Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Word Politics question 2

Should more powerful states protect the interests of smaller states?

On this issue, I was at a near standstill. It's true that impoverished nations like Haiti, Albania, and Nigeria must rely on foreign aid in order to sustain themselves but the powerful nations should not intervene too much with these lesser nations. Such interference would bring about a new era of imperialism and many of these poor states fought devastating and bloody wars in order to achieve their autonomy. When the Dutch Netherlands proclaimed their independence from the Spanish empire, many nations like France and Britain treated this new territory as a weakling. However, its clear access to different trading routes allowed it to prosper. During the independence of African and Asian nations like Vietnam, European states believed that those states would be unable to sustain themselves and would plunge into civil war. This only happened in a few African nations like Rwanda, Somalia, and Sudan but the rest were able to support themselves both militarily and economically. Overall, we could support the extremely impoverished nations but we can only do so until they are at a level that they can sustain themselves.

1 comment:

Mnadler said...

You say that "such interference would bring about a new era of imperialism" as if this is something that might happen in the future, rather than something that has already happened. America is, for all intents and purposes, an empire. We hold influence in the actions of every single state in the world.

Furthermore, you say that "This only happened in a few African nations like Rwanda, Somalia, and Sudan but the rest were able to support themselves both militarily and economically.". While it's true that not all of Africa has fallen to actual physical conflict in recent years, it is patently untrue to say that they are fully able to support themselves militarily and economically on a level parallel to the Western world. For instance, 90% of worldwide deaths from Malaria (a preventable disease) occur in Africa; 547 million people (out of ~888 million) in sub-Saharan Africa live without electricity (http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats); more than 218 million people in sub-Saharan Africa live in extreme poverty(http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/english/regions/africa/index.htm). These facts clearly show that Africa is not, as you suggest, able to support itself economically.