BrainPaw

  The end of the Cold War and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union signified an unexpected and dramatic shift in the analysis of international relations. Hobsbawm (1994:559) noted, “For the first time in two centuries, the world of the 1990s entirely lacked any international system or structure”. Unbridled bloody ethnic conflicts; the pursuance of nuclear weapons programmes by rogue states; and the harrowing global realities revealed in a 1994 UN Human Security report—generated feelings of a post Cold War disorder. Enough so, that US President Bill Clinton famously asserted “Gosh! I miss the Cold War” (White 1998:256). Building on this, the report will critically evaluate Realism, Liberalism, Marxism and Constructivism through a lens of power; concluding neorealism possesses a pragmatic approach under which the varying concepts of power can be related back to. All politics is a struggle for power that is “inseparable from social life itself” thus, international pol...

 Liberalism is a philosophical, political and economic theory, and ideology that emanates from the position that individual freedoms are the legal basis of society and economic order. The ideal of liberalism is a society with freedom of action for everyone, free exchange of politically sensitive information, limiting the power of church and state, rule of law, private property, and freedom of private enterprise.  Liberalism rejected many of the provisions that were the basis of previous theories of the state, such as the divine right of kings to rule and the role of religion as the sole source of knowledge. Fundamental principles of liberalism include the recognition: of data on the nature of natural rights (including the right to life, liberty, and property), as well as other civil rights; equity and equality before the law; market economy; government’s responsibility and transparency of government. The function of the government is reduced to the minimum necessary to...

  Constructivism is the theory that says learners construct knowledge rather than just passively take in information. As people experience the world and reflect upon those experiences, they build their own representations and incorporate new information into their pre-existing knowledge (schemas). Constructivism is an important learning theory that educators use to help their students learn. Constructivism is based on the idea that people actively construct or make their own knowledge, and that reality is determined by your experiences as a learner. Basically, learners use their previous knowledge as a foundation and build on it with new things that they learn. So everyone's individual experiences make their learning unique to them. Constructivism is crucial to understand as an educator because it influences the way all of your students learn. Teachers and instructors that understand the constructivist learning theory understand that their students bring their own unique e...