...the largest navy including, its twelve aircraft carriers and the second largest stockpile of nuclear warheads. Its economy produces almost a quarter of the world's wealth. Citizens of the United States are among the most hard-working, affluent, and generous in the world. There is no debating the significance the United States has played on the global stage and as an international superpower. Almost every single American citizen believes that the United States is an exceptional power. The truth is, it...
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...America’s Invisible Cold War Weapon Often overlooked in analyses of U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War, religion acted as a powerful tool to direct U.S. leaders’ decisions and unite Americans in the war against the Soviets (Kirby, 2003; Grimshaw, 2011; Winsboro 2009; Gaddis 1997). Emerging out of studies of the cultural dimension of the Cold War, the “religious Cold War” has become a subject of focus for scholars in the past two decades. Dianne Kirby, a professor of history at the University of Ulster, is the primary voice in the literature surrounding religion and the Cold War. Kirby argues that ideology, specifically the religious component, is key to comprehending “perceptions of and responses to the Soviet Union,” beyond the traditional...
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...in the form of snuff, chewing tobacco, traditional cigarettes and more recently the electronic cigarette. After heavy advertisement and use over the past decades there have been many studies that have shown the negative health effects that tobacco can have on the individual and those around them. Tobacco use is the leading cause of lung and mouth cancers in the United States and also plays a role in many other organs such as the heart and lungs. Armed with this information the government and many other agencies have taken to public health campaigns to raise awareness of these negative effects. In recent years there have been many laws put into place to control tobacco ranging from increased taxes and prohibiting where it can be used. This paper is going to lay out how tobacco production helped shape the United States, how it was an acceptable act to partake in and how in modern times it is becoming a health and legal issue and whether or not it is okay for the government to step in and say what an individual can choose to do. Tobacco in America History of Tobacco in America Tobacco has its origins with the native tribes in which Christopher Columbus visited. Tobacco leaves were later picked up and brought to Europe in the later 1500’s each in different ways. England was introduced through crops made in the new world and other countries...
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...Stephen Mennell HISTORY, NATIONAL CHARACTER AND AMERICAN CIVILISATION America is a land of familiar paradoxes. An agreeable civility habitually prevails in most everyday relations among people in America – yet the United States is factually a socially highly unequal society. In most parts of America, the laws and social customs strongly restrain people from doing harm to themselves and others by smoking – yet the laws and social customs only weakly restrain people from doing harm to themselves and others by the use of guns, and the murder rate is about four times as high per capita as in Western Europe. The usa is the world’s remaining super-power – yet internally the American state is in some ways strikingly weak. The usa has ‘saved the world for democracy’ on more than one occasion – but has itself become an aggressive militaristic society. And there appears to be an increasing divergence between how a large proportion of Americans view themselves and their country and how they are perceived by a large proportion of the 95 per cent of the world’s population who are not Americans. Hunting down myths It has been said that sociologists must be ‘myth-hunters’, tracking down popular beliefs that are ill founded (Elias 1978: 50-70). Whether simply exposing such beliefs to contrary evidence deployed by academics is sufficient to kill off myths and bring them home for mounting on the walls of our university departments is highly debateable. Nevertheless, we have a duty to call...
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...Introduction There are certain crimes today, which invoke a strong personal reaction. What is your first mental image and what emotion do you first notice when you hear the term, “sex offender?” Do you picture a scary looking male stranger? Is your first emotion, anger or maybe fear? Now, what is your initial reaction when someone says that the post-sentencing laws for these offenders may be doing more harm then good in regard to current legislation passed after high profile cases. Are sexual crimes all equally heinous, justifying opinions that the offender did the crime so they should accept the consequences? I believe that these laws were created with the best of intentions. Yet, these laws are now creating alternate paths to dangerous alternatives and roadblocks to the goals they seek to achieve. Legistation On October 22, 1989, an 11-year-old boy named Jacob Wetterling was abducted from a small town in Minnesota (Hawkins, 2009). Jacob and his two friends rode their bikes into town to a convenience store to rent movies (Hawkins, 2009). On the way back home, a gunman stepped out of the woods, and told Jacob’s two friends to run into the woods and not look back (Yoder, 2011). Jacob, who stayed behind, has never been seen since (Yoder, 2011). A massive manhunt ensued with law enforcement from all over, however their exhausting efforts never led them to finding Jacob or his abductor. This case captured headlines all over the United States and in 1994 it prompted legislation...
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...The voyage lasted around twenty-eight months, and its group traveled around eight thousand miles. Throughout the expedition, the group interacted with Native Americans, animals, and plants; its two leaders documented all information in their journals, which were to be read by Jefferson. Albeit a “Northwest Passage” wasn’t discovered, the expedition provided priceless information about wildlife, terrain, and indigenous inhabitants of the far Western territories. After researching the extensive journey and its profound contributions to our understanding of the American West, I wish I had been a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition since it was a tremendous journey of exploration, discovery, and adventure (the hike of a lifetime?). It would have been a chance to explore the immensity of uncharted territory and encounter new cultures and tribes. The expedition was a turning point since it opened up vast areas of America’s West to settlement and provided valuable knowledge about the geography and biology of the region. It also laid the groundwork for westward expansion, which is also a tragic development since it hurt Native American...
