Can soft power prevent Anti-Americanism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Can soft power prevent Anti-Americanism - Essay Example hape what others want†, while hard power is â€Å"the ability to change what others do.† Hard power draws upon factors like military might and economic strength and is therefore coercive in nature while soft power banks upon cultural appeal and influencing others through means like institutions and ideological values and norms. The rise in the Anti-American sentiment in the world after the episode of the terror attacks of 9/11 and the attacks on Afghanistan and then Iraq by USA in response to the terrorist attacks, gave rise to the idea that soft power may help the American foreign policy makers in coping up with the problem. But even before determining how far soft power can take USA in improving its image in the world we need to first analyse how bad America’s existent image is in the world and which parts of the world are these where anti-Americanism needs to be combated if at all. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union which brought an end to Cold War, the United States of America stood as the sole powerful state which yielded power in almost all spheres including military, economic, technological, cultural, etc., so much so that the world had no other prospective competitor which could challenge the might of the USA. This change of events in the 1990s meant that the world was now uni-polar and USA was its only pole of power. With the onset of the 21st century however, it is believed that USA will not long be able to maintain this position as the sole super power of the world and as we speak this moment the power dynamics of the world are undergoing a great change and reorientation. â€Å"Some observers believe that the American era is coming to an end, as the Western-oriented world order is replaced by one increasingly dominated by the East† (Ikenberry, 2002) The growing power of China in Economic and diplomatic spheres for some is an indication of likely power struggle between USA and China which will soon ensue as a result of the challenge which

College Essay Essay Example for Free

College Essay Essay The last two years I have been on the high school gymnastics team. Before that I was in club gymnastics, yet somehow both are very different from each other. When I started high school gymnastics I didn’t know what to expect. Everyone was very friendly and excited to start the season, just like I was. In club gymnastics, it seemed more like an individual sport. High school gymnastics has been such a good and different experience. It may seem like gymnastics would be the same no matter where you went, with routines and working out the same. But in high school, you see your friends in the gym and during school too. I have made so many friends and new relationships with people with different interests and personalities, that I didn’t think I would ever get to know. I have learned from these relationships how to respect people more and treat people how you would want to be treated. It has helped me to understand people better and how to respond to people in different situations. Now it may seem like I only did gymnastics for friends, but that’s not true. I have been in gymnastics since I was 3 years old. It has taught me so much more than just friendship. It has taught me self- discipline, courage, strength (physically, and mentally), and now that I’m older, leadership. In life I consider those very important traits to have. I can take what I’ve learned in gymnastics and apply it to everyday life. We would have to set goals for gymnastics on certain skills we wanted to get by a certain time. I have used that to set goals for the future and where I want to be in 5 – 10 years. Not only did I set those goals, but I know what I have to do to achieve those goals. And having self –discipline helps me keep myself on track to make sure I get things done, not just with goals in life, but also with everyday things. For example, juggling school work and gymnastics. I have to keep myself on track to make sure I understand the material to keep my grades up. So gymnastics has really taught me a lot, not only throughout my life, but these last two years especially. It has helped me over come things I didn’t think I could handle by myself. I can honestly say gymnastics has made me the person I am today, and can’t wait to see the things colleges brings my way in the future.

