IR - One Definition A Day: Persona non grata

IR - One Definition A Day: Persona non grata

Term normally associated with diplomacy whereby a receiving state declares that it is unwilling to accept or receive a diplomat representative of another state. This may occur at the initial stage of appointment (agréation) or more usually it may occur after the granting of persona grata (acceptability) when the diplomat concerned has violated the rules of normal diplomatic behaviour. The declaration of persona non grata represents a serious diplomatic initiative since it involves expulsion or at least a request that the diplomat be recalled to his country of origin. Tit-for-tat expulsions are not an uncommon feature of contemporary international relation.

(Source: wikipedia)

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IR - One Definition A Day: Third World

IR - One Definition A Day

Third World

A portmanteau term for those states in Central and South America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia (excepting Japan) and the Pacific islands (excepting Australia and New Zealand) which have experienced decolonisation over the last two centuries. The term 'Third World' is an anglicized rendition of the French 'Tiers-Monde' popularized in the 1950s by writers such as Georges Balandier and Alfred Sauvy. The Third World originally stood in contradistinction to the 'First World' (of capitalist liberal democracy) and the Second World (of command economic planning), but with the collapse of communism the trichotomy has lost much of its significance. The retention of the term 'Third World' although difficult to justify in logic perhaps, is testimony to the custom and usage of thirty years and the enduring significance of the Cold War ideological debates. China was always marginalised by the idea of Third World. Possessing many of the attributes of the typical Third World state, ideology ruled China out of all identification. Also at the margin were Israel and South Africa, geographically and historically within the meaning of the term but nevertheless regarded as near pariahs on ideological grounds.

Although the Third World has shaken off the formal political control of colonialism, legacies of the past remain. Thus the actual territorial dimensions of many Third World states, notably in Africa, are the results of colonialist cartographers and political geographers. As a consequence of this arbitrary demarcation, many states in the Third World are ethically heterogeneous.Ethnic nationalism, as a centrifugal tendency working against the centripetal state nationalism, is a divisive factor in these states as a result.

Marxist-inclined analyses of international relations deny that the formal granting of independence made any substantial difference to the relative power positions of the Third World vis-à-vis the First World - wherein, according to Marxists, imperialism arose. In particular the considerable economic power of the AICs of the First World is a determining factor in these relations. Assisting First World domination are the multinational corporations (MNCs) which function as conduits for this influence. many of the examples that inform this view are taken from latin American experience, and it would appear that a comprador middle class has developed in the region to provide a linkage with the dominant economic interests in the First World. Latin America may not be typical, however, and in other parts of the Third Wolrd, notably in Asia, a more nationalist bourgeoisie has developed. In the most dynamic NICs, indeed, countervailing corporative growth can counterbalance the economic domination of First World interests.

As far as intergovernmental relations are concerned, the Third World has responded to this domination trhough organisations such as OPEC and UNCTAD by making a number of demands under the new international economic order initiative. The Third World states have also used their majority membership of organisations like the UN to call for closer control and supervision to be exerciced of MNCs. Again they have campaigned through UNCTAD for the abandonment of the Bretton Woods system of non-discrimnation in favour of trade preferences aimed at assisting their development goals.

In the military-security issue area the Third World states have often faced significant problems in managing their national security. The centrifugal ethnic tendencies referred to above have in extreme cases produced the disintegration of states (for example Pakistan) or significant and damaging civil strife. Additionally, with such notable exceptions as India affords, many Third World states lacked the habits of the heart to ensure effective governance of their states. The terms 'quasi-state' has been coined to identify this problem. The cold war environment into which these states had to conduct their foreign policies probably exacerbated these problems. From the Truman Doctrine onwards, all that Third World leaderships had to show to engage US in Military AID arrangements was the presence of an internal/external threat that could plausibly be perceived as communist. 
Interventionalist policies have not been the prerogative of the First or Second Worlds of course. States within the Third World have been prompted to intervene in a variety of military-securit issue areas. Ths Vietnam, India, Lybia, Tanzania, Cuba and Nigeria have shown a willingness towards internation in regional conflict situations. The Persian Gulf War's proximate cause was Iraqi intervention and annexation of neighbouring Kuwait, whilst Syrian intervention in the Lebanon altered the communal balance significantly. 

