestyle for the whole of Earth’s population. Some experts predict that this dilemma will eventually lead to resource wars, essentially wars over things like water and oil....
Wars Over Water?
A common theme in all of these articles is resource wars. According to the article “Geographies of War: Perspectives on ‘Resource Wars,’” “the term ‘resource war’ was popularized in the 1980s as a metaphor describing renewed tensions between USA and the Soviet Union over the control of fuel and minerals in disputed ‘peripheries.’” This...
Megacities, Resource Wars, and the Future of the...
The topic of resource wars is one that can be difficult to approach, as it is rare that one country declares war on another with the sole explicit purpose of extracting some sort of natural resource. However, resource wars are in a way the most insidious of all wars, as they occur on the margins of many conflicts, both armed and unarmed. In recent times, one can point to the war in Iraq as an...
Indus Basin
This weeks reading that I found most interesting addressed the ongoing issues with the Indus Basin. There has been a limited water supply between both India and Pakistan for the last five decades. If managed efficiently, there is enough water to provide for the natives, however because both countries do not get along, it could potentially reduce the water supply for one another. To...
Drilling Rights in the South China Sea: A New Type...
Oil is often publicized as being the blood flowing in the veins of the global economy. The “War on Terrorism” started by President George W. Bush, himself from a Texas oil family, has been consistently sullied by international accusations that its true aim was the transfer of oil reserves in the Middle East into the hands of “friendly” governments. The concept of resource...
Conflict of Natural Resources
In today’s controversial society, the interrelation of natural resources and violent conflict are in a constant struggle to gain some type of power over the other. It is evident that the links between the geographical environment in some countries and political security are strong and in consistent disagreement due to the different needs of each party. While one side is typically...
Civil Wars and Resources: When does revolution ...
There seems to be a long held misconception that resource wars are strictly the domain of the expansionist goals of “super powers”. This belief is firmly entrenched in a political and economic perspective whose seeds were sown at the start of the mid 19th century age of imperialism and continued to grow up until the Cold War. This context of saber rattling, brinkmanship and expansionism solely for...
The Resource War Isn't So Simple
In Geographies of War: Perspectives on ‘Resource Wars’ Phillipe Le Billon discusses the idea of a resource war. Billon argues that the term resource war oversimplifies the problem to a single factor, which is the direct link between the resource and the conflict, and in order to reveal the complexity of the problem introduces three different perspectives on resource wars. These...
Resource Wars
The readings for this week were about the availability of natural resources, such as oil, water, and diamonds, and the significance that has upon the rest of the world political atmosphere and economies. Entire economies depend on these resources. Without them, the social, political, and economic aspects of life across the world will be changed drastically. Oil, for example, is one of the most...
Zimbabwe and the Marange
With the ever-growing population of the Earth the limitations of the Earths resources are definitely a means for worry in the future. While not all resources are in the same level of demand, certain ones like diamonds, oil and food are. Under-developed places like most of Africa suffer from the effects of the quest for these valuable resources. The exploitation of the periphery countries for...
Resources and Politics
The theme of this week’s readings centered around resource wars, with a focus on hydro politics. The underlying message that supported this theme stemmed from the argument that, no matter how fiercely society pretends that nature takes its own course and remains independent from humans, distribution of resources and therefore resource wars remain very political and...
Watch Out For The Future
All over the world, humans depend on resources to survive. The person reading this for example, is consuming resources right now; the computer’s electricity which probably came from a solar power plant, a coal burning plant, or a wind power plant. But that resource is not free unless you own a solar plant in your roof or backyard. Companies also depend on resources like this to produce...
Integrity: Moral Uprightness vs. Capitalism
In the article Integrity of the Emerging Global Markets in Greenhouse Gases the authors examine the established systems that attempt to aid in the reduction of greenhouse gas accumulation in the atmosphere. The Kyoto Protocol which was ratified in 1997 and adopted by 37 countries, in essence, attempts to level the playing field in terms of how much everyone involved is allowed to pollute the...