Nation Building Through An Identity Realisation Sociology Essay

Nation Building Through An Identity Realisation Sociology Essay Nation-building refers to the process of constructing or structuring a national identity using the power of the state. This process aims at the unification of the people within the state so that it remains politically stable and viable in the long run. Nation-building can involve the use of propaganda or major infrastructure development to foster social harmony and economic growth. Originally, nation-building referred to the efforts of newly-independent nations, notably the nations of Africa, Post-Soviet states, to reshape colonial territories that had been carved out by colonial powers without regard to ethnic or other boundaries. These reformed states would then become viable and coherent national entities. Nation-building included the creation of national paraphernalia such as flags, anthems, national days, national stadiums, national airlines, national languages, and national myths. At a deeper level, national identity needed to be deliberately constructed by molding different gr oups into a nation, especially since colonialism had used divide and rule tactics to maintain its domination.  [1]   National identity derives from a unique blend of human will and material circumstance. To understand how people or states identify themselves, and therefore what interests and visions motivate them. So some questions of national identity are not simple. National identity exists alongside many other meanings of identity. It does not always override them all, or not in every circumstance. Consider personal identity both philosophically and psychologically. Three questions can be asked: How do each of you perceive yourself, how do you want to be perceived by others, and how do others actually perceive you? These three questions are obviously related, but do not always give the same answer at all times and in all circumstances. Of course, this term was investigated and examined before. For instance, I chose Anthony D. Smiths explanation for it, and I must say that I agree with him. So, he says that, whatever else it may be, what we mean by national identity involves some sense of political community, however tenuous. A political community in turn implies at least some common institutions and a single code of rights and duties for all the members of the community. It also suggests a definite social space, a fairly well demarcated and bounded territory, with which the members identify and to which they feel they belong.  [2]  This was very much what the philosophers had in mind when they defined a nation as a community of people obeying the same laws and institutions within a given territory. This is, of course, a peculiarly Western conception of the nation. But then the Western experience has exerted a powerful, indeed the lead ing, influence on our conception of the unit we call the nation. A new kind of policy the rational state and a new kind of community the territorial nation first emerged in the West, in close conjunction with each other. They left their imprint on subsequent non-Western conceptions, even when the latter diverged from their norms. But it is worth definition of nation. According to this view, nations must possess compact, well-defined territories. People and territory must, as it were, belong to each other, in the way that the early Dutch, for example, saw themselves as formed by the high seas and as forging (literally) the earth they possessed and made their own.  [3]  But the earth in question cannot be just anywhere; it is not any stretch of land. It is, and must be, the historic land, the homeland. A historic land is one where terrain and people have exerted mutual, and beneficial, influence over several generations. The homeland becomes a repository of historic memories a nd associations, the place where our sages, saints and heroes lived, worked, prayed and fought. All this makes the homeland unique. Another thing, by which the national identity can be defined, is the idea of patria, a community of laws and institutions with a single political will. It explains as least some common regulating institutions that will give expression to common political sentiments and purposes. So, concurrent with the growth of sense of legal and political community we may trace a sense of legal equality among the members of that community. It also implies a common code of laws over and above local laws, together with agencies for their enforcement, courts of final appeal and the like. As important is the acceptance that, in principle, all members of the nation are legally equal and that the rich and powerful are bound by the laws of the patria. Finally, the legal equality of members of a political community in its demarcated homeland was felt to presuppose a measure o f common values and traditions among the population, or at any rate its core community. In other words, nations must have a measure of common culture and a civic ideology, a set of common understandings and aspirations, sentiments and ideas that bind the population together in their homeland. The existence of these common assumptions allows us to list the fundamental features of national identity as follows: 1. an historic territory, or homeland 2. common myths and historical memories 3. a common, mass public culture 4. common legal rights and duties for all members 5. a common economy with territorial mobility for members.  [4]   By moving to another term, nation, I can make a result of the nation. Nation can be defined as a named population sharing an historic territory, common myths and historical memories, a mass, public culture, a common economy and common legal rights and duties for all members.  [5]   Such a working definition invented the complex and abstract nature of national identity. The nation, in fact, draws on elements of other kinds of collective identity, describes not only for the way in which national identity can be combined with these other types of identity-class, religious or ethnic-but also for the different rearrangements of nationalism, the ideology, with other ideologies like liberalism, fascism and communism. Such a definition of national identity also sets it clearly apart from any understanding of the state. The latter refers exclusively to public institutions, differentiated from, and autonomous of, other social institutions and exercising a monopoly of coercion and extraction within a given territory. The nation, on the other hand, signifies a cultural and political bond, uniting in a single political community all who share an historic culture and homeland. This lack of congruence between the state and the nation is exemplified in the many plural states today. Indeed, Walker Connors estimate in the early 1970s showed that only about 10 per cent of states could claim to be true nation-states, in the sense that the states boundaries coincide with the nations and that the total population of the state share a single ethnic culture. While most states aspire to become nation-states in this sense, they tend to limit their claims to legitimacy to an aspiration for political unity and popular sovereignty that, even in old-established Western states, risks being challenged by ethnic communities within their borders. These cases, and there are many of them, illustrate the profound gulf between the concepts of the state and the nation, a gulf that the historical material to be discussed shortly underlines.  [6]   To gain a fuller understanding of what nationhood involves, it may be helpful to clear away two common misunderstandings that bedevil this question.  [7]  The first is the confusion of nation and state. In ordinary speech nation is sometimes used as a synonym for state: when someone refers to the newly emerging nations of the Third World, it is very likely that they are really talking about newly created states. This usage is not likely to be helpful if we are trying to clarify the principle of nationality, since one of the main issues we have to consider is precisely the relationship between nations and states, and in particular the question whether each nation has a right to its own state. When this question is posed, nation must refer to a community of people with an aspiration to be politically self determining, and state must refer to the set of political institutions that they may aspire to possess for themselves. Let us say, following Weber, that a state is a body that successfully claims a monopoly of legitimate force in a particular territory.  [8]  We count states by seeing how many such bodies there are. Some of these states will be multinational, in the sense that they exercise their rule over several discrete nations. The Soviet Union was such a state; rather unusually, it openly conceded that the peoples it governed were of different nationalities. (More than one hundred were recognized.) Rather less common is the case where a single nation is for historical reasons divided between two states. This was the case for the Germans before the reunification of 1990, and is still the case for the Chinese and Koreans today. A third case occurs where people of a single nationality are scattered as minorities in a number of states-the position today of the Kurds and the Palestinians. None of this would make sense if we did not understand nation and state in such a way as to make it an empirical question whether those who compose a nation are all united politically within a single state. If we look to history, nations emerge over time as a result of numerous historical processes. As a consequence, it is a pointless undertaking to attempt to locate a precise moment when any particular nation came into existence, as if it were a manufactured product designed by an engineer. Let us examine why this is so. All nations have historical antecedents, whether tribe, city-state, or kingdom. These historically earlier societies are important components in the formation of nations. For example, the English nation emerged out of the historically earlier societies of the Saxons, Angles, and Normans. However, these historical antecedents are never merely just facts, because key to the existence of the nation are memories that are shared among each of those many individuals who are members of the nation about the past of their nation, including about those earlier societies. Every nation has its own understanding of its distinctive past that is conveyed through stories, myths, and h istory. Whether historically accurate or not, these memories contribute to the understanding of the present that distinguishes one nation from another. This component of time when an understanding of the past forms part of the present is characteristic of the nation and is called temporal depth. As the mind of the individual develops within various contexts, such as the family or different educational institutions, it seeks out those various and fluctuating traditions that are at hand. The child learns, for example, to speak the language of his or her nation and what it means to be a member of that nation as expressed through its customs and laws. These traditions become incorporated into the individuals understanding of the self. When those traditions that make up part of ones self-conception are shared by other individuals as part of their self-conception, one is then both related to those other individuals, and aware of the relation. The relation itself, for example living in the same geographical area or speaking a common language, is what is meant by the term collective consciousness. This term in no way implies the existence of a group mind or a combination of biological instincts, as if humans were a colony of ants. Rather, it refers to a social relation of each of a number of individuals as a consequence of those individuals participating in the same evolving tradition. When those individuals not only participate in the same tradition but also understand themselves as being different from those who do not, then there exists a self-designating shared belief, which is called a collective self-consciousness, that is, a distinctive culture.  [9]   Also, there is a very short and well defined explanation of nation by Ernest Renan. He says, that, a nation is a soul, a spiritual principle. Two things constitute this soul: the past and the present. The past refers to the possession in common of a rich legacy of remembrances; the present is the actual consent, the desire to live together, the will to continue as a nation. To have accomplished great things together in the past, and to wish to do so again, that is the essential condition for being a nation. A nation is a grand solidarity constituted by the sentiment of sacrifices. A great aggregation of men, with a healthy spirit and warmth of heart, creates a moral conscience which is called a nation. This explanation fully concludes the definition of nation for better understanding. So, if we talk about nationality

