Tuesday, October 04, 2005

This is hard work!

OK, I'm getting into being a student. I spent four hours on Sunday and an hour last night reading about realism. This may be more time than I spent reading for seminars in the whole of my undergraduate degree... Which may be why it takes so long for me to do the reading now. I'm hoping to get better - current estimates are that I need to do 10 hours reading each week for my 'approaches to international political economy' module if I want to do the compulsory reading and wider reading.

So this week I'm beinig a realist. This means I'm going to be pessimistic about the hope for world peace, believe that conflict is endemic in the system and actually a good thing and that everything is about a struggle for power as this is the best way for nations to feel secure. Towards the end of the week I will move into neorealism, arguing that it is the pressure of the international system which makes all states behave the same way, with a small, derisive glance at hegemonic stability, suggesting the current global situation shows that it is not best for there to be one overwhelmingly dominant world power and that this does not make everyone else feel more secure.

I'll also go to my godson's 4th birthday.

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