The Yegiora Files

I have discussed the definition of terrorism and English School (ES) Theory in my previous articles. The key learning outcomes that I want you to develop at the end of this period (Week 9-11) for IR431 are: Determine the connection between the English School Theory and the phenomenon of terrorism. Argue the merits and demerit of using the English School Theory to explain the phenomenon of terrorism. Like the other theories of IR, ES has its merits and demerits. The readings I shared in our reading folders will help you determine the merits and demerits if you spend time to read. I like the book by Buzan titled 'From International to World Society? English School Theory and the Social Structure of Globalization' . I ordered a copy for the Friendship library, make sure you borrow the hard copy if you do not like reading the electronic copy. So let us ask the important question; how is the ES connected to the phenomenon of terrorism? At what point does the ES as a schoo...

While watching the video by Professor Pierre d'Argent on 'reservations' in class today, I quickly remembered the article I wrote on the resettlement of refugees on PNG Attitude in 2014. The article talked about the seven reservations PNG made when signing the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol on 17 July 1986. The reservations covered covered wage-earning employment, housing, public education, freedom of movement, refugees unlawfully in the country of refuge, expulsion and naturalisation. According to Article 2 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties : "reservation" means a unilateral statement, however, phrased or named, made by a State, when signing, ratifying, accepting, approving or acceding to a treaty, whereby it purports to exclude or to modify the legal effect of certain provisions of the treaty in their application to that state. Article 42(1) of the Convention and Protocol Relating to the St...

Twitter is defined as a social networking and microblogging online service that allows users to send and receive text-based message or post of up to 140 characters called "tweets" . Technopedia further explains that Twitter was designed by Jack Dorsey in March 2006. Twitter has been a communication tool used by many for close to 12 years. Donald Trump has been a poster boy for Twitter. He has, to my opinion, made Twitter so popular. Apart from using Facebook in my teaching. I have also worked on developing a way to introduce the use of Twitter into my learning and teaching strategy. I started by asking students to tweet about different topics related to our class discussion. The screenshot below shows tweets by students on the Australian Sports Diplomacy Strategy 2015-2018 . We talked about foreign policies and used the ASDS1518 as a case. We learnt how the PNG Hunters fit into the strategy, and the capacity building of different sporting codes in the country.  Stud...

The video from Gerard Van Der Ree from the University College Utrecht on social constructivism gives us a really good synopsis of the theory.  He begins with a critique of rationalism, he says that both realism and liberalism claim that decision-making is rational. He goes on to say that sociology and anthropology tells us a different story. Decision-making is not rational but is influenced by our social systems.  To help us understand, I shared with you in class a scenario. I asked if you could on one sunny or hot day decide to walk into the DWU student dinning hall with your swim wear. All of you said no with a capital 'N'. So I asked why? You all gave various reasons why this type of dressing is not appropriate.  Some of you said that you have dressing codes for different venues. You are required to wear something decent to class or to the student dinning area. If you wear your swim wear then you will attract negative comments. Some of you said tha...

In our bid to understand terrorism, I shared with you three guiding questions aimed at sparking a debate. We did debate, we listened to you all defending your point of views and counter arguing.  The dialectical process of arguing and counter arguing is initiated by critical evaluation of a case or point of view.  I hope you will continue to debate in a constructive way. For example, after listening to your peers, some of you counter argued that those who vandalized the water pump station at Panim were not terrorists. You said they did not have the capabilities like Al Qaeda or Boko Haram operatives. You disagreed strongly with the categorization by some of your peers that they were terrorists. The definitions of terrorism shared in the chapter written by Rogers (2008) and the videos we viewed helped provided the framework for analyzing the first question.  The first question was aimed at getting you to identify the act. After identifying, the next step...