The Yegiora Files

Is it vital to learn about the various theoretical hallmarks of foreign policy analysis? Why? Yes, I believe it is vital. Why? Learning or talking about the hallmarks of foreign policy analysis according to Valarie Hudson helps us to understand the nature of the sub-field. For example, we now know that there are many factors, which influence a decision maker at the individual level. An event at home can influence the type of decision a decision maker makes. The decision made during that day influenced by factors at home could affect others at the state or international level. Learning or talking about the hallmarks of foreign policy analysis according to Valarie Hudson helps us to determine the difficulty of studying the sub-field. For example, decisions made by decision makers and influenced by factors at the individual or system level is difficult to study or understand. In most cases, we have no information about the personality of the leader or their backgr

The comment below made by a particular student of mine some years ago in his or her unit evaluation is featured in the student evaluation segment of my unit learning guides for all the units I teach. Check my learning guides to differentiate unconstructive from constructive comments. “I recommend that wev have more international relations lecturer in order for we the students to have a broader understanding of IR.” Firstly, I find it disturbing that we graduated someone with very poor English. He or she could not spell the word 'we' and forgot to put the letter 'S' at the end of the word 'lecturer'. I labelled the comment as unconstructive because this particular student has not suggested any thing constructive to help me improve the unit. He or she did not comment on my learning map or strategy. Also he or she did not say whether the learning outcomes where achieved after the implementation of my teaching and learning strategy. You do not need mo

For the unit IR432 Geopolitics in Asia-Pacific, we will be looking at various issues in the region. The topics or themes given for the group presentation task is based on three countries in the region: PNG Australia China These 3 countries have dominated news headlines this year (2018). Both China and Australia are major development partners of PNG. PNG with its growing population and abundance of natural resources is slowly becoming a significant player in regional politics. This is evident in the post below by our foreign minister. But is PNG playing China against Australia or vise versa in order to gain more? This video below insinuates that PNG is doing just that, and the current government is cunningly playing the game. Apart from using the APEC agenda, the O'Neill/Abel government have employed another tactic to join China's 'One Belt One Road' initiative. Whether it is a carefully calculated strategy, or just an innocent move to help develop the cou

The video above explains the One Belt One Road Initiative. It is a foreign policy designed to promote cooperation between China and many other countries. PNG has signed the One Belt One Road Initiative Memorandum of Understanding as per the report on the China Daily: "Xi said bilateral cooperation is standing at a new starting point with Papua New Guinea officially joining the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the two countries signing a memorandum of understanding on Belt and Road cooperation, the first of its kind between China and a Pacific island nation."   PNG has not only signed the BRI MOU but also joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). As such, I agree with President Xi that PNG is stepping into a new frontier. PNG has a huge potential in agriculture but lacks capital and infrastructure. For example, the highlands provinces can grow vegetables well. Provinces like Western Highlands grow well potatoes and cabbages. The potatoe

No that I am done with assessment it is time to move onto planning for next semester. Next semester, I will be teaching only two units: IR333 Foreign Policy Analysis IR432 Geopolitics in Asia-Pacific The other unit on the program is IR204 PNG Foreign Policy. This unit was a second year unit initially but during our program review we moved it to fourth year. The rationale for the move is based on the logic that a student must first have a strong understanding of the theories, roles and functions of international organizations, the politics of international law and foreign policy including security before talking about PNG's foreign policy. This is captured in our logical arrangement of IR units: IR202 Theories of International Relations IR203 International Organizations IR302 International Law in International Relations IR333 Foreign Policy Analysis IR431 International & Regional Security IR432 Geopolitics in Asia-Pacific IR204 PNG Foreign Policy Regardless of t

This model centers on the fact that different bureaucracies have different standard operating procedures. These procedures are made in order to allow day to day operations to be carried out. Thus, a foreign policy decision is made based on these standard operating procedures. It is hard for a bureaucracy to make a decision or let alone function out of character or contrary to their standard operating procedure. The reading Chapter 4: Foreign policy shares a straight forward explanation of the OPM: "An alternative to the rational model of decision making is the organizational process model. In this model, foreign policy decision makers generally skip the labor-intensive process of identifying goals and alternative actions, relying instead for most decisions on standardized responses or standard operating procedures. For example, the U.S. State Department everyday receives more than a thousand reports or inquiries from its embassies around the world and sends out more than a