Literature of the Western World Essay

Fray Luis De Leon’s use of the good shepherd motif in At the Ascension (Wilkie & Hurt, 2001) is a wholly unexpected one.   Hearing the phrase or title ‘the good shepherd’ clearly fills one with expectation that the word good in it means good of action.   In other words, a reader encountering this phrase would assume that the shepherd is good because of the work that he does.   For example, a shepherd who carefully rounds up his sheep would be a good shepherd, while one who loses his sheep would be a bad shepherd. This is in opposition to ‘good’ referring to a quality of character.   In this fashion, good is a description of what a person is, not what a person does.   This is apart from action.   It is this latter understanding that is what De Leon leaves us with.   He writes â€Å"Holy Shepherd, dost thou leave thy flock in this valley profound and obscure, to dwell with solitude and grieve, while piercing through the heavens pure, thou risest to immortality secure?† (p. 2217).   This is certainly not the typical use of the metaphor in religious literature. For a more conventional, religious interpretation of the shepherd, consider this oft quoted poem from Lope de Vega entitled The Good Shepherd (Walsh, 1920).   In it he writes, â€Å"Shepherd! Who with thine amorous sylvan song, hast broken the slumber that encompassed me, who mad’st thy crook from the accursed tree, on which thy powerful arms were stretched so long!   Lead me to mercy’s ever-flowing fountains; for thou my shepherd, guard and guide shall be.† This image from de Vega is in complete opposition to the use of the form by de Leon.   It represents, again, a more typical usage of shepherd in a religious context, and is used to demonstrate unconditional, usually sacrificial love for others, as in de Vega.   De Leon, though, turns that motif around, blaming the shepherd for not being all the things that our expectations demand. St. John of the Cross, in his poem I Entered Where I Did Not Know would seem, at least at first glance/first read, to be a substantial paradox.   Certainly to the secular reader, it must be such.   It is a poem that explores such seemingly contradictory thoughts such as, â€Å"Unknowing where I was, I learned unheard of things, but what I heard I cannot say, for I remained unknowing, all reason now transcended† (Wilkie & Hurt, 2001, p. 2220).    Using the words ‘learned’ and ‘unknowing’ in the same few lines does not just transcend reason, but transcends every expectation but contradiction.   This, as I stated, though, is the view of the secular reader.   The paradox is unraveled and the mystery revealed when read through the lens of the religious observer who is accustomed to this type of usage of the limitations of humanity.   St. John clearly is talking of two realms here, the physical (mortal) and the spiritual (eternal).   Knowledge that the self possesses, he is intimating through this poem, is only the knowledge of the physical world that we have.   In that area of understanding, we have our version of knowledge – what he calls ‘knowing’. However, when attempting to grasp the reality of the spiritual world, our knowledge that we possess about the physical world is absolutely useless to us.   Our very own reason (i.e. our mind) cannot even begin to understand what it sees of the spirit world.   It remains outside of our comprehension, and our ability to gain knowledge of.   Even when we stand in its presence, we are left unknowing. Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola’s poem beginning, â€Å"First I must confess, Don Juan,† is most certainly a serious, though clever, observation about appearance and truth.   It reads in a whimsical sort of fashion, and is almost too witty for its own good.   Because of its non subtle imagination, and condescending language, the poem is often misunderstood.   The reader is apt to rush to judgment.   Far from being just a playful conceit, however, it contains much deeper meaning. Lines such as, â€Å"†¦Dona Elvira’s pink and white, if truly seen, owe to her no more than what they cost to buy,† (Wilkie & Hurt, 2001, p. 2239) indicate such a lack of value of internal beauty (and perhaps external beauty, for that matter) within Dona Elvira that the reader almost must laugh at the pointed jest.   But this is serious.   Considering how Argensola treats this appearance of the lady, this is plain to see.   He attributes her with ‘false beauty’ and ‘deceit’, and then goes on to explain that he is swayed by it.   It is clear that he finds this trait of hers to be contrary to truth and is merely appearance. If the poet did not find these issues to be important, then he would have just stated the appearance of the deceit, and been done with it.   Since he adds commentary, however, by going on to talk about its influence on him (and presumably all men), a serious tone is affected.   It is similar, then, to Campion’s Amaryllis in I Care Not for These Ladies (Campion).   Campion declares of the country maid that her natural beauty disdains art and that her beauty is actually her own.   In other words, this is the same question that Argensola raises, the same test he puts to the woman in his poem.   Does she have internal beauty, that of truth without falsehood? This is the true beauty of internal integrity.   Or is she just a painted lady, who practices deceit with her very face?   These are serious questions about not only appearance, but also of truth, and both Argensola and Campion express the same judgment in the end.   These are not mere plays on words, but deeper exercises into human behavior. Sor Juana’s verses regarding men’s choices and their consequences shows her craft at its very best (Wilkie & Hurt, 2001).   As has been noted, it is the choice of her weapon – reason – that made her and still makes her one of the top anti-misogynists of all time.   Her lack of flowery wording and coy assumptions and directions lend to the power of her poems. She remains fully a poet, while also assuming a full role of sociologist.   Had she been purely focused on the direct attack, a non-rational set of accusations, her legacy would have been much different.   She knew and understood that the direct attack through poetry or other works of literature have been long derided as pure emotionalism, a weakness men attribute to women.   Therefore, Sor Juana did turn to logic and rationale.   Ironically, these have long been promoted by men to be men’s tools. Her use of paradoxes to dismiss men’s treatment of women is astounding and successful.   Her words are sharp.   She raises issues in a back and forth style, point for point, in which paradoxes are found, such as men stating that they will batter a woman down emotionally, but be upset when they show emotions. Or courting a woman and then declaring her to be open and lewd when she accepts.   These paradoxes are enough for anyone – feminist or non feminist – to be able to understand that, as Sor Juana would say, â€Å"For plain default of common sense, could any action be so queer as oneself to cloud the mirror, then complain that it’s not clear?† (p. 2263). Machiavellian behavior is that of cunning and duplicity.   This type of overt behavior is easily found in Shakespeare’s The Tempest (Wilkie & Hurt, 2001).   However, it is a tempered, double edged sword.   It is too easy, nearly tempting, to assign pro- and anti-Machiavellian behavior within the play specifically to separate characters. What is intriguing is the argument for and against within the same character.   Consider Prospero.   He is full of cunning and guile.   While outwardly extending a hand of friendship as Prince, he acts to destroy behind the scenes simultaneously.   He takes advantage of his mystical powers to control the situation from well beyond the reach of others.   In those ways, he is an easy to find villain.   Particularly, his sheer cunning and duplicitous grabs at power can be expressed as being Machiavellian. But what of the other side of things?   Is there a different aspect by which Prospero can be observed?   Is he to be excused?   And if so, don’t we have to dismiss the Machiavellian notion? It is true that the play opens with his exile.   It appears true that his exile was a wrong done to him by Alonso.   Therefore all of his actions and behaviors through the play could be seen as rightful revenge.   And if this is true, wouldn’t his character be forgiven, and his motivations just?   Finally, in this way, would not Prospero be seen, himself, as actually anti-Machiavellian because he is driven by rightful justice?   This is the interesting question.   It begs us to look deeper into characters before blindly agreeing with popular literary criticism. References Campion, T. I Care Not For These Ladies. Poetry Foundation. Retrieved May 27, 2010 < http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=181014> Walsh, T. (Ed.). (1920). Hispanic Anthology: Poems Translated from the Spanish by English and North American Poets. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Wilkie, B., & Hurt, J. (Ed.). (2001). Literature of the Western World vol.1: The Ancient World Through the Renaissance, 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

The Cultural Insights of Footbinding

The Chinese practiced foot binding for over a thousand years in the Song and T’ang dynasties. Some people found it very cruel, and then some found it fascinating. The ‘Golden Lotuses’ were the art and symbol for the wealth and beauty of ancient China. For any other culture, one would ask what foot binding is? Or, how did foot binding in Ancient China compare to John Fairbank’s text â€Å"Footbinding†? Also, how does the history of ancient China and Fairbank’s text differ and how are they similar? Then, how can foot binding be defended? In this paper, one will be able to understand the cultural significance of foot binding. Foot binding was a mother’s way to prepare her daughter for her future. The mother would start to bind the daughter’s feet between the ages of five and eight, when the feet and bones were still developing. At a young age the daughters were unaware of what their future held, and why their mother put them through so much pain. After the first two years the pain would lessen for the daughters. Constricting the feet to a three inch size was only the beginning of the daughter’s worries. The bound feet required daily care which included; feet being washed and manicured while staying bounded. The mother would be the one who ultimately took care of the daughter and grooming her feet. In Fairbank’s text it says â€Å"When I was seven [said one women to Ida Pruitt], my mother†¦ washed and placed alum on my feet and cut the toenails. She then bent my toes toward the plantar with a binding cloth ten inches wide, doing the right foot first then the left. She†¦ ordered me to walk but when I did the pain proved unbearable. The night †¦ my feet felt on fire and I couldn’t sleep; mother struck me for crying. On the following days, I tried to hide but was forced to walk on my feet †¦ after several months all toes but the big one was pressed against the inner surface†¦ mother would remove the binding and wipe the blood and pus which dripped from my feet. She told me that only the removal of the flesh could my feet become slender†¦. Every two weeks I changed to new shoes. Each new pair was one-two-tenths of an inch smaller than the previous one†¦ In summer my feet smelled offensively because of pus and blood; In winter my feet felt cold because of lack of circulation †¦ four of the toes were curled in like so many dead caterpillars†¦ it took two years it achieve the three inch model†¦ my shanks were thin, my feet became humped, ugly and odoriferous. † (405) Bounding the feet made the daughters less useful in family work, and the daughters would become very dependent on help from others. Once people in China became accustom to the practice of foot binding, the ‘Golden Lotuses’ became an essential part of being able to get a suitable husband. John Fairbank accounts in his text, â€Å"Footbinding† how women in ancient China were represented. Fairbank’s text was the study of ancient China, and the subjection of women during that time. In the text, Fairbank expressed how the women fit into social classes, and how they were not equal to males in the society. The feet being the first symbol of women, marriage followed second. The feet were a prestigious item to a female, and without the bound feet they would not be able to achieve a good marriage. Clearly stated in the following poem, â€Å"Lotus blossoms in shoes most tight, As if she could stand on autumnal waters! Her shoe tips do not peek beyond the skirt, Fearful lest the tiny embroideries be seen. †(404) it becomes clear that the binding of the feet was a sexual fetish for the Chinese man. The bound feet became a sort of chastity to the female, leaving them vulnerable and defenseless. Unlike the chastity belt, the lotus feet could not be unlocked. â€Å"In a society with a cult of female chastity, one primary purpose of foot binding was to limit mobility, radically modifying the means by which females were permitted to become a part of the world at large. Painfully and forcibly reducing a little girl's foot at the precise point in her life when she was expected to begin understanding the Confucian discipline of maintaining a â€Å"mindful body† reinforced her acceptance of the practice. A woman's dependency on her family was made utterly manifest in her disabled feet, and she was fully expected to acquire considerable control over her pain, reflecting the ideals of civility, a mindful body and concealment. One of the primary allures of foot binding lay in its concealment, and to be acceptable a pair of small feet had to be covered by binder, socks and shoes,† Females had to become dependent on her husband when she would move away from her family; thus leaving the male with complete domination in all aspects of the relationship. Throughout research it is apparent that the practice of foot binding was all relatively the same. In both Fairbank’s and in other readings on foot binding, mothers bound their daughter’s feet to prepare them for wealth and marriage. As incomprehensible as foot binding may seem it actually was a way for mothers and daughter to bond. The action of foot binding resulted in deforming their feet thus crippling them from preforming daily duties. It was found by researchers that foot binding could only be defended by people who understood their customs. What is important to a social group is not only survival, but the survival of patterns of behavior which are considered â€Å"right† within the context of the culture. That foot binding was legitimized by scholars and tied to the custom of the patriarchal Chinese family, perpetuating the kinship system, was no adequate stronghold against the forward momentum of history, education, labor opportunities, and capitalist indi vidualism. † One could disagree with the act of foot binding, unless a person dealt with foot binding first hand. It wasn’t until the 1950’s that the act of foot binding significantly declined. One can see foot binding had many similarities and very few differences between Fairbank’s text and other accounts of foot binding. It was a cultural act of royal and upper class mothers, to prepare their daughters for an arranged marriage. Today in China the last surviving practitioners are handicapped by old age and arthritis, and these living ‘Golden Lotuses’ are all that remains of a vanished phenomenon.

