eqi3&4 Flashcards
what are geopolitical interventions?
the exercise of a country’s power in order to influence the course of events outside it’s borders
what are the motivations for intervention?
- increase local and global infliuence
- access resources
- provide military support
- strengthening security and stability
- promoting international trade and protecting trade routes
- protect human rights
- encouraging education
what is the only reason for intervention?
it benefits the INTERVENING government
what are the different types of intervention?
- development assistance: aid
- economically: taking actoin to directly affect a nations economic capbilities
- military: indirect and direct
what is development assistance?
a form of aid
- official - multi and bi lateral
- voluntary - NGOs
it is always exploitative
what is economic intervention?
- embargos
- taxes and tarrifs
- sanctions
- membership of IGOs
what is military intervention?
peacekeepers
direct = sending troops (afgahnistan)
indirect = providing equipment (ukraine)
who intervenes and why?
- governments: extend influence, safety and security, spread of ideology, access to or control of resources
- IGOs (UN): global security and socio-cultural progression, protect vulnerable people, ensure respect of international law
- political alliances: recruit new member, defient current members
- NGOs: protect, support and improve lives of locals
what is sovreignty?
having ultimate authority over a territory with the absolute right to govern and to be self determinate of that territories future
- it is impossible for intervention to take place without compromising a nations sovreignty
what are taxes and tarrifs?
taxes put on any goods which are imported into a nation
- america putting tarrifs on china - 45% & canada - 25%
what do taxes and tarrifs do for the home nation?
stimulates the home economy because of:
- increase buying US products
- increase size of US companies
- increase jobs
- increase money/income
what do taxes and tarrifs do for other countries?
it will damage other countries economy:
- decrease exports
- decrease income
- downsizing
- increase unemployment
- cycle of decline
what are quotas?
restricting the amount of goods which can be imported
what is altering exchange rates?
deliberately devaluing a currency to increase the competitiveness of imports and exports
what are trade blocs?
invitation or expulsion from areas of free trade to stimulate or limit growth
e.g. ASEAN
what are trade embargoes?
bans on trade in specific commodities or between nations
e.g. USA on cuba
- isolation to force decision
- can target a single good
what are multilateral embargoes?
everyone agrees to ban trade of specific commodities to a certain country
- but the countries who don’t agree are the winners because they are the only consumer = cheaper goods
trade embargoes damage the gov but also takes away the civilians human rights - no access to food, water, services
US embargo on Cuba = increase food prices, decrease medical equipment
what are sanctions?
- asset freezing
- travel bans on specific indivduals
- banning transactoins with certain enterprises
- banning imports
- prohibiting export to the certain country
what is top-down aid?
big projects, aimed to benefit the whole country e.g. building a dam
- this then trickles down to people at a local scale e.g. HEP = cheaper electricity
this tends to benefit cities because there are more people
top down aid = bi and multilateral aid
what is bottom-up aid?
small projects aimed at benefiting small groups and communities
- the benefits will work their way up to benefit a whole nation
NGOs and charities
what are the different types of aid?
official
- directly = bilateral aid (mostly tied and strings attached) (government to government)
- indirectly = multilateral aid (countries give money to IGOs who distribute)
voluntary aid (money raised by independent organisations and private donations)
how can bilateral aid promote development?
- greater accountability for recieving country - someone is checking how the money is used
- donor contries place strict political, diplomatic and economic conditions on the recipient country
- stronger diplomatic ties strengthens political and economic relationships
- faster decision making - without multiple stakeholders
how can bilateral aid hold a nation back?
- often subject to alot of corruption
- no HR based ties on the aid - no obligation to ensure the UDHR
- trying to impose western behaviour
- most of the conditions only benefit the donor
how does multilateral aid benefit development?
- HR ties will be placed on the aid
- higher participation from other countries = more resources = more help
- should reduce corruption
how does multilateral aid hold a country back?
- just a way for MEDCs to control LEDCs
- fewer costs - less supervision = less acountability
- allows for spread of capitalism = exploitation
- could create dependency
what are quangos?
government charities to which the gov donates money
- this is because governments cannot donate to NGOs but they can through the quangos
what are the positives of NGOs?