The end of the Cold War era in world politics has affected both the position and the policies of the Third World states. Indeed it has substantially altered the ideological assumptions that might be called 'Third Worldism'. The self destruction of the Second World has at one and the same time removed a viable alternative 'model' of national economic development and substantially reduced the intrinsic importance of the Third World in First World considerations. Market orientated approaches underpinned by a belief in economic liberalism can now be given full scope and significance.



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IR - One Definition A Day: First World

IR - One Definition A Day: First World

As the word 'First' implies this categorisation refers to those states that were historically in the vanquard of the modernisation process following the Industrial Revolution that commenced in eighteenth-century Britain. 

As a collective expression the terms 'First World' and 'Advanced Industrial Countries' (AIC) are coterminous. The occurence of the Cold War in mid-twentieth-century international relations led to the term taking on a more relativist connotation. It became a requirement of popular analysis to contrast the First World with the Second (meaning the communist states) and eventually the 'Third World'. The end of the Cold War, the collapse of communism and the weakening of the viability of the concept of Third Worldism has had a feedback effect upon the idea of the First World.

Historically the term probably retains relevance as a means of identifying a group of states that espoused capitalism and economic liberalism. In the account of this development change occured as a result of internal processes rather than external pressures. Economic growth led to the developoment of a bourgeoisie and to demands for political participation to be broadened to accomodate these new classes. 

Scientific innovation and technoligical change are important features of these societies and again they tend to be in the vanquard of most of these changes. The multinational corporation (MNC) is the unique non-governmental creation of the First World's value system and it has been the vehicle or transmission belt for distributing these values to the rest of the system. There is growing evidence that the template of First Worldism is being reassessed from within as so-called 'a quality of life' considerations are producing a possible paradigm shift towards more sustainable development. 


(Source: wikipedia)

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IR - One Definition A Day: Pivotal States

IR - One Definition A Day: Pivotal States

A geopolitical term applied to those (conventionally peripheral) states whose fate may well determine regional and/or international stability. The maritime equivalent would be choke points. The classic nineteenth-century examples are Turkey, simultaneously 'the sick man of Europe' and the epicentre of Russo-British imperial rivalry over respective spheres of influence in the Eastern Mediterranean, and Belgium. Regarding the latter, Napoleon, who had good reason to be well versed in these matters, described Antwerp as 'a pistol levelled at the very heart of England'. 

In recognition of this, after separation from Holland in 1830, the new Belgian state was granted permanent neutrality status and thereafter (until 1945) its continued territorial integrity was considered a vital national interest by Britain. During the Cold War with the widespread acceptance of the Domino theory, virtually all peripheral states were pententially 'pivotal' since the 'fall' or 'loss' of one necessarily involved the collapse of others resulting in a threat to international stability. According to some recent commentators (Chase, Hill and Kennedy, 1996) in the post-Cold War era the new, holistic security agenda with its emphasis on non-military / diplomatic threats such as overpopulation, environmental degradation, ethnic conflict, migration, aides, hunger, poverty, narcotics etc., necessitates a 'new pivotal strategy' for the USA. 

Identifying these states then becomes an important policy planning task for Washington policy-makers. Identification criteria are notoriously fuzzy and subjective but at least four sets of factors are crucial; a large population, an important geographical location, developing status as a big emerging market and of course, the capacity to affect regional and international stability. From the US strategic perspective the following might therefore be considered pivotal: Central and South America - Mexico and Brazil, Africa - Algeria, Egypt and South Africa, Near and Far East - Turkey, India and Pakistan, Asia-Pacific - Indochina and Taiwan. While these states may be pivotal from the American perspective, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and European policy makers would no doubt draw up a different list of candidates for inclusion.