Out of Africa Movie and Book Essay -- Movie Film comparison compare co

Out of Africa Movie and Book Winner of seven Academy Awards, including 1985's Best Picture, Out Of Africa is the story of Karen Blixen and her travels in Africa. Based on her writings after returning to Denmark, Out of Africa is a love story of both Karen Blixen and her true love, Denys Hatton, and a love for Africa's land and people. The movie is based on the books "Out of Africa: Shadows on the Grass", written by Karen Blixen under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen, and "Silence Will Speak", the story of Denys Hatton, written by Errol Trzebinski. The film follows the story in the books almost identically and is a fascinating account of the life of Karen Blixen and the barriers she had to overcome during her time in Africa. The movie focuses on the seventeen years Karen Blixen spent in Africa between 1913 and 1930. Her letters that are compiled to make up the book "Out of Africa" are extremely detailed and revealing about her time in Africa. As in real life, the movie starts with Blixen arriving in Kenya for the purposes of marrying her cousin Baron Bror Blixen. A friend before they met in Kenya to wed, this marriage was a marriage of convenience. The Baron held the title and Karen had the money they needed to take advantage of the wild south of Africa and be cattle ranchers. Like many Europeans of the time, they came to Africa to exploit the untouched natural resources and people. But, this was not the case because Baron Blixen decided before Karen showed up that they would instead grow coffee, a risky venture at such a high altitude and Karen's first barrier to overcome. With the adventure of growing coffee came the task of gaining a workforce. For this Karen... ... an account of her entire time in Kenya. The movie Out of Africa was a wonderfully told love story of a woman and a man, and a woman and a land. The African people and areas are romantically displayed in this film, a true joy to watch through and through. Karen Blixen's life is a remarkable tale of one woman's journey of self-discovery, through love and hate, confusion and comprehension, black and white. Works Cited Dinesen, Isak. Letters From Africa. Chicago: The UP of Chicago, 1980. Dinesen, Isak. Out Of Africa and Shadows on the Grass. New York: Vintage International, 1989. Dinesen, Isak. Tania. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1967. Out Of Africa. Dir. Sydney Pollack. Perf. Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. Videocassette. MCA/Universal Home Video, 1985. Trzebinski, Errol. Silence Will Speak. Chicago: the UP of Chicago, 1977.

tyger :: essays research papers

The Tyger In the poem the tyger William Blake shows a lot of symbolism, imagery, and irony. He likes to explain to his audience how he writes with all the knowledge he knows. Reading this poem makes me think of how a person feels when he is taken advantage of at work. Like when ones work is difficult to cope with, suffering, and pain is all that is left. It seems to that in the end all the pain endured happens to what is left for this person and suffering is what hurts the most. William Blake shows symbolism in this part of the poem, â€Å" In the forest of the night,†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. (line 2). This part shows that you can be trapped from your work or even your life. â€Å" what immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?’† ( line 3-4). This part shows how much struggle he has in his life and all the pain he feels in his life. â€Å" in what distant deeps or skies burnt the fire of thine eyes.† (line 5-6). He shows his emotions and how much anger that was built up in his heart. He feels like crying because he is frustrated. â€Å"What the hammer? What the chain†. ( line 13). This shows that his been treated like a slave and has endured what slaves endued like working on the rail roads. â€Å"When the stars threw down their spears, and watered with their tears, (lines 17-8). Shows that he has mellowed down and is ready to accept all that has happen to him. â€Å"Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the lamb make thee? â€Å"( lines 19-20). He is talking to god and its bringing out his emotions. Asking for forgiveness and wants to be treated normal in his life.† Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright in the forest of the night,† ( lines 21-22). This phrase started in the beginning and ended at the end. Its because it’s the true meaning behind the whole poem no matter what you do or how hard you work there is always something that gonna take you down. throughout the poem I have seen a lot of Irony and symbolism. The parts that I chose from the poem brings out a lot of pain, suffering, hard work. tyger :: essays research papers The Tyger In the poem the tyger William Blake shows a lot of symbolism, imagery, and irony. He likes to explain to his audience how he writes with all the knowledge he knows. Reading this poem makes me think of how a person feels when he is taken advantage of at work. Like when ones work is difficult to cope with, suffering, and pain is all that is left. It seems to that in the end all the pain endured happens to what is left for this person and suffering is what hurts the most. William Blake shows symbolism in this part of the poem, â€Å" In the forest of the night,†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. (line 2). This part shows that you can be trapped from your work or even your life. â€Å" what immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?’† ( line 3-4). This part shows how much struggle he has in his life and all the pain he feels in his life. â€Å" in what distant deeps or skies burnt the fire of thine eyes.† (line 5-6). He shows his emotions and how much anger that was built up in his heart. He feels like crying because he is frustrated. â€Å"What the hammer? What the chain†. ( line 13). This shows that his been treated like a slave and has endured what slaves endued like working on the rail roads. â€Å"When the stars threw down their spears, and watered with their tears, (lines 17-8). Shows that he has mellowed down and is ready to accept all that has happen to him. â€Å"Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the lamb make thee? â€Å"( lines 19-20). He is talking to god and its bringing out his emotions. Asking for forgiveness and wants to be treated normal in his life.† Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright in the forest of the night,† ( lines 21-22). This phrase started in the beginning and ended at the end. Its because it’s the true meaning behind the whole poem no matter what you do or how hard you work there is always something that gonna take you down. throughout the poem I have seen a lot of Irony and symbolism. The parts that I chose from the poem brings out a lot of pain, suffering, hard work.