Movie Comparison Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Comparison - Movie Review Example Similarly, similarities in movies may also be analyzed to see how they implicate the touch and feel of these movies being compared. For the purpose, two movies of similar nature may be compared and contrasted to analyze various elements involved. Thus, a comparison of the movie The Kid with a Bike and Bicycle Thieves may prove futile for the paper. Therefore, the paper will be arguing how both papers are similar in context to the various themes and simple symbolic elements like a bicycle. Yet, the paper will also be talking about how the themes which are similar in nature have been approached in a different fashion with elements of contemporary nature impacting one movie making it different from the other. Therefore, an analysis of these similarities and differences will lead towards conclusive discussion of how these elements drastically impact the movie being talked about. Firstly, both the movies are similar in context to their reflection of harsh realities of time. Thus, both movies tend to reflect on the hard lives of the central characters by depicting their heartbreaking life stories. In this context, the movie ‘The kid with a bike’ takes a naturalistic approach while narrating sufferings of an abandoned child. This theme is similar to the one depicted in the Italian styled movie ‘Bicycle Thieves’. In both the movies, the core point of concern throughout have been the highly difficult moral as well as economic conditions which De Sica had to suffer after his bike gets stolen. Therefore, both movies are exactly similar in explicating the hard struggles which the central characters had to suffer from. The realistic lens, thus, proves to be futile in this context. Another shared theme between the two movies, besides the element of harsh realities of life has been that of the material prosperity. The central character Cyril in the movie, The kid in the Bike’ isn`t born rich and thus, when he

Meaning of Innovations and Traditions in Chartres Cathedral Essay

Meaning of Innovations and Traditions in Chartres Cathedral - Essay Example The cathedral you see today dates principally from the 13th century, when it was rebuilt with the efforts and contributions of kings, princes, churchmen, and pilgrims from all over Europe. One of the world's greatest high Gothic cathedrals, it was the first to use flying buttresses to support the soaring dimensions within. French sculpture in the 12th century broke into full bloom when the Royal Portal was added. A landmark in Romanesque art, the sculptured bodies is elongated, often stylized, in their long, flowing robes. But the faces are amazingly lifelike, occasionally winking or smiling. In the central tympanum, Christ is shown at the Second Coming, with his descent depicted on the right and his ascent on the left. Before entering, walk around to both the North Portal and the South Portal, each from the 13th century. They depict such biblical scenes as the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. Inside is a celebrated choir screen; work on it began in the 16th century and lasted until 1714. The niches, 40 in all, contain statues illustrating scenes from the life of the Madonna and Christ: everything from the Massacre of the Innocents to the Coronation of the Virgin. The light from the stained glass covers an expanse of more than 2,500 sq. m. (9,000 sq. ft.), the glass is unlike anything else in the world. The stained glass, most of which dates from the 12th and 13th centuries, was spared in both world wars by painstakingly removing it piece by piece. It's difficult to single out one panel or window above the others, but an exceptional one is the 12th-century Vierge de la Belle Verrire (Our Lady of the Beautiful Window) on the south side. Of course, there are three fiery rose windows. The glass has gemlike richness, with the famous deep Chartres blue predominating. The oldest window is arguably the most beautiful: Notre-Dame de la Belle Verrire (Our Lady of the Lovely Window), in the south choir. The nave, the widest in France, still contains its ancient floor labyrinth, which formed a mobile channel of contemplation for monks. The wooden Notre-Dame du Piller (Virgin of the Pillar), to the left of the choir, dates from the 14th century. The crypt was built over 2 centuries, beginning in the 9th. Enshrined within is Our Lady of the Crypt, a 1976 Madonna that replaced one destroyed during the Revolution. Everywhere vivid color splashes on to the floor from the superb stained glass windows that glow like jewels. Dating from the early 13th century, the glass largely escaped harm during the religious wars of the 16th century; it is said to constitute one of the most complete collections of medieval stained glass in the world. Of the original 186 stained-glass windows, 152 have survived. A very notable window is the Blue Virgin Window (Notre Dame de la Belle Verrire), created in the early 1200s. (James, John, The Master Masons of Chartres) The Royal Portal: The west portal, known as the Royal Portal (Porte Royale), was carved in the 1140s. It has a revolutionary funnel shape that later became widspread. The sculptures and reliefs were modeled on those in the triple west portal at St. Denis, which were mostly destroyed at the Reformation. Decorating the recesses of the Royal Portal are very tall, thin

The Mt Piper Power Station Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Mt Piper Power Station - Essay Example The power station operates in a scenic mountain area. Wool, forestry and coal mining are the other major local industries. Coal is the principal source of Mt. Piper Power Station. Mt. Piper derives its coal supplies from mines located in relatively close proximity to its Central Coast and Western power stations. On the other hand, a small percentage has been sourced from other areas via the rail receival facility on the Central Coast. The single largest supplier of coal is privately owned with Centennial Coal which delivers all of the mines to Delta, specifically to Mt. Piper Power Station. Either longwall or continuous miner technology is used in producing coal from underground mines; approximately 95% of the coal delivered to the station is produced using this process. Mt Piper also used wood residues and is purchased for co-firing. Wood residues include chipper residues, residues after plantation logging and some construction and demolition material. All of these materials are accredited as materials suitable for the production of renewable energy. Coal is an abundant source of energy in Australia. Mt Piper Power Station converts coal into electricity in a very efficient way. The sophisticated power station is designed to achieve a thermal efficiency rate of 36%, depending on the weather conditions. Coal is cruCoal is crushed in large coal mills, grinding the 25mm pieces of coal down to powder roughly the same as talc, using 80 tonnes of steel balls in a large rotating steel cylinder. In this state, the coal dust (called pulverised fuel, or PF) burns like a gas, and gives off large amounts of heat in a very short time. When both generating units are operating at full load, approximately 14,000 tonnes of coal are consumed daily, leaving some 3,500 tonnes of ash to be disposed of each day. The ash is collected in large fabric filters which ensure that airborne emissions are cut to no more than 0.08 grams per cubic metre. Ash from the bottom of the boilers and dust trapped by the filters are transported by conveyor to a nearby disused open-cut mine for dry disposal. This is environmentally preferable to using ash dams as it lessens the chance of water seeping into the local ground water. The infilled mounds will be covered with earth and gradually revegetated as part of Mt Piper's extensive landscaping program (Delta Electricity 2006). The Resource Utilisation Flow Diagram represents the processes involved in converting energy in coal to electricity. ECONOMIC / SOCIAL BENEFITS Knowing that Mt. Piper Power Station uses state-of-the-art machineries and technology, we may expect better supply of energy that will generate every facility on household, office and big establishments. The electricity industry is a significant contributor to Australia's GDP with an collective annual income of more than $20 billion. Delta's direct employment totals more than 30,000 people with significant flow-on benefits. Reliable, cost-effective energy is also essential to the continued development of the overall economy. In its regions, and within the state of NSW, Delta plays an important

Jenny Holzer Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Jenny Holzer - Research Paper Example Modern viewer wants to come, to see and to grasp the idea at once. Perhaps, due to these features of our contemporary life art responds with new techniques more suitable for perceiving by contemporary people. One of these techniques is test-as-image. Long before, Jasper Johns placed familiar images and stenciled words on equal footing thus giving birth to a new direction in art. To introduce art and text I have chosen Jenny Holzer, who, among modern artists, perhaps more than anyone, has restricted contemporary art to text. For more than 30 years this conceptual artist has been creating the relationship between didactic text and image. In her works she manages to reflect the bitter realities of our everyday life so strongly and vividly that her messages are clear for everyone despite of education, level of cultural development and view of life. In the late 70s she filled the streets of Lower Manhattan with her posters contained Nietzsche-like Truisms. First this look strange and was not accepted as works of art but later it turned out that in her works Jenny Holzer acted as art world’s soothsayer. She foresees and expresses important aspects of our life, for example, her best known truism reads: â€Å"Abuse of power comes as no surprise.† Isn’t this what we can see in politics? For Jenny Holzer text means much if not everything. At first she wrote her own texts but later started using the texts written by other famous, well-known people, such as the Polish Nobel laureate Wislawa Szymborska, Henri Cole (USA), Elfriede Jelinek (Austria), Fadhil Al-Azawi (Iraq), Yehuda Amichai (Israel) and Mahmoud Darwish (Palestine). Why are her works getting more and more popular today? I think the reason is that they are burning. They are not aimed at satisfying out aesthetic needs, they do not please our eyes with bright colors, beautiful sceneries, and interesting faces. Holzer’s works are aimed at uncovering the realities. This is why they are ful l of violence, sexuality, oppression, power, war and death. At the same time they seem to have mercy upon our feelings as all these things are depicted not through the images but mostly through the text. With her works Jenny Holzer makes us think and understand the life, which surrounds us. She brings to light and shows us something that was in shade and in silence, something that was intended to be hidden. Most of jenny Holzer works impress me greatly – I adore her ability to perfectly combine text and image. She does it so precisely that you can add nothing to this – everything is already expressed by only a few words. She applies texts from different contexts governmental documents or passages from de-classified US Army documents from the war in Iraq. For instance one of her LED works presents passages â€Å"from the minutes of interrogations of American soldiers who had committed human rights violations and war crimes in Abu Ghraib† (Walleston). Thus she wan ts to make public what was once hidden. Depicting dark dirty aspects of her country and citizens’ life Janny seems to repent American sins before the whole world and warn Americans of possibility to fall into the fire of war, violence and hatred. In my work I would like to draw attention to the hardest political edge of Holzer’s works – â€Å"Redaction Paintings†. They are huge black-and-white silkscreens presenting the passages from de-classified governmental documents blacked out by censors. They vividly expose the secret deeds

Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Economics - Essay Example The political parties in most of the economies try to enhance the lifestyle of the individuals through economic growth and income redistribution in the market. Redistribution of income and raising the standard of living in society are mutually exclusive goals of the government. Figure 1: Economic Growth (Source: Scully, â€Å"Economic Freedom and the Trade-off between Inequality and Growth†) The economic freedom of a country is directly proportional to the level of economic growth in it. Figure 2: Income Inequality (Source: Scully, â€Å"Economic Freedom and the Trade-off between Inequality and Growth†) On the other hand, the level of income inequality is desired to fall with the rise in the level of economic freedom and hence, economic growth. However, there is a strong debate regarding the relationship between income inequality and income growth. Economic Inequality is the discrimination among individuals in terms of income or wealth. It basically elaborates the diffe rences among the individuals of a society in terms of their income, wealth and assets. Income Inequality can either be absolute or relative. Absolute income is the gross income received by the individuals. John Maynard Keynes states that the consumption expenditures of individuals are estimated on the basis of absolute income. Thus, absolute income inequality is the income inequality that denotes the differences in gross income thresholds of the individuals. James Duesenberry claimed that savings and consumption spending decisions of the individuals do not depend on the level of absolute income. Instead, it depends on the relative income level. The savings and consumption expenditures of the individuals are made by them after analyzing their position of income relative to others. Relative income inequality would occur when the absolute income levels would be unevenly distributed in an economy (NBER). Among all the methods, the most important method of measuring income inequality is Gini Coefficient measurement method. This measure estimates the statistical dispersion of income distribution of a nation. The value of income inequality on the basis of a frequency distribution is given by the Gini Coefficient. The value of this index lies from 0 to 1. Where, 0 indicates a situation of perfect income equality and 1 indicates a situation of perfect inequality of income. The diagrammatical representation of a Gini Coefficient is provided is a Lorenz Curve. Figure 3: Lorenze Curve Perfect Income Equality Line Income Inequality Cumulative % of Income Lorenze Curve Cumulative % of Population (Source: Authors Creation) The above graph is of a Lorenze curve (the convex curve). The distance between the perfect income equality line and the Lorenz curve measures the degree of income inequality. Therefore, greater the distance, greater is the level of inequality. The above coefficient is calculated by: It is believed that a greater extent of inequality in income in a nation i mplies the concentration of economic power in the hands of a small group of individuals. In such a situation, the producers in the market get tempted to allocate resources to luxuries and comfort products, instead of basic necessities. The lack of basic necessit

Community College Perception Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Community College Perception Paper - Essay Example This allows them at least 2 years before they finally have to decide upon what direction they truly want to take in college. Aside from undecided students, community college also works well for those students who can only afford to study on a part time basis due to financial constraints. Sources indicate that students who do not have an impressive GPA can also benefit from attending a community college as these schools normally have to accept everybody who enrolls. They have some criteria that students must meet in order to enroll but these are not as rigid as those in a regular college. In fact, some community college students use the opportunity to increase their GPAs to an impressive level before applying at the 4 year university of their choice. Finally, a student may opt for a community college degree when he is interested in pursuing a career that may not necessarily require the completion of a 4 year course (Chen Grace â€Å"What is a Community College?). There is a misconception that the quality of education at a community college is substandard and anybody can enroll and pass without a problem. Hence the reason why community college students are often thought of as slackers and the schools as diploma mills. The quality of education at a community college is actually comparable to that of a regular college. The students must still do the work in order to make the grade and pass his classes. There is a reason behind the standard of education at a community college. Most of their graduates have a tendency to continue to a 4 year degree course at any of the regular colleges that have an â€Å"Academic Passport Program† agreement with the community college. Keeping the above information in mind, the reason behind the mission and purpose of a community college is very clear. Theirs is a college system that is open to admission of anyone who wishes to earn a college degree but

The cold war Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

The cold war - Essay Example oviet ideology with regards to the way in which a state must be ordered and the manner of economic interaction that must be practiced was diametrically opposed to the approach that the United States and its allies proposed. As the dust was settling over Europe after the Second World War, the issue of rebuilding the shattered remains of these nations was foremost on the minds of the Allied powers. As such, the United States was specifically interested in setting up governments that were like its own model; a democratic capitalist society. Yet, due to the fact that the Soviet Union believed that democracy was merely a mechanism through which the moneyed aristocracy could lord over the resources and effect an even greater level of capitalist robbery this approach was scorned. Instead, the Soviet Union attempted to set up puppet states that were directed by Moscow and practiced a very similar, if not identical, form of communism. This led the United States to feel that the Soviet Empire was gorwing and threaetneed the very existence of Western Europe; and indeed the rest of the world. As the Soviet Union began to espouse a more and more aggressive line of expansion, the United States felt as if they were e ntering a zero sum game in which the Soviet Empire would eventually control much of the globe. All of this culminated in a decision by Washington, and its allies, to promote a direct level of opposition to this and seek to engage third parties as a means of promoting them towards Washington and away from Moscow. Furthermore, ideology also plays a powerful role with respect to the fact that economic competition between the opposing theories of communism and capitalism extended far beyond Europe and soon encompassed the entire globe; where the Soviets sought to garner support for a revolution of the proletariat and the United States sought to spread seeds of capitalism - oftentimes by force. The proxy wars and the political and economic posturing of both

Criminal Justice and Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Criminal Justice and Law - Essay Example Mosaic Law forms a major core of interpretation of earlier criminal justice. Mosaic Law is implicit in the foremost five books of the Bible (Walklate 2007, p. 15). These laws were referred to as the Torah by the Jewish. It is discernible that the Ten Commandments have formed the core of notable law systems in the western world. In the Mosaic Law, crime was equated to sin thereby making a crime a sin against God. Besides, the Exodus concept of eye for eye meant that punishment could be in tandem with the crime that a person performed. In the 18th century, individuals perceived criminals, in England, as courageous and heroic. Criminals shared significant celebration in the popular culture thereby making crime a significant concern. Before the advent of police officers, prosecution of criminals was majorly in the hands of the victims. Punitive measures for crime were extreme forms of torture that could entail death. In 1764, Cesare Beccaria wrote a book regarding crime and punishment wh ich was also the same title. The book summarized its idea in the statement that highlighted certainty as more vital than severity in punishment. In addition, he invented the idea of severity to crimes that ranged from the least to the most serious. In turn, punishments could range from the least to most severe. Classical criminology This is an approach to criminal justice and the legal system that arose during the 1700’s Enlightenment age. Philosophers, such as Cesare Beccaria, Jeremy Bentham and John Locke employed the social contract theory to explain why individuals commit crime and how communities mitigate crime (Levinson 2002, p. 56). It is crucial to comprehend the context in which this concept was borne. In the enlightenment age, many European nations were changing radically as they emerged from feudal monarchies and reformed their laws. In Europe law was majorly inconsistent as legal officials and judges lacked extensive training. In the search, for a more effective a nd uniform justice system, classical criminology became a result. According to the principal ideas about classical criminology, individuals are self-interested and extremely rational individuals. In as much as individual conduct things as regards to their own self-interest, they realize that certain actions conflict with societal and self-interest. This suggests that a society develops a social contract whereby human beings behave according to certain confines and responsibilities as they avoid actions that harm the society. The two main contributors to this concept of criminal justice were Cesare de Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham. By using different philosophical stances, they strove to cut back on the harshness of 18th century judicial systems. Positivist criminology This is a school of criminology thought that employs scientific quantification and objectivity for the measurement of crime. Positivist school divides into psychological, social and biological perspectives (Padhy 2006, p . 89). The positivist school shares some assumptions as regards the concept of rationality, freewill and behavior. Besides, it strives to present the fundamentals of the nature to crime, primary crime motivational factors and reasons for committing crime. As classicism, positivism emerged out of the late eighteenth century that drew towards the early nineteenth century. This thought system was analytic in the sense that it value intelligence and scientific reasoning as a

