The Yegiora Files

28/9/2018 Good night to the audience, participating students, staff and the organizing committee. I want to thank the organizing committee for giving me this opportunity to say a few words about the international relations strand and the theme for this event – PNG Nau. This event is a biannual event on our Department calendar. We look forward every second year to see how students will lead, plan and manage the event. This is the fourth PNG nite since its inception in 2012. The Bachelor of PNG Studies and International Relations is an area studies degree program. It includes 4 major academic strands; culture studies, community development, politics and international relations. The objective is to develop citizens who possess a strong knowledge about PNG and its place in the global community. The international relations strand consist of 7 academic units. We have the traditional theory unit supported by units on the role of international organizations, international law, f...

Climate is one of the 6 geographical factor that we are using to understand geopolitics in the Asia-Pacific region. Apart from climate, we have location, size, topography, natural resources and demography. Climate is defined as the meteorological conditions, including temperature, precipitation, and wind, that characteristically prevail in a particular region. Also it is referred to as the long-term prevalent weather condition of an area, determined by latitude, position relative to oceans or continents, altitude, and others. One particular geopolitical issue connected to climate is climate change or global warming. The green house gas emissions are polluting the stratospheric ozone layer. In particular, compounds such as chlorofluorocarbons, halons, carbon tetrachloride and methyl chloroform. The ozone layer shields the planet from damaging UV-B radiation. Goldstein (2005: pp. 422-423) states that: "It is very difficult to reduce the emission of gases - mainly car...

The PNG government through the leadership of Peter O'Neill has advocated vigorously in different forums about the threat posed by climate change. The Prime Minister talked about the issue at the: Seventy-Second General Debate Session of the United Nations General Assembly   World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland The Forty-Seventh Pacific Islands Forum    The government's view was shared by the alternative government in the passing of the United Nations Paris Agreement (Implementation) Bill in 2016. Below are excerpts of what certain individuals said during the presentation of the bill in parliament:  Jim Kas the former governor of Madang said: "climate change is affecting us and we as a nation will have to be very serious about what we are doing from the provincial level to the districts in addressing this issue". Garry Juffa the current governor of Oro said: "My leaders we are the ones that will determine what will happen tomorrow, nobody else. ...

We understand that human beings are pivotal to our study of foreign policy analysis. It is human beings who make up a state or give it that tangible aspect. Over the years, human beings have followed certain systematic processes on a daily basis to create distinctive systems of governance or institutions. For example, a country's system of governance could be democratic and dependent on the ideals of freedom and representation. On the other hand, the system of governance could be autocratic and controlled by a dictator. State level of analysis Using the state level of analysis, analysts try to understand how various systems of governance or institutions influence the formulation of foreign policies. This is different to the individual level where the aim is to understand how human beings influence the formulation of foreign policies. Some refer to the systems of governance or institutions as political structure. Apart from the larger structure of countries, there ex...

The 6 geographical factors derived from various definitions of the term 'geopolitics' is the suggested framework be used to analyze or understand different geopolitical issues in the Asia-Pacific region. The geographical factors are: Natural resources - impact of the competition for natural resources on the political behaviour of state and non-state actors. Geographical location - impact the geographical location of a state actor has on the political behaviour of another state or non-state actor. Size - impact of a state actor on the political behaviour of another state or non-state actor in regards to its physical land area. Size of a non-state actor and its impact on the political behaviour of a state and other non-state actors. Topography - impact of either man-made and natural surface features of land on the political behaviour of state and non-state actors. Demography - impact of the characteristics of human population on the political behaviour of state and non-stat...

The foreign policy process is very complex. Analysts untangle the intricacies by studying foreign policy making from three perspectives termed levels of analysis. Thus, it is of uttermost importance as students of social science to learn about the three perspectives in order to add it to your repertoire of knowledge and use it practically when the need arises. Individual level of analysis can be approached from three different perspectives. One is to examine fundamental human nature. The second is to study how people act in organizations. The third is to examine the motivations and actions of specific persons. The human nature approach examines basic human characteristics, including the cognitive, psychological, emotional, and biological factors that influence decision making. The organizational behaviour approach studies such factors as role (how people act in their professional position) and group decision-making behaviour, including group think. The idiosyncratic b...

Hudson (2007) talked about the 6 hallmarks of foreign policy analysis. One particular hallmark that is closely connected to our topic for this week is multilevel. She said factors that influence decision making and decision makers are clustered in 3 different levels; individual, state and system level of analysis. Foreign policy analysis is a complex and broad sub-field. The levels of analysis provides a simple or organized framework to help us understand competing explanations and theories.   Goldstein (2005) said; “The individual level of analysis concerns the perceptions, choices, and actions of individual human beings. Great leaders influence the course of history, as do individual citizens, thinkers, soldiers, and voters. Without Lenin, it is said, there might well have been no Soviet Union. If a few more college students had voted for Nixon rather than Kennedy in the razor-close 1960 elections, the Cuban Missile Crisis might have ended differently.”  He...