Urban Mapping and the Prevention of Natural...
While reading this weeks article regarding double exposure and the intertwined nature of climate change and globalization-related issues, I was immediately struck by the relationship between the double exposure framework and the core-periphery model we’ve talked about throughout the semester, particularly the last several weeks. As I see it, there is a striking connection between natural...
Profit at the Expense of Commonweal
Today’s financial crisis in the world is the new environmental crisis. The globalization of markets and free trade treaties have been carried at the expense of the people. The issues of climate change and globalization go hand in hand as they have and continue to determine the fate of communities across the world. The authors of the article, “Climate Change and the Global Financial...
Microcredit and the Case for True "Microfinance"
I was just looking around about this topic after doing the readings, and I found an article about some misconceptions about Microfinance. One of these misconceptions is that there is no difference between microcredit, the small loans of the kind we read about, and microfinance. Microfinance is like regular finance in a number of important ways, the only significant difference is the scale. So,...
The Relationship Between the Environment and Work
In Climate Change and the Global Financial Crisis: A Case of Double Exposure, Robin Leichenko, Karen O’Brien, and William Solecki discuss the relationship between globalization and the environment. The double exposure framework can be used to view this relationship in order to obtain a complete picture of the events that take place in the world. By using the double exposure framework,...
Climate and Financial Patterns in California
The reading, Climate Change and the Global Financial Crisis: A Case of Double Exposure, by Robin M. Leichenko, Karen L. O’Brien, and William D. Solecki, take a look at the state of California’s economy and the factors that drove it down up to 2009. A few interesting points the reading looked over were that California’s awful state of economy was driven by a combination of climate changes, that...
Peak Oil, Climate, and Economy
In one particular reading, it is argued that the global trade industry will decline as time goes on due to the projected effects of global warming and peak oil on infrastructure (via rising sea levels) and the economy (via high fuel costs from a permanent global oil supply decline).
I understand and share some of the concerns that this reading raised for numerous reasons. For example, as probably...
Can Alternative Energy Save America?
Article 1
Article 2
According to the articles above, the Unites States is suffering from expensive imported foreign oil, but that dependency could be obliterated thanks to cheaper alternative energy. The U.S. uses about 20 million barrels, or 620 million gallons, of oil every year. 12 million barrels of that oil comes from other countries such as Canada, Mexico, and OPEC countries. With this oil...
Double exposure framework
This week’s article by Robin Leichenko brings about the idea of the double exposure framework. The double exposure framework is a way of representing the overlap between evident changes in both industrial and post-industrial society: globalization and climate change. Leichenko argues that globalization and climate change are deeply intertwined. Different regions and social classes are...
Climate Change and Globalization
The readings for this week are about the relationships between climate change and globalization. More specifically, the relationship between climate change and the global economy. There are many examples of the interactions between climate change and globalization, but for the sake of having material to discuss in my presentation, I shall only describe one. An example of this is described in one...
Running Out of Gas: Globalization Versus Fossil...
As the economic downturn continues to threaten financial markets, unrestrained expansion of international trade is often cited as a mystical survival kit. According to the Arizona International Growth Group, companies looking to “recession-proof” their holdings must take international expansion very seriously.
Similarly, Simon Constantinides, the regional head of global trade at HSBC Holdings,...
An Image Problem: Redistribution of Wealth
What do we think of when we hear the words poor people? This conjures up many images and thoughts, as discussed in class. But in terms of applying our thoughts and feelings towards poor people, I’ll ask again, what do we think of when we think of poor people? http://news.change.org/stories/why-do-we-think-poor-young-people-are-lazy. Whether we want to admit it or not, in terms of what we do for...
Carbon Trading to Combat GHG Problems
All of this week’s articles focus on the environment and how governments can/do enact policies to either reverse negative effects that we’ve produced on it or to prevent possible damage to it. I am choosing to focus on the article “Integrity of the Emerging Global Markets in Greenhouse Gases,” which focuses on carbon trading. Carbon trading is a method of permit trading...