Training and Development of Employees Essay Example for Free

Training and Development of Employees Essay Objectives of the Project Report Training and Development of Employees Finding is the main objective of this project report and some of the sub-objective in this report. They are : * To know the effectiveness of the training programme conducted by the company. * To know whether employees are aware about their responsibilities and authorities or not. * To improve Organizational Climate and increase the morale of employees. * To know whether training programme is conducted successfully or not. * To know about the work culture of the organization. Training and Development of Employees : Training and Development of Employees : After employees have been selected for various positions in an organization, training them for the specific tasks to which they have been assigned assumes great importance. It is true in many organizations that before an employee is fitted into a harmonious working relationship with other employees, he is given adequate training. Training is the act of increasing the knowledge and skills of an employee for performing a particular job. The major outcome of training is learning. A trainee learns new habits, refined skills and useful knowledge during the training that helps him improve performance. Training enables an employee to do his present job more efficiently and prepare himself for a higher-level job. The essential features of training may be stated thus: * Increases knowledge and skills for doing a particular job; it bridges the gap between job needs and employee skills, knowledge and behaviors * Focuses attention on the current job; it is job specific and addresses particular performance deficits or problems * Concentrates on individual employees; changing what employees know, how they work, their attitudes toward their work or their interactions with their co-workers or supervisors * Tends to be more narrowly focused and oriented toward short-term performance concerns. Training is needed to serve the following purposes: * Newly recruited employees require training so as to perform their tasks effectively. Instruction, guidance, coaching help them to handle jobs competently, without any wastage. * Training is necessary to prepare existing employees for higher-level jobs (promotion). * Existing employees require refresher training so as to keep abreast of the latest developments in job operations. In the face of rapid technological changes, this is an absolute necessity. * Training is necessary when a person moves from one job to another (transfer). After training, the employee can change jobs quickly, improve his performance levels and achieve career goals comfortably * Training is necessary to make employees mobile and versatile. They can be placed on various jobs depending on organizational needs. * Training is needed to bridge the gap between what the employee has and what the job demands. * Training is needed to make employees more productive and useful in the long-run. * Training is needed for employees to gain acceptance from peers (learning a job quickly and being able to pull their own weight is one of the best ways for them to gain acceptance). Importance of Training : * Training offers innumerable benefits to both employees and employers. It makes the employee more productive and more useful to an organization. The importance of training can be studied under the following heads: Benefits to the business: * Trained workers can work more efficiently. They use machines, tools, and materials in a proper way. Wastage is thus eliminated to a large extent. * There will be fewer accidents. Training improves the knowledge of employees regarding the use of machines and equipment. Hence, trained workers need not be put under close supervision, as they know how to handle operations properly. * Trained workers can show superior performance. They can turn out better performance. They can turn out better quality goods by putting the materials, tools and equipment to good use. * Training makes employees more loyal to an organization. They will be less inclined to leave the unit where there are growth opportunities Benefits to the employees: * Training makes an employee more useful to a firm. Hence, he will find employment more easily. * Training makes employees more efficient and effective. By combining materials, tools and equipment in a right way, they can produce more with minimum effort. * Training enables employees to secure promotions easily. They can realise their career goals comfortably. * Training helps an employee to move from one organization to another easily. He can be more mobile and pursue career goals actively. * Employees can avoid mistakes, accidents on the job. They can handle jobs with confidence. They will be more satisfied on their jobs. Their morale would be high. Thus, training can contribute to higher production, fewer mistakes, greater job satisfaction and lower labour turnover. Also, it can enable employees to cope with organizational, social and technological change. Effective training is an invaluable investment in the human resources of an organization. Learning Principles: The Philosophy of Training Training is essential for job success. It can lead to higher production, fewer mistakes, greater job satisfaction and lower turnover. These benefits accrue to both the trainee and the organization, if managers understand the principles behind the training process. To this end, training efforts must invariably follow certain learning-oriented guidelines. Modelling Modeling is simply copying someone elses behavior. Passive classroom learning does not leave any room for modeling. If we want to change people, it would be a good idea to have videotapes of people showing the desired behavior. The selected model should provide the right kind of behavior to be copied by others. A great deal of human behaviour is learned by modelling others. Children learn by modelling parents and older children, they are quite comfortable with the process by the time they grow up. As experts put it. managers tend to manage as they were managed Motivation For learning to take place, intention to learn is important. When the employee is motivated, he pays attention to what is being said, done and presented. Motivation to learn is influenced by the answers to questions such as: How important is my job to me? How important is the information? Will learning help me progress in the company? etc. People learn more quickly when the material is important and relevant to them. Learning is usually quicker and long-lasting when the learner participates actively. Most people, for example, never forget how to ride a bicycle because they took an active part in the learning process. Reinforcement Positive reinforcement consists of rewarding desired behaviors. If a behavior is rewarded, it probably will be repeated. People avoid certain behaviors that invite criticism and punishment. A bank officer would want to do a postgraduate course in finance, if it earns him increments and makes him eligible for further promotions. Both the external rewards (investments, praise) and the internal rewards (a feeling of pride and achievement) associated with desired behaviors compel subjects to learn properly. To be effective, the trainer must reward desired behaviors only. If he rewards poor performance, the results may be disastrous: good performers may quit in frustration, accidents may go up, and productivity may suffer. The reinforcement principle is also based on the premise that punishment is less effective in learning than reward. Punishment is a pointer to undesirable behaviors. When administered, it causes pain to the employee. He mayor may not repeat the mistakes. The reactions m ay be mild or wild. Action taken to repeal a person from undesirable action is punishment. If administered properly, punishment may force the trainee to modify the undesired or incorrect behaviors. Feedback People learn best if reinforcement is given as soon as possible after training. Every employee wants to know what is expected of him and how well he is doing. If he is off the track, somebody must put him back on the rails. The errors in such cases must be rectified immediately. The trainee after learning the right behaviour is motivated to do things in a right way and earn the associated rewards. Positive feedback (showing the trainee the right way of doing things) is to be preferred to negative feedback (telling the trainee that he is not correct) when we want to change behaviour. Spaced Practice Learning takes place easily if the practice sessions are spread over a period of time. New employees learn better if the orientation programme is spread over a two or three day period, instead of covering it all in one day. For memorizing tasks, massed practice is usually more effective. Imagine the way schools ask the kids to say the Lords prayer aloud. Can you memorise a long poem by learning only one line per day? You tend to forget the beginning of the poem by the time you reach the last stanza. For acquiring skills as stated by Mathis and Jackson, spaced practice is usually the best. This incremental approach to skill acquisition minimises the physical fatigue that deters learning. Whole Learning The concept of whole learning suggests that employees learn better if the job information is explained as an entire logical process, so that they can see how the various actions fit together into the big picture. A broad overview of what the trainee would be doing on the job should be given top priority, if learning has to take place quickly. Research studies have also indicated that it is more efficient to practice a whole task all at once rather than trying to master the various components of the task at different intervals. Active Practice Practice makes a man perfect: so said Bacon. To be a swimmer, you should plunge into water instead of simply reading about swimming or looking at films of the worlds best swimmers. Learning is enhanced when trainees are provided ample opportunities to repeat the task. For maximum benefit, practice sessions should be distributed over time. Applicability of Training Training should be as real as possible so that trainees can successfully transfer the new knowledge to their jobs. The training situations should be set up so that trainees can visualise and identify with the types of situations they can come across on the job. Environment Finally, environment plays a major role in training. It is natural that workers who are exposed to training in comfortable environments with adequate, well spaced rest periods are more likely to learn than employees whose training conditions are less than ideal. Generally speaking, learning is very fast at the beginning. Thereafter, the pace of learning slows down as opportunities for improvement taper off. Areas of Training The Areas of Training in which training is offered may be classified into the following categories. Knowledge Here the trainee learns about a set of rules and regulations about the job, the staff and the products or services offered by the company. The aim is to make the new employee fully aware of what goes on inside and outside the company. Technical Skills The employee is taught a specific skill (e.g., operating a machine, handling computer etc.) so that he can acquire that skill and contribute meaningfully. Social Skills The employee is made to learn about himself and others, and to develop a right mental attitude towards the job, colleagues and the company. The principal focus is on teaching the employee how to be a team member and get ahead . Techniques This involves the application of knowledge and skill to various on-the-job situations. In addition to improving the skills and knowledge of employees, training aims at moulding employee attitudes: When administered properly, a training programme will go a long way in obt8ining employee loyalty, support and commitment to company activities. Types of Training There are many approaches to training. We focus here on the types of training that are commonly employed in present-day organisations. Skills training: Skill training is most common in organisations. The process here is fairly simple. The need for training in basic skills (such as reading, writing, computing, speaking, listening, problem solving, managing oneself, knowing how to learn, working as part of a team, leading others) is identified through assessment. Specific training objectives are set and training content is developed to meet those objectives. Several methods are available for imparting these basic skills in modern organisations (such as lectures, apprenticeship, on-the-job, coaching etc.). Before employing these methods, managers should: * explain how the training will help the trainees in their jobs. * relate the training to the trainees goals. * respect and consider participant responses and use these as a resource. * encourage trainees to learn by doing. Â  * give feedback on progress toward meeting learning objectives. Refresher training: Rapid changes in technology may force companies to go in for this kind of training. By organising short-term courses which incorporate the latest developments in a particular field, the company may keep its employees up-to-date and ready to take on emerging challenges. * It is conducted at regular intervals by taking the help of outside consultants who specialise in a particular descriptive. Cross-functional Training: Cross-functional Training involves training employees to perform operations in areas other than their assigned job. There are many approaches to cross functional training. Job rotation can be used to provide a manager in one functional area with a broader perspective than he would otherwise have. Departments can exchange personnel for a certain period so that each employee understands how other departments are functioning. High performing workers can act as peer trainers and help employees develop skills in another area of operation. Cross functional training provides the following benefits to an organisation (and the workers as well) (1) Workers gain rich experience in handling diverse jobs; they become more adaptable and versatile (2) they can better engineer their own career paths (3) they not only know their job well but also understand how others are able to perform under a different set of constraints (4) A broader perspective increases workers understanding of the business and reduces the need for supervision (5) when workers can fill in for other workers who are absent, it is easier to use flexible scheduling, which is increasingly in demand as more employees want to spend more time with their families. Eli Lilly and Company (India), for example, encourages cross-functional movements to make the organisation equally attractive to both specialists and generalists. Team Training: Team training generally covers two areas; content tasks and group processes. Content tasks specify the teams goals such as cost control and problem solving. Group processes reflect the way members function as a team for example how they interact with each other, how they sort out differences, how they participate etc. Companies are investing heavy amounts, nowadays, in training new employees to listen to each other and to cooperate. They are using outdoor experiential training techniques to develop teamwork and team spirit among their employees (such as scaling a mountain, preparing recipes for colleagues at a restaurant, sailing through uncharted waters, crossing a jungle etc.). The training basically throws light on (i) how members should communicate with each other (ii) how they have to cooperate and get ahead (iii) how they should deal with conflict-full situations (iv) how they should find their way, using collective wisdom and experience to good advantage. Creativity training: Companies like Mudra Communications, Titan Industries, Wipro encourage their employees to think unconventionally, break the rules, take risks, go out of the box and devise unexpected solutions. * Postpone judgment: Dont reject any idea * Create alternative frames of reference * Break the boundary of thinking * Examine a different aspect of the problem * Make a wish list of solutions * Borrow ideas from other fields * Look for processes to change or eliminate * Think up alternative methods * Adopt another persons perspective * Question all Assumptions. In creativity training, trainers often focus on three things: (a) Breaking away: In order to break away from restrictions, the trainee is expected to (i) identify the dominant ideas influencing his own thinking (ii) define the boundaries within which he is working (iii) bring the assumptions out into the open and challenge everything (b) Generate new ideas: To generate new ideas, the trainee should open up his mind; look at the problem from all possible angles and list as many alternative approaches as possible. The trainee should allow his mind to wander over alternatives freely. Expose himself to new influences (people, articles, books, situations), switch over from one perspective to another, -arrange cross fertilization of ideas with other people and use analogies to spark off ideas. (c) Delaying judgement: To promote creative thinking, the trainee should not try to kill off ideas too quickly; they should be held back until he is able to generate as many ideas as possible. He should allow ideas to grow a little. Brainstorming (getting a large number of ideas from a group of people in a short time) often helps in generating as many ideas as possible without pausing to evaluate them. It helps in releasing ideas, overcoming inhibitions, cross fertilising ideas and getting away from patterned thinking. Diversity Training: Diversity training considers all of the diverse dimensions in the workplace race, gender, age, disabilities, lifestyles, culture, education, ideas and backgrounds while designing a training programme. It aims to create better cross-cultural sensitivity with the aim of fostering more harmonious and fruitful working relationships among a firms employees. The programme covers two things: (i) awareness building, which helps employees appreciate the key benefits of diversity, and (ii) skill building, which offers the knowledge, skills and abilities required for working with people having varied backgrounds. Literacy Training: Inability to write, speak and work well with others could often come in the way of discharging duties, especially at the lower levels. Workers, in such situations, may fail to understand safety messages, appreciate the importance of sticking to rules, and commit avoidable mistakes. Functional illiteracy (low skill level in a particular content area) may be a serious impediment to a firms productivity and competitiveness. Functional literacy programmes focus on the basic skills required to perform a job adequately and capitalise on most workers motivation to get help in a particular area. Tutorial programmes, home assignments, reading and writing exercises, simple mathematical tests, etc., are generally used in all company in-house programmes meant to improve the literacy levels of employees with weak reading, writing or arithmetic skills.