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...Bruce W. Jentleson Strategic Recalibration: Framework for a 21stCentury National Security Strategy T he release of the Obama administration’s 2014 National Security Strategy comes amidst increasing criticism of its strategic savvy. Some are rank partisan, some Monday-morning quarterbacking. Some, though, reflect the intensifying debate over the optimal U.S. foreign policy strategy for our contemporary era. At one end of the debate are those advocating retrenchment, who see limited global threats on one hand and prioritize domestic concerns on the other—be they the budget-cutting of the Tea Party right or the nation-building-at-home of the progressive left. At the other end are neoconservatives and others pushing for re-assertiveness. This is based on a bullish assessment of U.S. power and the contention that it still is both in the U.S. national interest and that of world order for the United States to be the dominant nation. While retrenchment overestimates the extent to which the United States can stand apart, reassertiveness overestimates the extent to which it can sit atop. The United States must remain deeply and broadly engaged in the world, but it must do so through a strategy of recalibration to the geopolitical, economic, technological, and other dynamics driving this 21st-century world. This entails a re-appraisal of U.S. interests, re-assessment of U.S. power, and re-positioning Bruce W. Jentleson is a Professor at Duke University, Sanford...
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...Abstract This paper will explain many things about the Animal Liberation Front, including its operational goals; why it is a threat to the United States of America; what actions led to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation declaring it a terrorist organization; what other countries consider it a terrorist organization and why; how it acts like a terrorist organization instead of a peaceful eco-movement; and what can be done to halt or reduce this threat in the future. The Animal Liberation Front is a terrorist group for many reasons, ranging from their operational structure to their belief system. For example, they adopted the classic clandestine cell structure in order to reduce the risk of all of the cells being compromised if one person is picked up (Shorn, 2009). This allows the members of the Animal Liberation Front to continue their operations and reduce their operational risks slightly while still maintaining security. The Animal Liberation Front originally became a threat to the United States in 1976, when it claimed its’ first firebombing, and it has only grown since then. The firebombing and the hundreds of other actions that followed it plainly show that they are a terrorist organization by their targets and how they attack those targets. The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) has also claimed credit for causing millions of dollars in damage in the United States alone (Bourne, 2003). The targets of the ALF have also begun to mutate and become more...
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...OF INEQUALITY Box 1: COMPARATIVE STUDIES ON INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL MOBILITY ACROSS OECD AND LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES Presented by Del Mundo, Maria Naida Box 2: SOCIAL AND POLITICAL COHESION, SOCIAL TOLERANCE OF INEQUALITY Presented by Gutierrez, Cherry Lou THE IMPACT OF INEQUALITY ABSTRACT October 29, 2014 There is growing evidence and recognition on the powerful and corrosive effects of inequality on economic growth, poverty, social mobility and political cohesion. This paper finds that the real and potential impacts of inequality in relation to economic growth, poverty, social mobility, social stability and cohesion. KEYWORDS: Inequality, Economic Growth, Poverty, Social Mobility, Political Cohesion, Gender I. INTRODUCTION In relation to the worldwide gender gap, in so far as inequality also exist in political imbalance in the Philippines distinguished through the partisan move of a party, wherein, such intent, policies and term of their advocacy is their ultimate road map and reluctantly to engage in the opponent’s adherence. Colonial mindset, attributable to the Spanish era wherein their colonial stay in the country portrays the strictness and conservative ways in precluding to whom or to which is one’s belief will end up to, and upon the continuance of the American regime, where westernized ways has gotten in the minds of the Filipinos, that every choice of an American decision draws correct conclusion. Power and wealth elites also provides for the conclusiveness of...
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...Accessed: 05/09/2012 13:59 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . University of California Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Asian Survey. http://www.jstor.org W i l l i a m a . Ca l l a h a n China’s Strategic Futures Debating the Post-American World Order a b S t r aC t This essay examines how China’s “harmonious world†foreign policy has unintentionally created opportunities for citizens to challenge elite discussions of foreign policy. Although they are relative outsiders, the essay argues that citizen intellectuals are a growing influence as a source of ideas about China’s future—and the world’s. K e y W o r d S : China, foreign policy, strategy, public intellectual, civil society Although we did not recognize it at the time, Beijing’s current assertive foreign policy started in September 2005 when Chinese President Hu Jintao delivered a major speech to a global audience at the United Nations. From the podium of the General Assembly, Hu introduced “Harmonious...
