In University my interest in history was met with new
interests in politics, international relations (IR), IR theories, sovereign
states, failed states, terrorism, ethnicity, identity and nationality….
You will learn about political theorists such as Aristotle
& Karl Marx, you will look at the Irish Political System, you will look at
the European Union, you will learn how to compare political institutions
examining benefits and negatives of other political systems, you will gain
insight into how conflict mediation and resolution works, you will learn about
Human rights, war and political violence and much more.
The Prisoner’s
Dilemma is something I very much enjoyed learning about.
To use a more common example, it may seem logical that states work together to combat pollution and global warming.
“If everyone who
worries about global warming cooperates in cutting emissions, climate change is
averted and everyone is moderately happy. If everyone else cooperates in
cutting emissions, but one country defects, climate change is still mostly
averted, and the defector is at a significant economic advantage (they are in a better situation). If everyone
defects and keeps polluting, the climate changes and everyone loses out. Again
a Prisoner's Dilemma…”
International Relations and in particular Neorealism & Constructivism also really fascinated me, they offered two lenses in which to view the world of International Relations which were to help explain how states and international politics worked and why such outcomes occurred.
Neorealists argue
this structure of anarchy leads states to the pre-eminent goals of survival,
security and independence, each unit wishing to remain a part of the system
which produces a recurrent pattern of various balances of power (self-help
systems which states do things only for their own security & benefit).
Constructivists offer a more positive outlook, explaining that if the implications of
anarchy are not constant across all relationships and issue areas of
international politics (if states are seen to cooperate in some instances against their own self-interest & security) , then one day the international system may come to mean, say, unconstrained opportunities for cooperation and collective security. It also reminds people that social structures are
both enduring and mutable... so that in theory one day it
could happen ... but that day may not necessary ever come.
Here is an example of some of the essays and topics I really
enjoyed studying (I've listed my three favorite modules/essays):
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