- they are the antidotes of capitatlism - charity work is seen as a balance of negative capitalism
- they are free from donor bias
- NGOs have become the preferred method of developing nations and are supported by governments but only because they don’t want to spend their money on other nations
what are the negatives of NGOs?
- meny NGOs have a religious element - work could be attempting to spread the views of the west
- west is imposing beliefs of how we think they should develop
- projects are funded by individuals’ donations from media exposure but WHO controls the media
- NGOs operate on a tiny scale thus they cannot impact the whole nation
- not all have equal access to the NGOs in the recieving countries
what are issues facing NGOs?
- donor fatigue
- dependancy on aid
what is donor fatigue?
public can become over burdened and tired of hearing the same old campaigns
- make poverty history was huge in 2005 but 2 years later became nothing
what is the NGOs reliance on aid?
some nations budgets have become ties to aid and they have become dependent on it
- NGOs have become charged with developing the basic , localised infrastructure of nations
- this could lead to a debt trap = easily exploited
what are the types of military aid?
direct - action by one nation to another
indirect - providing military aid to certain nations
what was the agenda of NATO in bosnia?
- tackle post cold war instability
- prevent ethnic conflict
- NATOs changing role in humanitarian events
- humaitarian crisis
- direct security risk for europe
why did Russia intervene in Ukraine?
- denazification - stopping representation of leftists
- reasserting russian dominance in politics
- nato expansion
- protection of dombass
why did USA intervene in Syria?
- limiting the influence of russia and iran
- protecting the US from terrorism
- prevent the normalisation of chemical weapon use
- demonstrating US power to enemies
what is ISIS?
a global terrorist group that poses a threat to the world through it’s violent ideology and network of terrorist fighters
how were the Yazidis affected by ISIS?
men massacred and women sold into slavery
- sinjar massacre = 5000 men killed & 7000 women kidnapped and survivors forced up mount sinjar
how were the christians affected by ISIS?
forced them to convert to Islam and pay or tax or face execution
- fall of mosur = marked houses with the christian signal and gave them 48 hours to leave
- kidnapping of asyrian christians = abducted over 250 christians
how were the shia muslims affected by ISIS?
- camp speicher massacre = executed 1,700 shia military cadets
- karrada bombing = bombed a shopping area in Baghdad’s karrada district killing over 300 people
what was the direct military intervention against ISIS?
- US intervention = provided training and support and killed key ISIS leaders
- Iraq’s military = launched ground offences to retake ISIS controlled cities and conducted counterterrorism
- syrian democratic forces = led ground battles in syria which captured ISIS’s last stronghold
what were the indirect military interventions against ISIS?
- financial sanctions and counterterroism = UN, US and EU froze assets and imposed sanctions on individuals associated with ISIS
- counterterroism intelligence = US and allies track ISIS comms and online propoganda to disrupt recruitment
- humanitarian aid = UN and NGOs provide to displaced pops
how did ISIS compromise human rights?
- mass executions = right to life, freedom from torture and inhumane treatment
- religious persecution = right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion
- suppression of free expression = right to freedom of opinion and expression
- oppression of women = right to equality and freedom from religion
- child soldiers and forced recruitment = right to protection and prohibition of slavery and forced labour
what evidence is used to measure the success of aid?
- decrease in poverty
- improvement in health (LE, maternal survival)
- improvement in education (length of schooling, adult literacy)
- improvement in infrastructure (trasnport systems)
what evidence is used to measure the success of economic intervention?
- reduction in GDP (in target state)
- increased unemployment
- inflation/ stagnation
- increase in poverty
what evidence is used to measure the success of military action?
- control of territory
- increase sphere of influence
- low or minimal DR
- decreased corruption
- liberlism
- democracy
what evidence is used to measure the success of helping refugees?
- policing
- water and food
- resettlement programmes
- education and healthcare
why should democracy be considered an acceptable indicator for intervention success?
- broad respect for human rights
- to stay in control the needs of people must be met