Analysing Britains Role In The European Union Politics Essay

Analysing Britains Role In The European Union Politics Essay It was only on January 1, 1973 that Britain became an official member of the European Union. Ultimately, what was seen through this was twenty-two years of little participation from Britain in the affairs of Europe. Twenty-two years before its entrance, Britain was given the opportunity in 1950 to participate in the negotiations that paved the path for the emergence of the European Coal and Steel Community; nevertheless, when an invitation was extended to the Labour Government of the time, Prime Minister Clement Attlee declined to participate in these discussions. Later, when the ECSC and its six member-states passed consensus to expand the ECSC, Britain was invited to the negotiations but Prime Minister Anthony Eden ultimately withdrew his Conservative party from the discussions. By 1974, a year after its official membership, Britain had become regarded as an awkward partner to the European Union, a standing that continues to be seen between Britain and the EU as a result of the pol icies that Britains respective leaders have taken towards the European Union. Conservative Government Strained Relations of 1973 1974 Edward Heath, who took the reins of Britain in 1970, was at the helm of building a stronger relationship with the European Union. His pro-European attitude led to the ultimate admittance of Britain into the EU. Nevertheless, admission came at a time when Britain and the rest of Europe began to see a strain to their economies. The success that the EEC had seen prior to Britains admission was not shared; instead, Britain entered during a period of recession which led its membership to not have positive connotations with Britons. While Edward Heath and Georges Pompidou had started to build a close relationship after Britains entrance, Britains attempt at increasing the quality and size EECs institutions and proposing the concentration of its activities in Brussels angered the Commission because, through it, Britain continued to imply that the Commission was ineffective. When it came to the Economic and Monetary Union, Britain once again earned a reputation of being an awkward partner in the EU. Britain disappointed its EU partners when it declared that it would not enter the sterling into the joint float unless certain agreements were reached by the EEC to underwrite the sterlings value. While the rest of the member-states had agreed to place the bank in Luxemburg, Heath insulted the EU by pressing for centralization of the European reserve bank to be located in Brussels, which fared negatively for him as a result of member-states believing that Britain was meddling in issues that they have no involvement in. As Britain continued to slowly integrate into the EU, the British government continued to strain its relationship with the other EEC members. Instead of acting in a diplomatic manner, British officials openly voiced their opinions of the incompetence seen within the EEC, which often angered the original six. Heaths push for what he believed were necessary changes to the external energy policy of the EU was often seen as conflicting with the positions of the other member states; France had continued to insist that an internal policy would need to be first established before the EU could even consider the feasibility of an external policy. The British, on the other hand, did not believe that internal energy policy was as crucial as the EUs external policy on the matter. Unfortunately, the start of the Arab-Israeli war brought about oil shortages that brought many EU nations down to their knees; the Dutch and the Germans, who at first supported Britains argument in preventing an interna l policy, began suffering heavily from the shortages in oil and shortly after began supporting the creation of an internal European oil/energy policy. In a show of their awkward partnership, Britain decided that not back down from their original position of rejecting an internal energy policy for the EU, which led the continuing of European oil shortages. Britain focused on its own domestic interests, feared that the establishment of internal energy policy would give the EU an opportunity of obtaining access to Britains oil reserves in the North Sea. As a result, Heath would not concede to EU pressure and refused to consolidate and distribute energy resources equally amongst EU member-states. What started as a constructive and optimistic entry into the EU ended with conflict and stress between Britain and the EU member-states. While Heath was genuinely interested in strengthening the European Union, his actions were seen as Britain being uncooperative as a result of its desire to benefit from the EU for the sake of its own national interests. Regrettably, the Labour party that took office in 1974 would continue Britains role as an awkward partner. Labour Government of 1974-1979 The Labour party that succeeded Heaths government in 1974 began to take a backseat in international politics as it attempted to repair the country. Domestically, Britain had become plagued with economic and political problems caused by both the oil crisis and by Heaths inability to control British trade unions (Guido, 1984). As a result of the oil crisis, inflation hit British society hard and was predicted to remain on the rise, while the balance of payments saw a deficit in the billions by the end of 1974. While Prime Minister Harold Wilson had to work with hung Parliament, he also found himself, at the same time, being forced to deal with the problems of his divided country. Britains membership in the EU continued to be an issue to many Britons, which allowed Wilson to unite Britain in a campaign against the European Union (Bilski, 1977). Wilson, in seeing the negative opinion Britons had of the EU, decided to become a protector of Britains national interests by pressing for British membership in the EU to be renegotiated with acceptable terms. What began as peaceful negotiations that aimed to adapt and reshape the terms of Britains membership in the EU soon turned harsh by April 1974; at the renegotiations held in April, Britain demanded to have the right to withdraw itself from the EU if any future negotiation led to terms that Britain would not agree to (Ernst, 1974). While the Commission was disappointed with Britains tone, it felt obligated to sit down with Britain to renegotiate its terms of membership. After Wilson strongly campaigned for his government against the EU on CAP; cash rebates; and Britains membership terms, domestic polls showed that a higher percent of Britons supported EU membership. While the referendum produced high support for membership from the public, Wilson continued to see hostility towards the EU from within his own party. As such, Britain found itself again as an awkward partner to the EU based on the negotiations of pollution control and Britains claims from the ERDF. When the EU proposed changes to emission limits, Britain quickly rejected the proposal and claimed that the standards were unsuitable for Britain. While the EU suspected that Britain was influenced by its chemical industry, West Germany argued that the lax standards that British chemical plants had gained by not accepting the emission limits would give British companies a price advantage over European competitors. In continuing the souring of its relationship with the EU, Britain was accused of making claims from the ERDF for projects that were supposed to be funded by British funds. The ERDF was established with the mindset that only projects that were not funded through national money could be claimed. Instead, Britain had decided to put in only claims that would allow it to recover the money it had itself put into the ERDF fund. To the EU, this attempt at recovering its own funds showcased Britains inability to have a community-based mentality. Finally, when it came time to look into energy policy again, Britain once again took the steps to make it an awkward partner with the EU. Britain continued to object the proposal of placing controls on the production and distribution of oil energy even when the EU attempted to accommodate each and every demand by the British government. Nevertheless, Britain continued to argue that it needed more time to look into the effects of such proposal, which angered all the member-states who wanted to obtain an accord on an outline of the policy. In discussing the upcoming conference of 1975, Britain showed again showed its disinterest in cooperating with the EU when it announced that it would not agree to be represented by a single EC seat at the Paris conference. Annoyed, Germany sent out a letter to the member-states that expressed anger at the lack of community within the EU as a result of Britains position on the seat allocation. Germany argued that with its weak economy, Britain was in no position to negotiate on these issues without any consequences (Davidson, 1975). Members-states continued to argue that the negative attitude of the British government hindered their ability to develop a common policy. While the Wilson administration tarnished Britains reputation within the EU, the emergence of James Callaghan as the next Prime Minister did little to make the EU hopeful of a better relationship with Britain. While Callaghan took a peaceful approach towards the EU early on, domestic hostility towards Britains membership in the EU continued to remain high; which led Callaghan to remain cautious in his relationship with the EU. The letter from Callaghan to Labour Secretary Ron Hayward, while positive at first, continued Britain on its negative relations with the EU. Callaghan claimed that the EU was not working in the interests of Britain and that the only reason for not withdrawing from the EU was that it would tarnish Britains relations with the United States. Callaghans statement in regards to the US angered member-states who complained that Britain was providing more attention to the United States than to its partners in the EU. A prominent theme in Callaghans government, US-Briti sh relations did little to lift Britains reputation within the EU, and its relations would continue to spiral downward with the rise of the Thatcher government. Rise of Thatcher: 1979 to 1990 Elected in 1979, the Thatcher government that rose to power following Callaghans Labour government became quickly aligned to the U.S. government, much to the anger of Britains EU partners who were against influence stemming from the United States. Nevertheless, by 1981, the European Union was suffering an economic downturn and was facing bankruptcy. In order to counter this problem, the EU proposed increasing the VAT ceiling by an additional one percent, which Britain strongly refused to accept. Relations between Britain and the EU continued to sour during this financial crisis because Britain continued to hold up any compromises and refused to agree on any proposals set forth by the EU. As the EU member-states grew irritated with Britains reservations on agreeing to new agricultural prices, member-states decided to call for a majority vote on the price levels. In retaliation, Britain protested this action, stating that it breached Britains right to utilize a veto on the topic. Never theless, already weary with Britains inability to compromise, member-states rejected Britains complaint because they believed that agricultural price levels were not of national interest for Britain. As a result of Britains lack of cooperation, France proposed