Claire asked:
1) Obvious things like Israel-Palestine, China-Taiwan, Sudan, I can’t do b/c people already have them.
I was thinking something like Sri Lankan civil war, censorship in China and how it compares to the rest of the world, or maybe the way secular governments allow/disallow religious ‘violations’ of law (what’s that called?). But I’m not that up to date on the news so I can’t come up with many ideas.
i’d suggest the war in Iraq, because there’s alot of extreme controversy going on over it, not only in Iraq and America, but views from other countries as well. it’s an extremely broad and in-depth topic, so you should have no trouble finding information by searching it on the internet.
Comment by LiFe x GuARdD <33 — April 6, 2008 @ 12:34 am
How about revisiting an old story line that is about to become a very important topic…The Cold War Again…With Russia.
Comment by jimmy d. — April 7, 2008 @ 8:22 am
No. There are no international conflicts going on right now.
Comment by David in Madison — April 8, 2008 @ 7:06 pm
You could talk about restrictions on speech in places like (ROC) Taiwan and (PRC) China. In Taiwan, the newspapers won’t discuss the fact that the Republic of China (ROC) is not recognized by the international community as the legal goverment of Taiwan. In the PRC, the newspapers won’t discuss this either, they just say that the PRC is the succesor government to the ROC.
Hence, what both sides are claiming (which is totally without legal basis) is that the sovereignty of Taiwan was returned to “China” after WWII ….. (the date of Oct. 25, 1945 is usually given as the “Taiwan Retrocession Day” date). No such “retrocession” is recognized under international law.
Indeed, none of the Allied recognized any transfer of sovereignty of Taiwan to “China” upon this Oct. 25, 1945, date which was the surrender ceremonies for the Japanese troops in Taiwan. According to international law, the specifications for the transfer of the sovereignty of territory have to be specified in a “treaty.”
Then in the post-war San Francisco Peace Treaty, Japan (which had held the sovereignty of Taiwan since 1895) ceded all rights and claims to Taiwan, but no “receiving country” was designated. Hence, under international law, Taiwan does not belong to “China.”
However, both the ROC and the PRC vehemently claim that Taiwan belongs to “China,” (when in fact it doesn’t) ….. and the newspapers in Taiwan and the mainland both rigorously censor 99% of all reportage which suggests otherwise ….. (or which tries to explain the “truth” …… ) So this is an interesting conflict to consider.
Notes: In fact, Taiwan belongs to the USA. The ROC in Taiwan is merely a (1) subordinate occupying power, beginning Oct. 25, 1945, and (2) a government in exile, beginning mid-December 1949.
The United States of America is the principal occupying power.
Comment by IR-student — April 9, 2008 @ 1:47 pm