Posts

A Random Walk down Four Mile Run

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  As humans, we have agency over our actions and the possible choices one makes on a day to day basis are almost incalculable. As such one would imagine that our day-to-day routines would be difficult to predict, this does not seem to be the case as humans fall into predictable patterns of commuting, as our locations now can be tracked via the smart phones in our pocket, different patterns are emerging of human movement.   A 2021 study using cell-phone data was published in the Journal Nature concluded that the micro-structure of Central Place Theorem was largely correct and that most people had a limit to how far they were willing to travel to purchase goods. (Schlapfer 2021). This results in people making trips to nearby destinations rather than making trips to further destinations all things equal. One would not pass a grocery store to go to a grocery store further away if both stores were comparable. I conform to the above pattern and take a daily trip around the neighborhood and
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London Calling

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 London Calling London, England has in recent history, been a leader in efforts to reduce anthropogenic climate change. An earlier example is the construction of the Thames Barrier. In 1984 the Thames Barrier became fully operational. This massive structure "... spans 520 metres across the River Thames near Woolwich and  protects 125 square kilometres of central London from flooding caused by tidal surges" (Kelly 2018). In today's currency the Barrier cost ~1.5 billion pounds.  This is to illustrate that the local city government in London has been aware of climate issues for some time.  Today they are using both top-down and bottom-up approaches to combat climate change. London has established the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030. To achieve this goal they have drafted a report on the best practices and possible policy solutions to achieve the goal of being carbon neutral in 2030.  One example of a top down policy that would reduce co2 emissions would be the repla
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The Election: A Tale of Two Countries

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 Elections occur often in a "liberal democracy" as any democratic form of government requires the consent of the people. Theoretically, winning or losing elections will have consequences as to the direction a country takes politically. In many democracies this is balanced by the judicial system as well as sometimes by the executive branch. This prevents the voting public from violating societal norms in the name of an election (i.e. passing a referendum that would legalize murder). This post will compare and contrast two different Countries recent elections.  Japan is a Core country and recently had local elections. They may be gearing up for early national elections, if the governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) decides it is in their advantage to call early elections.  While this procedure of calling an early election may seem strange to Americans, we don't move our vote in general elections in June after-all, it is a feature of many parliamentary democracies (E.G. Un
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Migration

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The assignment was to compare and contrast migration patterns as well as immigration issue in the United States of America and the European Union. I am going to do a little bit different and focus on the internal migration between US States and EU Member-States.  The United States is currently, if media reports are to believed, undergoing a internal migration from higher cost of living states primarily in the Northeast to lower tax and warmer States in the Sun-Belt. Here is a sample headline   These articles go into the recent census data that show the fastest growing counties are in the sun-belt where the largest counties as far a numeric decline were LA County and Cook County, Ill (Chicago). The article goes onto state that a Wall Street Journal analysis of the census data concluded, in part, that the suburbs and small and medium size cities have experienced the greatest growth.(Allen 2023). It is too early to tell whether of not these trends will continue and it is also notable to p
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Germany

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 The boundaries of the German State have undergone tremendous change since the end of the Holy Roman Empire.  To paraphrase Voltaire: The agglomeration, the German State is neither holy, roman or an Empire. (Voltaire 2010). In 1776 the German State consisted of over 300 States (State 2023). The map below shows Germany circa 1500 and the many different states that comprised the Holy Roman Empire. Within the Holy Roman Empire, two States would become dominant in the late 18th century, the Kingdom of Austria and the Kingdom of Prussia. (State 2023). The Kingdom of Austria ruled by the Hasburgs was traditionally the dominant power in the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia grew in power and influence in the late 1700s and became a power playing within the Empire.       IEG-Maps, Institute of European History, Mainz / © A. Kunz, 2007 Cartographer: Joachim Robert Moeschl Napoleon swept through the continent in the early 1800s, and in 1806 the Holy Roman Empire dissolved, the Congress o
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Can the US still project power?

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  (Al Jazeera) As one can see from the above map, the US has military bases through out the world, ensuring our ability to wage warfare far from our shores. Other Nation-States should be deterred from too much unwarranted military aggression against the US as we alone have the ability to project power worldwide.  Afghanistan shows the limits of power projection as while we were able to quickly deploy troops to the region the US was unable to permanently destroy the Taliban, resulting in the Taliban eventually gaining control of the country. Is the inability of the US to successfully export its liberal values a sign that the current K-wave has already crested and rapidly falling, I would argue that our power projection on a world stage is due to our continued status as the financial center of the world. If the US Dollar were to ever be replaced as the reserve currency, I would be more worried, but I feel the US will remain the global hegemon, until my small child is old enough to vote. 
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Looking at military rhetoric through feminist lenses.

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 Blog Post 2 The Department of Defense mission statement is quite succinct in "Our mission is to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nations security." (DOD 2023).  This mission statement explicitly only focuses on providing military forces and does not take in to account other nation-building tasks.  One might think that the Department of Defense will always delegate these roles to other government agencies such as the Department of State, but the Department of Defense has not always done so, the Office of Civil Operations and Rural Support (CORDS) (NARA 2023) in Vietnam was tasked with " the military, para-military, political, economic, and social process of establishing or re-establishing a local government that the people would support". Having a functioning local government could allow the local villagers to trust that the occupying government did actually mean to improve their lives and not simply kill the enemy no matter what the co
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