removing Britain as a member of the EU and making it a nation with special status in the EU (Hansard, 1982). When the EU finally ran out of money in 1984, it proposed adding an additional budget of two billion to aid them for the rest of the year. As usual, Britain became an awkward partner by announcing that it would reject a supplementary budget, asserting that the EU should learn how to operate with the budget it had been already been given. Hearing this, member-states grew weary with the already unpopular British government and labelled Thatcher as being counter-productive to the success of the Union (The Economist, 1984). Member-states were disappointed with Britains primary concern over the budget rather than on the wellbeing of the EU partnership. Already blacklisted as a hardliner, Thatchers strong cooperation and identification with the U.S. did little to help her image with the EU. The Reagan Administration, on a hunt for terrorists in Syria and Libya, was set on placing restrictions on these two countries and urged Britain to join its cause. Britains involvement in urging EU sanctions against Syria left many EU member-states troubled by Britains strong partnership with the United States. While the early 1980s saw a more peaceful and relaxed time for the interactions between Britain and the EU, Britain did appear again as an awkward partner by the end of the 1980s. When proposals for a single European currency were suggested at the 1988 meeting in Hanover, Thatcher quickly responded that she would not take any steps of integrating the sterling pound into the EMS. Additionally, Thatcher rejected any ideas of creating a European central bank, stating that a central bank would require a central government to succeed, to which she argued that her government was not ready to accept a centralized European government. Nevertheless, frustrated by Britain, the EU decided to proceed without the British and establish a committee to look into the possible ways to strengthen the EMS (Hansard, 1988). Concerned at the route that the EU began taking, Thatcher publically denounced the committee and proclaimed that Britain would never agree to the establishment of a European Central Ba nk, a statement which continued to strain relations between Britain and the EU (Ibid, 1988). When discussing a European technological cooperation budget in 1986, Britain once again was labelled as the EUs awkward partner in its refusal to accept the amount of funding proposed by the other member-states. The EU believed that it would be giving Britain more value for its investment in research and development; nevertheless, Britain would not budge from its original budget proposal (Peel, 1987). Once Britain backed down and agreed to fund the program in 1987, member-states had become frustrated with the termination of the program as a result of lack of funding from the British (Sharp, 1987). When the EU expressed interest in reviving the plans for the European Defence Community in 1987, Thatcher warned against the idea in fear that the establishment of such defence policy would counter the links that the EU and Britain had established with the United States. These strong views from Thatcher made Britain seem to be uncooperative with the goals set forth by the EU. While some member-states were also unwilling to establish an EDC, the tone that Thatcher used which made her sound more concerned with Britains relationship with the United States made Britain an awkward partner for the EU. Her focus on preserving ties with the United States rather than worrying about European interests greatly hindered her ability to work with her EU partners. At home, Margaret Thatcher began facing attacks from the Labour party, who accused her of attempting to slow the development of the European Union (Independent, 1989). They argued that the EU would continue its development with or without Britain and that it would be dangerous for Britain to be left as a second-class member (Independent, 1989). The public was further enraged by Thatchers tone against the EU; numbers in the country showed that the public had become more pro-Europe since the referendum in 1975 (Independent, 1989). As a result, Thatcher saw herself being forced to become much more neutral and conciliatory towards the EU. While members of her cabinet continued to attack the EU on monetary policy, Thatcher decided to accept only the first condition of the Delors proposal for the creation of a monetary union. Thus, throughout 1989 and 1990, the proposal for a monetary union became a primary theme for both the EU and Britain. Due to the fact that Thatcher personally opposed Britains membership in the ERM, government officials quickly grew angry with her stance and many subsequently resigned from their posts. Officials argued that Thatchers views were not consistent with the views of the British government and that by remaining out of the ERM, Britain would be unable to take part in the discussions surrounding a monetary union. With a government pressing for entry into the ERM, Thatcher eventually agreed that Britain would become a member of the ERM on October 5, 1990 (Elliott, 2005). While Thatcher agreed to enter the ERM, her partnership with the EU once again became awkward when she refused to allow the EU to move to the second stage of the Delors report. Much to the anger of Parliament and her cabinet, Thatcher argued that national interests could not allow her to hand over the sterling to the EU (Hansard, 1990). As a result of her stubbornness, the EU saw Britain as an awkward partner and Thatcher lost her Deputy PM, who resigned in frustration. Her Deputy PM argued that the uncooperative tone that Thatcher had taken with the EU would make it more difficult for Britain to hold influence over the future of the monetary union. Additionally, he blamed Thatcher for the inflation that Britain was suffering as a result of her disinterest in joining the ERM (Independent, 1990). The resignation of Geoffrey Howe slowly gave way to the end of Thatchers reign as Prime Minister and rise to the government of John Major in November 1990, which hoped to build better relatio ns with the European Union. Conservative Government of 1990 to 1997 While the Major administration that took over tried to mend relations between Britain and the EU, it constantly found itself returning towards the hostile relationship found under the reign of Thatcher. In 1991, President Delors provided Britain an opportunity to accept an opt-out clause in regards to accepting a single currency. While Thatcher still argued against the concept of accepting any compromise on monetary union, Major felt that an opt-out clause in the Maastricht Treaty would help Britain overcome its hesitation on the topic. Nevertheless, because only Britain was given this opt-out opportunity, it was again placed as an awkward partner as a result of its unwillingness to completely cooperate with the union. By 1992, Britain had assumed the EU Presidency and now found itself strongly on the defence of the Maastricht Treaty. Major believed that standing in complete support of ratification of the Treaty would show the EU that Britain was dedicated to its role within the EU. At the same time, he believed that the treaty would hinder attempts at centralizing the EU. Nonetheless, Delors interpretation of the Maastricht Treaty as an opportunity for the EU to become a federalist state upset both Britain and many of the EU member-states. As a result, Denmarks referendum led to a defeat of the treaty, which shocked many nations, including Britain. Consequently, Major now found himself advocating the ratification of a treaty that every other member-state had wanted to renegotiate. Thatcher condemned Majors support for the Maastricht Treaty and called for a British referendum on the treaty. With trouble at home, Major faced anger and criticism from member-states who claimed that Britain continued t o remain focused on her self-interests and ignored the problems facing the EU as a whole. Fear that France would vote against the Treaty gave way to a loss of confidence in the ERM, which led to the pound sterling being forced out of the ERM as a result of Britain being able to maintain the sterling above its set lower limit (Hansard, 1992). This latest development in the problems during the British presidency only served to fuel Britains role as the EUs awkward partner. As a result of resentment towards the EU within Britain, Major struggled to maintain positive relations with the EU; the nominations for the President of the Commission in June 1994 showcased Britains struggle and awkwardness as a partner. At the meeting, Major vetoed the appointment of Jean-Luc Dehaene, announcing that he would never agree to his nomination (Barber, 1994). EU member-states grew angry by Britains stance, claiming that Britain was driven by its domestic interests rather than its interests with the EU. Britain became the awkward partner when the Council was forced to agree on the nomination of Prime Minister Jacques Santer of Luxemburg instead of their original nomination. Majors actions against Germanys nomination of Dehaene quickly deteriorated Britains relationship with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. What started as a desire for complete EU cooperation ended with Britain having a tarnished reputation amongst its EU partners. Majors actions against the EU, through his threats, vetoes, stances and public speeches, led to his government being isolated from the politics of the EU. While a large portion of the problems with the EU emerged as a result of influence stemming from domestic policy at home, Majors angry tone towards the EU over the election of a new commission President, and over the mad cow crisis of 1996 only served to further distance Britain from the EU. Britains Present Day Status Though this report only discusses the governments of Heath, Wilson, Callaghan, Thatcher, and Major, it is important to note that despite the fact that relations have somewhat improved between Britain and the EU, there still remains tension between the two partners to make Britain continue its path as an awkward partner. While the Blair and Brown administrations have improved Britains relationship with the EU, there still exists an awkward relationship between the two partners. Though political parties have change, Britain continues to maintain its position as the EUs awkward partner as a result of the domestic fear in accepting the EUs role and influence in British politics; the strong sense of maintaining national pride and through the rejection of European federalism; and finally, as a result of the continued focus on maintaining a strong relationship with the United States. Nevertheless, while domestic uncertainty towards European Union has remained prevalent in Britain, one can say that the EU has indeed had an impact on British politics and Britains foreign policy. Once known for its dominant decision-making role in international affairs and in its own domestic policies, Britain has shifted its view of global politics to that where it has realized that its relationship with the United States and the EU are equally important for the success of the nation. Thus, while Britain still remains an awkward partner to the EU, the steps and actions that Britain has taken in the two most recent administrations and with any luck in the upcoming administration can be claimed as an attempt by the British nation to take slow and calculated steps towards ultimately embracing its membership within the European Union.

