Taking Sides : Clashing Views in World Politics

by Rourke, John T.

• ISBN13: 9780078127519
• ISBN10: 0078127513
• Edition: 14th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-02-09
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin

Summary

TAKING SIDES: WORLD POLITICS, 14/e presents current controversial issues in a debate-style format designed to stimulate student interest and develop critical thinking skills. Each issue is thoughtfully framed with an issue summary, an issue introduction, and a postscript. An instructor�s manual with testing material is available for each volume. USING TAKING SIDES IN THE CLASSROOM is also an excellent instructor resource with practical suggestions on incorporating this effective approach in the classroom. Each TAKING SIDES reader features an annotated listing of selected World Wide Web sites and is supported by a book website. Visitwww.mhcls.com..

Table of Contents

TAKING SIDES: Clashing Views in World Politics, Fourteenth Edition

Table of Contents TAKING SIDES: Clashing Views in World Politics, Fourteenth Edition

Globalization and the International System

Is Economic Globalization a Positive Trend?

YES:International Monetary Fund Staff

“Globalization: A Brief Overview,”Issues Brief(May 2008)

NO:

“The World Is not Flat: Inequality and Injustice in Our Global Economy,” WIDER Annual Lecture 9

United Nations University, World Institute for Development Economics Research (October 31, 2005)

Staff members of the International Monetary Fund conclude on the basis of experiences across the world that unhindered international economic interchange, the core principle of globalization, seems to underpin greater prosperity. Nancy Birdsall, founding president of the Center for Global Development, argues that globalization is not benefiting all and that a major challenge of the twenty-first century will be to address persistent and unjust inequality, which global markets alone cannot resolve

Issue 2

YES:Julia Galeota,from “Cultural Imperialism: An American Tradition,”The Humanist(May/June 2004)

NO:Philippe Legrain,from “In Defense of Globalization

”The International Economy(Summer 2003) Julia Galeota of McLean, Virginia, who was seventeen years old when she wrote her essay that won first place for her age category in the 2004

HumanistEssay Contest for Young Women and Men of North America, contends that many cultures around the world are gradually disappearing due to the overwhelming influence of corporate and cultural America

Philippe Legrain, chief economist of Britain in Europe, an organization supporting the adoption by Great Britain of the euro as its currency, counters that it is a myth that globalization involves the imposition of Americanized uniformity, rather than an explosion of cultural exchange

Does Capitalism Undermine Democracy?

YES:

“How Capitalism Is Killing Democracy,”Foreign Policy(September/October 2007)

NO:

“The Link between Economic Freedom and Human Rights,”Heritage Foundation Web Memo"1650 (September 28, 2007)

professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and former U.S. secretary of labor, writes that capitalism leaves democratic societies unable to address the tradeoffs between economic growth and social problems. Taking the opposite point of view

a policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for International Trade and Economics, contends that economic progress through advancing economic freedom has allowed more people to discuss and adopt different views more candidly, ultimately leading societies to be more open and inclusive

Regional and Country Issues

Should the United States Substantially Limit Its Global Involvement?

YES:

“Homeward Bound?”The National Interest( July/August 2008)

NO:

“The American Moment,” Remarks to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs (April 23, 2007)

senior fellow at the Independent Institute, a libertarian think tank in Oakland, California and Washington, DC, contends that neither the Republican nor the Democratic Party in the United States has shown any inclination to follow the wise counsel of the country’s founders such as George Washington and practice restraint in the country’s overseas involvement

By contrast

then a Democratic U.S. senator from Illinois and the 2008 nominee of the Democratic Party for president, sharply criticizes the foreign policy of President

for undercutting American leadership of the world and argues that it is time to reclaim that leadership through a new approach

Has Russia Become Undemocratic and Antagonistic?

YES:

NO:Eugene B. Rumer,from Testimony during Hearings on “Developments in U.S.–Russia Relations” before the Subcommittee on Europe and Emerging Threats, Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives (March 9, 2005)

Tucker Herbert and Diane Raub, both of whom are on the staff of theStanford Review,an independent, student-run newspaper at Stanford University, argue that under President

Russia has fallen from the ranks of democracies and is engaged in a foreign policy that pits U.S. interests against those of Russia

Eugene B. Rumer, a senior research fellow at the National Defense University’s Institute for National Strategic Studies in Washington, DC, recognizes

that Russian democracy falls short of full scale and that Russian policy sometimes clashes with that of the United States

But argues that compared with the history of Russian democracy, which was zero before the 1990s, the country is not doing poorly and that Russia’s pursuit of its own interests should not be construed as necessarily antagonistic

Will China Soon Become a Threatening Superpower?

YES:John J. Tkacik, Jr.,from “A Chinese Military Superpower?”Heritage Foundation Web Memo#1389 (March 8, 2007)

NO:Samuel A. Bleicher,from “China: Superpower or Basket Case?” FPIF Discussion Paper, Foreign Policy

In Focus, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies (May 8, 2008)

A senior research fellow in China policy at the Asian Studies Center of the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, contends that the evidence suggests instead that China’s intent is to challenge the United States as a military superpower

Disagreeing, Samuel A. Bleicher, principal in his international consulting firm

The Strategic Path LLC, argues that while China has made some remarkable economic progress, the reality is that the Chinese

Communist” central government and Chinese economic, social, political, and legal institutions are quite weak

Would It Be an Error to Establish a Palestinian State?

YES:Patricia Berlyn,from “Twelve Bad Arguments for a State of Palestine,” An Original Essay Written for This Volume (2006)

NO:Rosemary E. Shinko,from “Why a Palestinian State

An Original Essay Written for This Volume (October 2006) Patricia Berlyn, an author of studies on Israel, primarily its ancient history an

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