Global security structure - Essay Example

This even triggered the fuel crisis of ‘73–74 and raised a spectrum of collaborative actions as a means of boosting security through economic action. In such a manner, relatively low “power” countries that were rich in oil, had a means of control over the way in which the remainder of the world integrated with them, by utilizing oil as a weapon of economic power. Changes in the global structure first began to appear in the way in which President Jimmy Carter sought to engage stakeholders.

Rather than trying to leverage absolute hard power in each and every available instance, Carter instead attempted to co-opt other nations and convince them of the benefits of engagement as compared to the benefits of non-engagement. This shift was idealistic but ultimately allowed for a renewed relationship with the United States that for many states within the system had fallen by the wayside, victim to an overemphasis on power politics. Similarly, George HW Bush implemented a policy of increased engagement with what he saw as a multi-polar world.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, George HW Bush, determined that the best approach would be for the United States to strike a balance between being the uni-polar superpower and the multi-polar stakeholder and peace-broker throughout the world. Clinton continued this approach, furthering the role of the United Nations, NATO, WHO, WTO, and the World Bank as a means of developing a more multi-polar power base throughout the world. The policies of George W. Bush were quite different. Mostly because of the attacks of September 11th, George W.

Bush sought out a strictly unilateral approach through which the United States would decide upon a course of action and dictate it to the remainder of states within the system. Not surprisingly, this was hated by a litany of states within the system and saw the United States lose a great deal of prestige due, in part, to the backlash of the Iraq War and other factors. President Obama has taken something of a middle path, utilizing elements of his three predecessors in formulating a strategy and international relations.

Essay: Topics Not Covered in the Lectures but Included in the Course Readings for Chapter 9: Although an analysis of state actors, nongovernmental organizations, and international organizations was referenced within the lectures, a full and complete discussion of the interaction between each of these three was not affected. It is the understanding of this particular student that even though these three groups are related separately and can effectively be understood to operate somewhat independently of one another, the fact of the matter is that they are intimately tied together and ultimately behave in many situations as a singular entity, e.g., almost all of the international organizations that have been discussed, inclusive of the nongovernmental organizations that have been represented, or primarily Western European and/or American in origin.

As such, the needs and wants of a specific geographic and ethnic minority of