Terrorism And Globalization

Terrorism And Globalization Defining terrorism The terrorist phenomenon has a long and varied history, punctuated by lively debates over the meaning of the term. The term itself has always been a difficult one to define. This is partly because the term has evolved over the years and in part because it is associated with an activity that is designed to be subjective. Generally speaking, the targets of the terrorists are not the victims who are killed or injured in the attack. The terrorists hope to engender a reaction such as fear, repulsion, intimidation, overreaction, or radicalization. Terrorism is intended to be a matter of perception and is thus seen differently by different observers. The problem of defining terrorism has hindered analysis since the inception of studies of terrorism in the early 1970s. One set of problems is due to the fact that the concept of terrorism is deeply contested. The use of the term is often polemical and rhetorical. Even if the term is used objectively as an analytical tool, it is still difficult to arrive at a satisfactory definition that distinguishes terrorism from other violent phenomena. Generally speaking, terrorism is deliberate and systematic violence performed by small numbers of people, whereas communal violence is spontaneous, sporadic, and requires mass participation. The purpose of terrorism is to intimidate a watching popular audience by harming only a few, whereas genocide is the elimination of entire communities. Terrorism is meant to hurt. Terrorism is preeminently political and symbolic, where as guerrilla warfare is a military activity. Repressive terror from above is the action of those in power, whereas terrorism i s resistance to authority. Yet in practice, events cannot always be precisely categorized. A few generalizations can be made about terrorism that differentiates it from the states use of force. First, terrorism always has a political nature. It requires the occurrence of outrageous acts that will lead to political change. Second, it is the nonstate character of terrorism that differentiates it from the many other uses of violence that are inherently political such as war among states-even when terrorists receive military, political, economic, and other means of support from state sources. States obviously employ force for political ends: When state force is used internationally, it is considered an act of war; when it is used domestically, it is called various things, including law enforcement, state terror, oppression, or civil war. Although states can terrorize, they are not defined as terrorists. Third, it is generally the innocent that become the target of terrorism. This also distinguishes it from state. In any given example, the latter may or may not be seen as justified but this use of force is different from terrorism. Finally, state use of force is subject to international norms and conventions that may be invoked or at least consulted. Terrorists, on the other hand, do not abide by international laws or norms. In fact, in order to maximize the psychological effect of an attack, the terrorist activities have a deliberately unpredictable quality. Thus, generally speaking, terrorism can be said to have the following characteristics: a fundamentally political nature, the surprise element (use of violence against seemingly random targets), and the targeting of the innocent by nonstate actors. Even within the terms of these general characteristics, the practice of terrorism is highly diverse. The conceptual category of terrorism encompasses a wide variety of phenomena, ranging from kidnappings of individuals (in order to pressure governments to agree to specific political demands) to indiscriminate mass-casualty bombings of high-profile symbolic targets. Terrorism occurs in widely different cultural settings. Origins Terrorism is as old as human history. Modern terrorism, however, is generally considered to have originated with the French Revolution. The term terror was first employed in 1795, when it was coined to refer to a policy systemically used to protect the French republic government against counterrevolutionaries. Modern terrorism is a dynamic concept, from the outset dependent to some degree on the political and historical context within which it has been employed. Although individual terrorist groups have unique characteristics and arise in specific local contexts, an examination of broad historical patterns reveals that the international system within which such groups are born does influence their nature and motivations. A distinguishing feature of modern terrorism has been the connection between political or ideological concepts and increasing levels of terrorist activity internationally. The broad political aim has been against (1) empires, (2) colonial powers, and (3) the U.S.- led international system marked by globalization. Thus it is important to understand the general history of modern terrorism and where the current threat is within an international context. David Rapoport has described modern terrorism as part of a religiously inspired fourth wave. This wave, according to him, follows three earlier historical phases in which terrorism emerged in relation to the breakup of empires, decolonization, and leftist anti-Westernism. Rapoport argues that terrorism occurs in consecutive if somewhat overlapping waves. The argument here, however, is that modern terrorism has been a power struggle along various scales: central power versus local power, big power versus small power, modern power versus traditional power. The key variable is a widespread perception of opportunity, combined with a shift in a particular political or ideological paradigm. Thus, even though the newest international terrorist threat, emanating largely from Muslim countries, has more of religious inspiration, it is more accurate to see it as part of a larger phenomenon of anti-globalization and tension between the have and have-not nations, as well as between the elite and underprivileged within those nations. In the nineteenth century, the emergence of concepts such as universal suffrage and popular empowerment raised the hopes of people throughout the western world, indirectly resulting in the first phase of modern terrorism. In Russia, for example, it was stimulated not by state repression but by the efforts of the czars to placate demands for economic and political reforms, and the inevitable disappointment of popular expectations that were raised as a result. The goal of terrorists was to engage in attacks on symbolic targets to get the attention of the common people and thus provoke a popular response that would ultimately overturn the prevailing political order. This type of modern terrorism was reflected in the activities of groups such as the Russian Narodnaya Volya (Peoples Will) and later in the development of a series of movements in the United States and Europe, especially in territories of the former Ottoman Empire. The dissolution of empires and the search for a new distribution of political power provided an opportunity for terrorism in the nineteenth and twentieth century. It climaxed in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914, an event that catalyzed the major powers into taking violent action. World War I, the result of the assassination can be said to have ended the first era of modern terrorism. But terrorism tied to popular movements seeking greater democratic representation and political power from coercive empires had not ceased. For example, the Balkans, after the downfall of the former state of Yugoslavia. A second, related phase of modern terrorism is associated with the concept of national self-determination. It can be said to have developed its greatest predominance after World War I. It also continues to the present day. These struggles for power are another facet of terrorism against larger political powers and are specifically designed to win political independence or autonomy. Terrorism achieved an international character during the 1970s and 1980s, evolving in part as a result of technological advances and partly in reaction to the dramatic explosion of international media influence. International links were not new, but their centrality was. Individual, scattered national causes began to develop into international organizations with links and activities increasingly across borders and among differing causes. The 1970s and 1980s represented the height of state-sponsored terrorism. Sometimes the lowest common denominator among the groups was the concept against which they were reacting-for example, Western imperialism- rather than the specific goals they sought. The most important innovation, however, was the increasing commonality of international connections among the groups. After the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre of eleven Israeli athletes, for example, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and its associated groups captured the imaginations of young radicals around the world. AN EARLIER WAVE OF TERRORISM While globalization is for many a causal variable generating backlash and resistance, there also have been earlier waves of globalization. If terrorism and globalization appear together today, it is possible that terrorism and globalization co-appeared during an earlier period that ran from the 1880s to 1914. Associated with the idea of propaganda by deed, Russian, Italian, Spanish, French, American, Serbian, and Macedonian terrorists were involved in a period of assassination and bomb throwing from the Russian and Ottoman Empires to the east through the Austrian Empire and Western Europe to the United States in the west. In Serbia, there was the Black Hand; in Russia, Narodnaya Volya, or Peoples Will; among Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, the Young Bosnians and the Narodna Obrana, or the Peoples Defense. Terrorists from one country also killed people from another. While the contemporary period is known as one of international terrorism, there are clear grounds for considering the anarc hist period as one that also had international or global aspects. Some scholars have made comparisons between figures like bin Laden and late 19th-century Russian terrorists. Similarities in the political religion of their ideologies, the diasporic-or transnational-nature of both sets of terrorists who often resided and planned attacks abroad, and the similarity of global political economic conditions at the end of the 19th and 20th centuries have been noted. If al-Qaeda is a reaction to American empire, as few scholars argue, then one could see earlier terrorist resistance in the form of pre-1914 terrorist groups attacking the empires of their day (the Serbian Black Hand versus the Austrian Empire; Inner Macedonian Revolutionary Organization versus the Ottoman Empire; and the terrorists of Narodnaya Volya versus the Tsarist Russian Empire). In the case of fundamentalist Islamic terrorism, a comparison with the Sudanese revolt of the Mahdi in the 1880s against the British Empire and bin Laden against the United States has been made. Some note a sim ilarity between the hatred of London as the financial center of world capitalism at the end of the 19th century and the hatred by fanatical Muslims today of the dominance of Wall Street and the Pentagon. Since the September 11 attacks, the world has witnessed the maturation of a new phase of terrorist activity, the jihad era, spawned by the Iranian Revolution of 1979 as well as the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan shortly thereafter. The powerful attraction of religious and spiritual movements has overshadowed the nationalist or leftist revolutionary ethos of earlier terrorist phases (though many of those struggles continue), and it has become the central characteristic of a growing international trend. Religious terrorism is not new; rather it is a continuation of an ongoing modern power struggle between those with power and those without it. What is different about this phase is the urgent requirement for solutions that deal both with the religious fanatics who are the terrorists and the far more politically motivated states, entities, and people who would support them because they feel powerless and left behind in a globalizing world. Thus if there is a trend in terrorism, it is the existence of a two-level challenge: the hyper religious motivation of small groups of terrorists and the much broader enabling environment of bad governance, nonexistent social services, and poverty that punctuates much of the developing world. Al-Qaeda, a band driven by religious extremism, is able to do so much harm because of the secondary support and sanctuary it receives in vast areas that have not experienced the political and economic benefits of globalization. There are four types of terrorist organizations that can said to be currently operating around the world, categorized mainly by their source of motivation: left-wing terrorists, right-wing terrorists, ethno nationalist/separatist terrorists, and religious or sacred terrorists. All four types have enjoyed periods of relative prominence in the modern era, with left-wing terrorism intertwined with the Communist movement, right-wing terrorism drawing its inspiration from Fascism, and the bulk of ethno nationalist/separatist terrorism accompanying the wave of decolonization especially in the immediate post-World War II years. Currently, sacred terrorism is becoming more significant. Although groups in all categories continue to exist today, left-wing and right-wing terrorist groups were more numerous in earlier decades. Of course, these categories are not perfect, as many groups have a mix of motivating ideologies-some ethno nationalist groups, for example, have religious characteristics or agendas-but usually one ideology or motivation dominates. NEW TERRORISM Following incidents such as the bombing of the WTC in 1993, U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998, and the attacks on the Pentagon and WTC in 2001, the conventional belief of researchers and commentators on terrorism was that the world had entered a new phase since the 1990s that departed dramatically from what had gone before. It variously was called the new terrorism or spoken of as involving new types of post-cold war terrorists or a new breed of terrorist or new generation of terrorists; or terror in the mind of God or a clash of fundamentalisms or simply a new wave of terrorism. In these analyses terrorism seemed to be changing in some of the following ways. Several recent works focus on a new terrorism that is motivated by religious belief and is more fanatical, deadly, and pervasive than the older and more instrumental forms of terrorism the world had grown accustomed to. This emerging new terrorism is thought to differ from the old terrorism in terms of goals, methods, and organization. The comparison goes roughly as follows. Whereas the old terrorists sought short-term political power through revolution, national liberation, or secession, the new terrorists seek to transform the world. Motivated by religious imperatives, they are thought to lack an earthly constituency and thus to feel accountable only to a deity or to some transcendental or mystical idea. Conventional left-right ideological distinctions are not applicable. Because they do not want popular support, they are unlikely to claim public credit for their actions. Also, new terrorists are thought to be more inclined to use highly lethal methods in order to destroy an impure world and bring about the apocalypse. The strategies of the old terrorists were discriminating; terrorism was a form of communicating a specific message to an audience. In the new terrorism, unlimited ends lead to unlimited means. Thus the new terrorists seek to cause high numbers of casualties and are willing to commit suicide or use