Keeping Close to Home Essay

Bell Hooks essay â€Å"Keeping Close to Home†, describes her struggles after she was accepted at Stanford University to further her self-realization. In this essay Hooks talks about her journey to educate herself and no losing her sense of where she came from as African American woman from a working class background. Hooks parents wanted her to go to a school close to home, a non-diverse like Stanford was. They wanted her to go to a school no just close to home but were the majority were black too. Her family biggest fear was her daughter changing her mind or losing her values and the connection with them. They knew college change people. However Hooks found the way to keep close to home by visiting every year, sometimes when she couldn’t go home because she didn’t have the money to travel, she had to stay at school, she expresses in a passage how her family wasn’t happy or supportive about her decision about her going to Stanford. As she said â€Å"My pa rents had not being delighted that I had been accepted ad adamantly opposed my going so far from home. At the same time, I did not see their opposition as an expression of their fear that they would lose me forever, â€Å"Like many working-class folks, they feared what college education might do to their children’s even as they unenthusiastically acknowledge its importance† (101). Most kids have a very strong knowledge about were they come from like Hooks was, opposite to some others which doesn’t, this make them to be weak, they could change their values and they might forget about their families and community. . When kids go to college they are in touch with many different people from different backgrounds. It is normal that their parents could be afraid of their kids changing their minds afterwards they will be living away from home and this could happen. This changes depend on how strong their roots are. Having no contact with no contact with their families that could happen, like Hooks explains on her essay when she said â€Å"Often I tell students from poor and working-class backgrounds that if you believe [that] what you have learned and are learning in schools and universities separates you from your past, this is precisely what will happen. It is important to stand firm in the conviction that nothing can  truly separate us from our pasts when we nurture and cherish that connection† (108). The best way to maintain the values our family gave us when we go away from home either to college or to live far from our families is keeping in touch with them for this purpose talk to our families once in a while will be good also never forget were we came from. When I read Hooks essay, this send me back in time to the year of 1979 when I graduate from High School. As I was reading her essay I felt that Hooks and I had the same struggles. Before I graduate from High School I had my mind set about going to college. My family was very poor. My mother was always a very hard worker woman, she ironed all the neighborhood clothing. I am very proud of my mother being a single mother she was capable to race my little sister and I all by herself after my dad past away when I was twelve years old Hooks’s talks about how proud she was about her father too when she said â€Å" â€Å" I never knew how poor we were until I needed to go to college. I knew I will need to find a job to fu rther my education. Hooks reveals all the pain and struggles she had after she was accepted at Stanford, how her parents were not supportive. I had the same exact struggles. My mother was very upset when I told her about my decision on going to school, she argues with me about how her friend’s kids never came back to their homes and how they stop visiting their parents after they went to school. My mother was not being very supportive like Hooks parents were. She teaches us to how to be loving, caring, how to respect each other in the family and everyone else. She wanted for me just to find a job close to my house, she even talked with the owners of this pharmacy on the corner of my house to give me a job as a cashier. She said I should stay home and help her with the house chores, she never thought I could be anything more than a housekeeping. We lived in a very small town called Villa Canales which was eight hours away from the college I decided to go. That was the most painful decision I had ever made. After all I was the first generation going to college. My family was very tight with very strong values. My sister and I used to spend all our summers vacations at my grandma’s house when we were little, we loved to listen all the stories she had to tell us, while we grow up. This made my family very similar to Hooks’s family. However my mother was afraid of me being far from her and my little sister and forget about them which didn’t happen. Even when the communication was not easy in Guatemala where I grow  up, I did all my efforts maintaining communication with my family. Distance was not enough reason for me to stop keeping in touch with them the same and never forget about all the instructions she gave me. The same way Hooks never stopped her contact and communication with her family. The purpose of her essay is to argue about that students coming from a working class background should not be ashamed where they come from nor either forget about their families. Going to school far from home shouldn’t change people, at least no their values. To keep this values intact people needs to keep the connection as Hooks did by keeping in touch with her family and community. Universities separates families this should not happen because the only way we keep our values is being tight with our families.