World Politics-Take Home Exam Julie Blackett SID 17354921

Question 3 Word Count 595 The term terra nullius essentially means empty or no mans land and was later used as justification to claim land or territory. Basically the conquering people or nation did not see other groups of people as equal to themselves and thus believed they had a greater claim to the land or territory. This was also the justification of European powers when expanding and colonising, particularly in the 18th century. They considered the native people in the desired territory to be less than them and often less than human. Due to the often nomadic nature of these peoples, the lack of permanent settlement was used as evidence that the land was empty or unclaimed. This idea was used to spread both the power and increase the territory of European powers. This is particularly obvious in America and Australia. Although both places already had native people living there, these people were nomadic tribes and had not built permanent settlements. Instead they used the land as hunters and gatherers. This gave the Europeans the excuse that the land was not claimed and greater manpower and force led to the native people being conquered. As the native people were defeated, they were killed, moved or absorbed into the European culture. The Europeans then built settlements in their new territory and used that as a base to continue expanding in previously unclaimed land. This was the most common type of imperialism, the use of military force to expand or create an empire. This meant that European imperialism expanded through much of the world that had previously been mainly nomadic tribes. This meant that these peoples had a relatively small impact upon the environment. After the expansion of European imperialism, the impact people had upon the environment became much greater. This began with the building of permanent settlements as that was an immediate and permanent impact on the environment. This led to the clearing of forests for agricultural land, the depletion of natural resources and minerals to continue the advancement and expansion of the empire and its influence. As technological advancements continued to speed up, this meant an even greater impact on the environment. As it is not until recently that people have considered the impact they have on the environment, this means that for at least two centuries the European imperialism and expansion has had an enormous impact upon the environment. However, it is certainly not the first or possibly even the greatest impact on environmental issues that are now being faced. It can be argued that these impacts began centuries ago when humans first began to cultivate the land. This impact certainly expanded as the more powerful and advanced societies expanded throughout the world and brought their advancements with them. The building of cities, roads and dams as well as various other things had been occurring in empires in Asia and the Mediterranean before the Roman Empire began to expand throughout Europe. After its

collapse various European powers began to create and expand their empires to previously unclaimed areas. Therefore European imperialism has had an impact mainly because it expanded into an area previously unexplored and thus spread the impacts throughout the rest of the world, which had been undiscovered by previous empires. The increasing advancements in technology led to an ever increasing impact upon the environment and have increased the issues until they have become impossible to ignore. Thus it is impossible to define exactly when these impacts started and who has had the most influence on the current environmental issues that have been centuries in the making.

Question 12 Word Count 858 It can be that the United Nations was relatively successful in maintaining peace and security during the Cold War. However, this is due more to the circumstances of the time and not necessarily the power of the UN. There are a few reasons for this. One is that during the Cold War, most conflicts could be simplified to communist versus democracy, or East versus West. This led to the involvement of Russia or the USSR and the United States of America or the US. It can be said that these conflicts and the USSR and US involvement in them was another way for them to compete. This of course was not the only factor in that involvement. This connection meant that the two most powerful nations at the time would most likely be involved. Due to the nature of the Cold War, this involvement was not direct and enabled the UN to have a stronger role in influencing conflicts and peacekeeping efforts. However, this influence was dependent upon the agreement of the nations in the Security Council, the superpowers of the time. Thus the UN was often effectively sidelined when one of these nations decided to veto any action, usually when it went against their interests. The UN was often used as a tool of the superpowers and in many cases had little effect in ending conflict, sometimes even extending the period of conflict. When these superpowers were in agreement, the UN had a much greater effect in ending conflict, as it was able to actually act. It can be said that this time was relatively peaceful because there was a clear division in most of the world, between the Soviet Union and the US. This division was also seen in the Security Council of the UN and therefore there was little effect in the UN with conflicts that arose through this division. However, since these superpowers did not want to take this division to an active war, they fought through proxies and thus keep the situation relatively stable. In the conflicts that were not because of this division, the superpowers were usually in agreement, and the UN was able to act. This action enabled them to help minimise these conflicts and contributed to peace and stability in these areas.

So although the UN had limited success in maintaining peace and security, it had much more success with its other endeavours, such as human rights. This led to the UN combining peacekeeping efforts with humanitarian issues. While the end of the Cold War led to increased cooperation among the members of the Security Council and the possibility of the UN having an increased role in maintaining international peace and security, the changing nature of the conflicts once again affected the UN and limited their role. The end of the Cold War contributed to the resurgence of nationalism and ethnic conflicts, especially in the regions formally under authoritarian and communist regimes. Due to the demand from these conflicts, there was a dramatic increase in military operations of the UN. However, these operations were very different from those during the Cold War, as the issues that arose were from weak institutions, secessionism, ethnic and tribal clashes, and civil wars. This led to the questioning of principals such as state sovereignty and non-intervention in domestic affairs. This led to a number of problems, as the UN Charter was created to deal with interstate conflict, not intrastate conflict. This meant that the UN was ill equipped to deal with internal conflicts and the issues that arose from them. It became clear that the UN needed to reform itself in order to be effective in the new international issues that it was facing. This reform is still trying to occur. These events can be analysed at all three levels. The Cold War can be studied on an individual level by looking at the leaders of the states involved, particularly the US and USSR. They each had their own ideas about how the UN should be involved in the conflicts of the time. This is also reflected on a state level. The US feared the spread of communism and the domino theory led to involvement in issues that they might have otherwise avoided. The USSR wished to maintain as much power and control as possible and sought to increase its territory, both directly and indirectly. On an international level, the UN was affected due to the balance of power in the Security Council and the General Assembly. The events after the Cold War can be looked at on two main levels-state and international. On the state level there was the desire to either continue to remain in power or the desire to take power from a communist government and return it to the people. There was also the desire for each ethnic or religious group to maintain or take power for survival or freedom. On an international level, the UN was in an impossible situation. It had no clear authority to act and was hindered by its own Charter and the lack agreement from the states involved, which links back to the state level.