The Yegiora Files

For the unit IR431 International and Regional Security, I thank those who took their time to reflect on my teaching and learning strategy. You gave some important feedback that will help me improve the quality of my strategy.  Apart from our conversations, you have the DWU unit evaluation by the Quality Assurance Division administered at the end of every semester. I will also be glad if you can constructively offer comments on how I can improve my strategy. Please bear in mind that DWU does not have a structured or set curriculum for the units that we teach. There is no prescribed or specifically written textbooks with tutorial activities for us to follow on a weekly basis. We work hard every semester to compile information and plan class activities. There are two main issues that I identified in my conversation with you about Assessment task two (Attendance and Participation). The issues are: Limited time to participate in the 6 hours contact period in the two we...

In my learning guides, I identified different social media platforms as learning spaces. These platforms are used to share knowledge or information with not only current students but our alumni as well. Facebook is a social media website first developed by Mark Zuckerberg according to Business Dictionary . Because of its popularity, I decided to include in my learning guides and unit outlines the usage of Facebook. In my unit outlines, it is included in my teaching and learning strategy segments.  Skerah states that the total number of active monthly Facebook user in PNG is between 600,000-700,000. A good number of the users, about 53% of the active users are college students. This is supported with the high number of active users in the age range of 18-24. I created closed Facebook groups and named them after the different units that I teach. I have created about six different groups for the six international relations units that I teach. Below is a list of the six u...

In IR202 and IR431, the discussion before the study break was centered on the theory of liberalism. In particular, the focus was on commercial liberalism, free trade and its six norms. In IR431, we connected our discussion to human security. The specific category of interest was economic security. Trade is supported by a robust manufacturing sector, the sector provides remunerative work for many individuals. The founder and CEO of FedEx supports the point above in his Wall Street Journal op-ed. He said that:  "History shows that trade made easy, affordable and fast...always begets more trade, more jobs, more prosperity, " Heather Long from CNN Money said: "manufacturing remains a key part of the U.S.economy. Over 12.3 million Americans are employed in the industry ." She also shared the data comparing manufacturing jobs in 1960 with today, to show the decrease in employment in the sector. U.S. leaders are blaming China for the decrease of employment ...

The 1994 Human Development Report is a very important document. I think the report changed the way we think about the concept of security in international relations.  One particular category of human security that is connected to our discussion on liberalism is economic security. The report defined economic security as: "an assured basic income-usually from productive and remunerative work, or in the last resort from some publicly financed safety net." (p. 25) When you look at the pillars of APEC , the trade and investment liberalization pillar epitomizes liberal values. For example, free trade is based on the value of freedom. We want states to trade freely across borders in order to make goods and services affordable for the average person.  This understanding is connected to the definition of economic security. The goods that are traded are in most cases manufactured in factories where human labour is needed. In other words, human beings are engaged in pro...

Liberal internationalism is defined by Griffiths, O'Callaghan and Roach (2008, p. 190) as a project to transform international relations so that they conform to models of peace, freedom, and prosperity allegedly enjoyed within constitutional liberal democracies.  The same scholars go further by dividing liberalism into 3 distinct groups. They say these are the three ways to implement the project. The way they present liberal internationalism as a project makes their work interesting. Firstly, commercial liberalism is about free trade between states. States bilaterally or multilaterally via a platform like APEC pursue the goal of trade liberalization. Griffiths, O'Callaghan and Roach (ibid.) stated that economic interdependence would decrease the likelihood of going to war.  Republican liberalism is about democratic peace. Griffiths, O'Callaghan and Roach (ibid.) stated that; the spread of democracy among states so that governments will be accountable to their c...