weapons of mass destruction in order to do so. Finally, whereas traditional militants were linked in tight, centralized, structured conspiracies, the organization of the new terrorists is decentralized and diffuse. Adherents are united by common experience or inspiration rather than by direct personal interaction with other members of the group and its leaders. Institutions and organizations are less important than beliefs. An earlier and more violent historical antecedent of the conception of a new terrorism is anti-Western terrorism originating in the Middle East that is linked to radical or fundamentalist Islam. This concern dates from the 1980s and terrorism attributed to the Shiite Hezbollah action in Lebanon. Alarm over the emergence of radical Islam (which is a small minority of the Muslim world) was heightened by a combination of factors: the resort to suicide bombings in Lebanon and Israel, a general willingness to inflict mass civilian casualties, and anti-Americana and anti-Western targeting patterns. The bombing of th e World Trade Center in 1993 as well as the bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 further increased the American sense of vulnerability. Trends in Modern Terrorism By the late 1990s, four trends in modern terrorism were becoming apparent: an increase in the incidence of religiously motivated attacks, a decrease in the overall number of attacks, an increase in the lethality per attack, and the growing targeting of Americans. Statistics show that, even before the September 11 attacks, religiously motivated terrorist organizations were becoming more common. The acceleration of this trend has been dramatic: According to the RAND-St. Andrews University Chronology of International Terrorism, in 1968 none of the identified international terrorist organizations could be classified as religious; in 1980, in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution, there were 2 (out of 64), and that number had expanded to 25 (out of 58) by 1995. Another important trend relates to terrorist attacks involving U.S. targets. The number of such attacks increased in the 1990s, from a low of 66 in 1994 to a high of 200 in the year 2000. This is a long-established problem: U.S. nationals consistently have been the most targeted since 1968. But the percentage of international attacks against U.S. targets or U.S. citizens rose dramatically over the 1990s, from about 20 percent in 1993-95 to almost 50 percent in 2000. In addition to the evolving motivation and character of terrorist attacks, there has been a notable dispersal in the geography of terrorist acts-a trend that is likely to continue. Although the Middle East continues to be the locus of most terrorist activity, Central and South Asia, the Balkans, and the Transcaucasus have been growing in significance over the past decade. International connections themselves are not new: International terrorist organizations inspired by common revolutionary principles date to the early nineteenth century and complex mazes of funding, arms, and other state support for international terrorist organizations were in place especially in the 1970s and 1980s. Terrorism Becoming Global Newer terrorist organizations seemed to have moved away from the earlier model of professionally trained terrorists operating within a hierarchical organization with a central command chain and toward a more loosely coupled form of organization with a less clear organizational structure. Similarly, whereas from the 1960s through the 1980s groups more clearly were bound nationally (German, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, Irish, Palestinian, and so forth), more recent organizations like al-Qaeda have members from multiple nationalities and organizational sites outside the leaderships country of origin. The identities of terrorist organizations have become more difficult to identify. Terrorist organizations also seem to identify themselves or to claim responsibility for specific acts less often, such as the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Africa or the events of September 11, which while purportedly organized by bin Laden and al-Qaeda, never clearly were claimed by that organization. This is in contrast with earlier terrorist organizations, which were much clearer in taking responsibility for their actions and defining who they were, often with elaborate radical political ideologies. Terrorist ideologies have become more religious. What has been called the new religious terrorism or holy terrorism reflects the increasing prevalence of religion in the ideology of terrorist organizations, with the most notable being Islamic fundamentalism, or political Islam, and also including Christian fundamentalism or the religious sect Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese terrorist group that released poisonous gas in a Tokyo subway in 1995. There also seems to be an increase in groups with more vague and religious ideologies than earlier radical groups such as the German Red Army Faction, the Italian Red Brigades, or the Japanese Red Army. Terrorist violence becomes more indiscriminate. Along with a geographical dispersion of targets, there seems to be a move away from specific targets, for instance as when hundreds of civilian Kenyan and Tanzanian embassy employees and passersby were killed to achieve the objective of bombing the U.S. embassy. The 1993 and 2001 attacks of the WTC were also examples of more indiscriminate targets, as opposed to earlier skyjacking of a national airlines plane in order to attain specific demands or the kidnapping a particular politician. On reflecting upon these changes, many of them suggest the process of globalization raising the question of whether terrorism, like other economic, cultural, and political aspects of life also is globalizing. Arguments about a growing dispersion and indiscriminateness of terrorist violence also express a disregard for national boundaries and, as such, a growing global, as opposed to national, character of terrorism. GLOBALIZATION AND TERRORISM Some scholars interpret the link between globalization and terrorism in a causal fashion: globalization generates a backlash or resistance that can take the form of terrorist attacks on national powers in the forefront of the globalization processes. In this regard, some see terrorism as a defensive, reactionary, movement against global forces of cultural and economic change. Industrialization then and globalization now involve integration into a larger web of economic transactions that threatens local authority and sense of place. The result is defensive, reactionary mobilization, manifested in European food riots then and Middle Eastern terrorism now. In their article, International Terrorism and the World System, Albert J. Bergesen and Omar Lizardo have formulated a number of theories and bring forth the links between globalization and terrorism. World-System Theory While world-system theorists normally are concerned with questions of development and underdevelopment, they have advanced similar ideas regarding globalization and terrorism. Chase-Dunn and. Boswell in Transnational Social Movements and Democratic Socialist Parties in the Semiperiphery speak of the reactionary force of international terrorism as an anti-systemic element or globalization backlash; M,Jurgensmeyer in Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence links the disruption of globalization with defensive reactions that often take a religious character, and when that reaction is terrorism, it can take the form of fundamentalist Arab-Islamic terrorist organizations. World-Society/Polity Theory While world-society theorists have not addressed the issue of international terrorism directly, they have documented the continued expansion of Western originated cultural models of rationalized action and universal standards during the same period that a rise in international terrorism has been observed. To the extent that there is a possible causal relationship, world-society theorys top-down model of the intrusion of the world-politys global standards, expectations, norms, and definitions of reality also might generate defensive backlash that might, under some circumstances, take the form of international terrorism. It would seem that the growth in world society provides a generalized empowerment for international action on the basis that social existence is global existence and that social problems are global problems. The expansion of global society should empower action across the globe as a distinctly glob logical effect, which means that individuals in Latin America suffering from the side effects of economic globalization should feel just as globally empowered to engage in international backlash terrorism as those of the Arab-Islamic Middle East. But this does not seem to be the case; there is not as much international terrorism emanating from Latin America as from the Middle East, yet both are or should be globally empowered (world-society effect) and angry (globalization creates resistance effect). But the anger seems to be turned inward in Latin America and outward in the Middle East. What accounts for differences of response? Relative openness, democracy, representational institutions, and levels of functioning intermediary social organization may absorb, channel, or somehow provide outlets for the tensions and anger set off by globalization. Their anger is channeled into electoral politics, demonstrations, social move-mints, and domestic terrorism; in the more autocratic Arab-Islamic regimes, dissent is suppressed more often, and there are fewer o pportunities for its expression within the institutionalized political opportunity structures of those states. As a result, given the same level of global empowerment, the anger is turned outward to take the form of international terrorism more often than in Latin America. There is also no doubt something of a curvilinear effect with linkages to world-society. They empower and, given grievances, would have a positive effect upon contentious acts like international terrorism. But continued linkage into world-society also would seem to have an integrative effect and thereby would dampen terrorism rates, yielding an overall curvilinear relationship between linkages to world-society and rates of international terrorism Blowback Theory M.Crenshaw in Why America? The Globalization of Civil War argues that terrorism should be seen as a strategic reaction to American power, an idea associated with Johnsons blowback thesis. In this view, the presence of empires-both at the end of the last century and today-and the analogous unipolar military position of the United States today provoke resistance in the form of terrorism. Johnson notes that the Russian, Ottoman, and Habsburg Empires-which controlled multiple ethnic, religious, and national peoples-led to a backlash, or blowback, by Serb, Macedonian, and Bosnian terrorist organizations . By analogy the powerful global position of the United States, particularly in its role of propping up repressive undemocratic regimes, constitutes something of a similar condition with Arab-Islamic terrorism as a result. The Center for Strategic International Studies (2002) attempts to precisely define globalization, calling it a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. Some aspects of globalization facilitate terrorism. At its basest meaning, globalization means internationalization. Something is taken from a national setting and projected across the world. Certain nations adopt this, others reject it. When most nations do accept it and adopt it, globalization is taking place. A K Cronin in Behind the Curve suggests that terrorism cemented itself as an international phenomenon in the 1970s and 1980s, evolving in partà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ in reaction to the dramatic explosion of international media influence. At this point in time, news media was truly becoming international in scope. Many broadcasting companies maintained correspondents or sister stations in other nations, sharing information back and forth. This would lead to the first visions of terrorism for many peoples who had never seen it. Presently, the media can be responsible for perpetuating the climate of international terror. Another aspect to this concept is that the media can be used by terrorists for their purposes. Osama bin Laden released his now-infamous recorded statements using instruments of globalization. Many have seen video of bin Laden on American media outlets even though it was originally released to regional network Al-Jazeera. International media certainly is not the main byproduct that facilitates terror. Perhaps the main facilitator stemming from globalization is communications technologies. There are many devices taken for granted in Western society that changed the way terrorists operate, especially digital communications device. Clansmen fighting Americans in Somalia in the early 1990s used digital phones that could not be tapped. The internet, mobile phones, and instant messaging have given many terrorist groups a truly global reach. Leading up to the September 11 attacks, al-Qaeda operatives used Yahoo e-mail, while the presumed leader made reservations online and other members researched topics such as using crop dusters to release chemical agents Perhaps even more troubling is that these technologies can be used to disperse terrorists to different locations yet stay connected. Cells can stay in touch through internet communications while websites spread ideologies. It is estimated that al-Qaeda op erates in over sixty countries now as a result of using technologies inspired by globalization Globalization makes CBNR weapons increasingly available to terrorist groups. Information needed to build these weapons has become ubiquitous, especially through the internet. Among the groups interested in acquiring CBNR (besides al-Qaeda) are the PLO, the Red Army Faction, Hezbollah, the Kurdistan Workers Party, German neo-Nazis, and the Chechens. Globalization has enabled terrorist organizations to reach across international borders, in the same way (and often through the same channels) that commerce and business interests are linked. The dropping of barriers through the North American Free Trade Area and the European Union, for instance, has facilitated the smooth flow of many things among countries. This has allowed terrorist organizations as diverse as Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, and the Egyptian al-Gamaat al-Islamiyya to move about freely and establish cells around the world. Movements across borders can obviously en-able terrorists to carry out attacks and potentially evade capture, but it also complicates prosecution if they are apprehended, with a complex maze of extradition laws varying greatly from state to state. The increased permeability of the international system has also enhanced the ability of nonstate terrorist organizations to collect intelligence. States are not the only actors interested in collecting, disseminat ing, and/or acting on such information. In a sense, then, terrorism is in many ways becoming like any other international enterprise. Terrorist organizations are broadening their reach in gathering financial resources to fund their operations.. The list of groups with global financing networks is long and includes most of the groups identified by the U.S. government as foreign terrorist organizations. Sources of financing include legal enterprises such as nonprofit organizations and legitimate companies that divert profits to illegal activities and illegal enterprises such as drug smuggling and production. Websites are also important vehicles for raising funds. Although no comprehensive data are publicly available on how lucrative this avenue is, the proliferation of terrorist websites with links or addresses for