College of Business, Government and Law

This essay will examine the relationship between the human security (HS) paradigm and the traditional concept of state sovereignty (SS). The thesis is that adopting the HS paradigm, as a policy tool and international framework to solve global security issues, will lead to the expedition of the decline of the traditional Westphalian concept of SS which historically is at the cornerstone of international law and international relations. It is because of the concept's vastness and its imprecise definition, HS allows for the facilitation of collective international action, a modern feature of multilateralism, by various actors and participants on the global stage on almost every issue. This will result in the traditional doctrine of SS becoming much less relevant in the 21st century. Inevitably this means the concept of SS will gradually be redefined if not abandoned. In our globalised world interdependence of nations is practically a fact of life in pretty much all facets of life. Most if not all issues of concern of HS transcend national borders often making the rigid adherence to the doctrine of SS an obstacle to modern problem solutions and the prevention of problems in the international arena.

If the 20th century is said to be the era of human rights formulation then the 21st century should be the era of human rights implementation. The human security paradigm challenging state sovereignty and the changing narrative from focusing on the anarchical global society of the realist’s international state system to a narrative that focuses on global governance of the international society of the liberal’s international order means that the rigid notion of sovereignty becomes an obstacle to effective management of global problems. In light of rapid globalisation integrating the international community world governance is imperative and necessary in the absence of world government to solve and manage current issues that transcend national borders which are facts of life in our times. The issues facing the middle-east today which at its core also has a religious flavour of a Sunni vs. Shite conflict particularly evident in the Syrian conflict can learn from the lessons of the Thirty Years War sectarian conflict between Protestants vs. Catholics in Europe which led to the Treaty of Westphalia granting conditional sovereignty to the European powers as opposed to the myth that Westphalia established the rigid sovereignty of states that we are so accustomed today.

The law of the sea originated with a conflict of two philosophies. Mare liberum championed freedom of the seas while mare clausum advocated sovereignty over parts of the ocean.  The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is a maritime zone created under UNCLOS. Its development was quick evolving within 30 years and finding universal recognition from diverse ideas and interests.  The EEZ is the most significant modification to the law of the sea since Grotius’ publication of mare liberum practically transferring a substantial part of the oceans into the hands of state jurisdiction of coastal states on certain matters. The EEZ adopts a middle ground between mare liberum and mare clausum hence the EEZ is a sui generis maritime zone neither under the absolute sovereignty of coastal states nor is it under the absolute freedom of the high seas.  Regarding foreign military activities in the EEZ UNCLOS is silent leading to China and the USA interpreting UNCLOS differently.  For China what is not allowed under UNCLOS is not permitted and for the USA what is not prohibited under UNCLOS is permitted. The question posed is whether the settlement approach to the dispute should be in favour of mare liberum or mare clausum.

This essay’s focus of concern is on the oil and gas Timor Sea dispute between one of the youngest and poorest nations in the international community, East Timor, and Australia one of the prosperous middle powers in the world. In particular this issue is connected to East Timor’s post-conflict nation building and construction efforts after enduring a bloody, painful and costly path towards its independence where it was the victim of power play in international politics. The thesis of this essay argues that Australia’s conduct in its dispute with East Timor demonstrates Australia’s historical long standing exercise of cold and brutal realpolitik causing the poor micro state East Timor from missing out from large considerable revenue to build a stable and relatively prosperous nation which consequentially made post-conflict East Timor dependent on aid donated by foreign donors rather than being self-reliant on its own natural resources and national income.

No one should be surprised with the verdict that the Maricopa Sheriff’s Department is guilty of racial profiling.  While some might be outraged, they shouldn't be; it is that behavior that many Americans precisely demand of law enforcement agencies.

With the immigration reform debate some lawmakers are misdiagnosing the immigration problem; they are acting like doctors who are trying to treat the cold with cancer treatment.  We would question the doctor, especially given the costly nature of the treatment and the potentially ineffective results.  Within the immigration debate, we must question lawmakers given the nature of their treatment and the potentially ineffective or counterproductive results.

Numbers Never Lie  is a sports show featured on ESPN 2 where the presenters conduct statistical analysis in order to indicate a “truth” about an athletic performance, an athlete’s comparative value, or perhaps athletic dominance over time.  The implication is that the truth may not be obvious to the casual or even the die-hard sports fan, whose qualitative or otherwise non-numerical analyses are insufficient to determine the true value of a player. Statistics, the show claims, will answer a query definitively.  The very premise of Numbers Never Lie mirrors the obsession that we have in the United States with using numbers to prove our points.

Time and time again we have seen insane and unstable individuals open fire.  In recent memory alone we have the mass shootings of James Holmes in at a showing of Batman in Aurora, Colorado, Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, and now Aaron Alexis at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington D.C.  In each of these cases the mental health of the perpetrator has been questioned publicly, and in the former two cases has been shown to be abnormal.  From this deadly marriage of an insane individual and a lethal weapon several questions and several proposed solutions arise.  However, it is important to ask the right questions and to ask them in the right way in order to get solutions that are workable and realistic.

We Americans are sticklers for the rules.  If a rule is broken, the offending party must be reprimanded.  We certainly do a lot of that in the US, incarcerating a greater percentage of our population than any other country in the world.  Nonetheless, we don’t like to talk about heavy things like that, not directly anyway.  So let’s talk about it via our national pastime: baseball.