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...Quotas: From Discrimination to Democratic Legitimacy EARLY DRAFT – NOT FOR CITATION It is an established rule of U.S. constitutional law that the state cannot impose or pursue race or gender quotas.[1] In the private sector, an employer’s pursuit of numerically fixed race or gender balance is suspect under Title VII.[2] Under both bodies of antidiscrimination law, quotas are regarded as discrimination. If a civil rights initiative can be portrayed as encouraging employers to adopt quotas, its political demise is nearly certain in the United States.[3] Narrow forms of affirmative action have survived, legally and politically, only to the extent that they can be distinguished from quotas. Quotas are so widely regarded as legally, politically, and morally repugnant that they are taboo: The “q-word”[4] is rarely the subject of any serious debate, even by those who favor stronger civil rights protections for women and minorities. The related belief in the illegitimacy of ever pursuing numerically informed demographic balance – especially along lines of race or gender -- is gaining strength in the Supreme Court’s major antidiscrimination cases in the last several years.[5] It is widely accepted – even by civil rights advocates – that pursuing racial or gender balance as a goal, “for its own sake,” would be illegitimate.[6] This principle threatens the constitutionality of race-based affirmative action, which may meet its demise in Fisher v. Texas next Term. Meanwhile...
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...Political Carrer Winston Churchill | | | 11/22/2011 11/22/2011 The Life and Career of Sir Winston Churchill Churchill was involved in every important event of England’s from the Boer War to World War II. He served six British monarchs, from Queen Victoria to Elizabeth II. Through his life he was a statesman, soldier, author, journalist and twice prime minister, Churchill’s career has no parallel in modern history. The Early Years Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England, on November 30, 1874. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was a brilliant politician, even though he was one of the most hated. His mother was the American Jennie Jerome. One of his ancestors was John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, a great military hero. Winston Churchill himself showed no early signs of greatness. He was in fact a stubborn, unruly, manipulative, and often difficult red-haired boy and a poor student. He was also given to unpredictable behavior. Before he was even seven years old, it was already clear that he was headstrong, highly opinionated, and virtually impossible to control. He spent four years at Harrow School at the very bottom of his class. However during this time he showed that he had a remarkable memory similar to his father's. He particularly enjoyed English. From early childhood soldiers and warfare fascinated Churchill and he often played with a large collection of lead soldiers in his nursery. His later years at...
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...and recommendations expressed or implied within are solely those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Defense Department or any other agency of the Federal Government. Cleared for public release; distribution unlimited. Portions of this work may be quoted or reprinted without permission, provided that a standard source credit line is included. NDU Press would appreciate a courtesy copy of reprints or reviews. Cover: President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden meet with members of the National Security Council in the Situation Room of the White House hours before his national address, September 10, 2014 (The White House/Pete Souza) First printing, October 2014 Contents The Roots of American Grand Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 A Century Like No Other. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 The Ends of Grand Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 The Means of Grand Strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 The Ways of Grand Strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 The Way Ahead. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....
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...Resources for Teaching Prepared by Lynette Ledoux Copyright © 2007 by Bedford/St. Martin’s All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. 2 1 f e 0 9 d c 8 7 b a For information, write: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 75 Arlington Street, Boston, MA 02116 (617-399-4000) ISBN-10: 0–312–44705–1 ISBN-13: 978–0–312–44705–2 Instructors who have adopted Rereading America, Seventh Edition, as a textbook for a course are authorized to duplicate portions of this manual for their students. Preface This isn’t really a teacher’s manual, not, at least, in the sense of a catechism of questions and correct answers and interpretations. Because the questions provided after each selection in Rereading America are meant to stimulate dialogue and debate — to generate rather than terminate discourse — they rarely lend themselves to a single appropriate response. So, while we’ll try to clarify what we had in mind when framing a few of the knottier questions, we won’t be offering you a list of “right” answers. Instead, regard this manual as your personal support group. Since the publication of the first edition, we’ve had the chance to learn from the experiences of hundreds of instructors nationwide, and we’d like to use this manual as a forum where we can share some of their concerns, suggestions, experiments, and hints. We’ll begin with a roundtable on issues you’ll probably want to address before you meet your class. In the first section of this manual, we’ll discuss approaches to...
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...Maybe it is time to rediscover bureaucracy? Johan P. Olsen Working Paper No.10, March 2005 http://www.arena.uio.no 1 Abstract The paper questions the fashionable ideas, that bureaucratic organization is an obsolescent, undesirable and non-viable form of administration, and that there is an inevitable and irreversible paradigmatic shift towards market- or network organization. In contrast, the paper argues that contemporary democracies are involved in another round in a perennial debate and ideological struggle over what are desirable forms of administration and government, that is, a struggle over institutional identities and institutional balances. The argument is not that bureaucratic organization is a panacea and the answer to all challenges of public administration. Rather, bureaucratic organization is part of a repertoire of overlapping, supplementary and competing forms co-existing in contemporary democracies, and so are market-organization and network-organization. Rediscovering Weber’s analysis of bureaucratic organization, then, enriches our understanding of public administration. This is in particular true when we (a) include bureaucracy as an institution, and not only an instrument; (b) look at the empirical studies in their time and context, and not only at Weber’s ideal-types and predictions; and (c) take into account the political and normative order bureaucracy is part of, and not only the internal characteristics of “the bureau”...
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