The Yegiora Files

Being an academic is more then just walking into a classroom to teach and share your experience. There are other processes involved to ensure that what you are saying is understood and measured at the end of the day. One needs to have the right skill set and temperament to survive in academia. For example, you have to grow a thick skin if you are working for an academic institution which conducts anonymous student evaluation every semester. Some feedback from students will challenge greatly your integrity and academic credibility. Students demand quality since they pay so much to access the services and programs an institution offers. This makes what they say on their evaluation forms very important in the quality process. This is imperative since we are trying to move from a teacher centered to a student centered learning style. The student learning experience and understanding of what the particular academic is doing in the unit is a pivotal part of the shift.   In our discus...

1. Read the learning guide for step-by-step instructions. 2. Find below a screenshot of the glossary module: 3. Click and open the glossary to this page: 4. Click the ‘Add a new entry’ button. 5. You will move to this interface: 6. Type ‘international relations’ or ‘international law’ in the concept and tag box and the definition below in the box with references. 7. Tick all boxes and click the orange ‘Save changes’ button. 8. Open glossary to see your definition.

T he fourth issue is environmental security. Lawson (2012) states that the protection against pollution and depletion is the essence of environmental security.  Pollution of our atmosphere, fresh waterways, sea and land is considered a threat to human survival. Pollution has a chain reaction feature, causing the depletion of other resources.  People living along the Ramu river and its tributaries located near the Nickel and Cobalt mine are scared of poisonous chemicals in the waterways. The various tributaries and the big Ramu river are a vital source of food for the people. These fresh waterways contain fish and prawns which are important sources of protein. If the waterways are polluted, then the chemicals will reduce the fish and prawns.   Goal 6 shares an interesting fact that; “more than 80% of wastewater resulting from human activity is discharged into rivers or sea without any pollution removal.” In addition, Goal 12 gives a very interesting fact...

One important trend that we need to note is the shift from the traditional state-centric approach to a more expansive understanding of the concept of security, as outlined by Griffiths, O’Callaghan and Roach (2008).  These scholars gave two reasons for the shift; the first being the fact that most violent conflicts in the world today are within states. Group identity and culture are the two factors at stake in many of these conflicts.  Secondly, the scholars said the capacity of the state to provide security for its citizens has been eroded by a range of non-military threats such as environmental problems, population growth, disease, refugees, and resources scarcity. Globalization is another factor; it has made the world a big global village. States are now interconnected economically and via technology making it hard to engage in state-to-state conflict. This understanding of security by Griffiths, O’Callaghan and Roach (2008) leads us to the debate between st...