(Source: wikipedia)



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Krishnamurti - One Definition A Day 'ACTION & IDEA'

Krishnamurti - One Definition A Day
'ACTION & IDEA'
Original Title in English
By Author: J. Krishnamurti¨
Abstract from 'The First and Last Freedom'

I SHOULD LIKE TO discuss the problem of action. This may be rather abstruse and difficult at the beginning but I hope that by thinking it over we shall be able to see the issue clearly, because our whole existence, our whole life, is a process of action.

Most of us live in a series of actions, of seemingly unrelated, disjointed actions, leading to disintegration, to frustration. It is a problem that concerns each one of us, because we live by action and without action there is no life, there is no experience, there is no thinking. Thought is action; and merely to pursue action at one particular level of consciousness, which is the outer, merely to be caught up in outward action without understanding the whole process of action itself, will inevitably lead us to frustration, to misery.

Our life is a series of actions or a process of action at different levels of consciousness. Consciousness is experiencing, naming and recording. That is consciousness is challenge and response, which is experiencing, then terming or naming, and then recording, which is memory. This process is action, is it not? Consciousness is action; and without challenge, response, without experiencing, naming or terming, without recording, which is memory, there is no action.

Memoirs of a Geisha - Vietnamese translation: Đời kỹ nữ

Original Title in English: Memoirs of a Geisha
By Author: Jakob Haarhuis Arnold Rusoff 
Vietnamese Title: Đời kỹ nữ
Content

#	Tựa đề	Số lần xem
1	Lời mở đầu	618
2	Chương 1	662
3	Chương 2	213
4	Chương 3	160
5	Chương 4	133
6	Chương 5	126
7	Chương 6	114
8	Chương 7	117
9	Chương 8	102
10	Chương 9	111
11	Chương 10	93
12	Chương 11	91
13	Chương 12	100
14	Chương 13	88
15	Chương 14	99
16	Chương 15	89
17	Chương 16	98
18	Chương 17	103
19	Chương 18	95
20	Chương 19	91
21	Chương 20	88
22	Chương 21	90
23	Chương 22	85
24	Chương 23	87
25	Chương 24	82
26	Chương 25	84
27	Chương 26	81
28	Chương 27	95
29	Chương 28	77
30	Chương 29	82
31	Chương 30	84
32	Chương 31	84
33	Chương 32	84
34	Chương 33	88
35	Chương 34	89
36	Chương 35	97

Preface by Author
Vào một buổi tối mùa xuân năm 1936, khi tôi còn là một chú bé 16 tuổi, bố tôi dẫn tôi đi xem trình diễn ca nhạc múa ở Kyoto. Tôi chỉ nhớ hai điều về buổi trình diễn đó. Điều thứ nhất là bố tôi và tôi là hai người phương Tây duy nhất trong đám khán giả, chúng tôi mới từ quê nhà Hòa Lan sang đây được mấy tuần, cho nên tôi chưa quen với nền văn hóa xa lạ ở xứ này, nhưng tôi cảm thấy rất hấp dẫn. Điều thứ hai là nhờ sau nhiều tháng ra sức học tiếng Nhật, tôi cảm thấy thú vị biết bao khi hiểu được phần nào những câu chuyện họ nói với nhau. Riêng về các thiếu nữ Nhật đang ca múa trên sân khấu trước mặt, tôi không nhớ được gì, ngoại trừ hình ảnh lờ mờ về chiếc kimono màu sắc tươi sáng. Ở một nơi xa với nước Nhật như New York city này, và với khoảng thời gian đã gần 50 năm, nếu không có người phụ nữ đã từng múa trên sân khấu ở thành bạn thân của tôi, đọc cho tôi ghi lại hồi ức của bà ta, thì chắc tôi sẽ không biết gì hết về nền văn hóa đó.