Suchergebnisse

Abstract
While the Palestinian struggle has received widespread support from non-Palestinian activists across North America and Europe, the Kurdish struggle in Turkey, which is similar to the Palestinian cause in important ways, has not received such extensive support from non-Kurdish activists. Existing explanations do not fully account for this difference. I argue that this variation in non-diasporic support is in part a product of the impact that differences between the Palestinian and Kurdish diasporas in the West have had on how each group has sought to mobilize grassroots support for their cause. The small size and internal divisions of the Palestinian diaspora incentivized Palestinian activists to focus on recruiting non-Palestinians, creating the conditions for their mobilization. The larger size and greater degree of organization of the Kurdish diaspora incentivized Kurdish activists to focus primarily on mobilizing their ethnic kin and less on recruiting non-Kurds, resulting in relatively little non-Kurdish support.

Realist scholars have frequently expressed their displeasure at the actual practice of foreign policy and urged states to act in ways that are more consistent with realist insights on the nature of international politics. What does this foreign policy activism tell us about realist theory? For many, realist foreign policy activism suggests that the realist intellectual project is internally contradictory. Realist activism is said to undermine contemporary realism's claims to explain international politics "as it really is" the scientific validity of its predictions, and its rejection of the view that discourse and debate can shape the practice and nature of politics. While this perspective raises important questions about the descriptive-explanatory components of realist thought, it also contributes to a mischaracterization of what realism is primarily about. This article argues that the realist intellectual project is less about building a scientific and empirically valid theory of international relations and more about shaping state behavior to handle the demands and rigors posed by an anarchic international system. Realist foreign policy activism highlights the deeply prescriptive nature of the realist intellectual project.

Written largely by Canadian scholars for Canadian readers, this overview of contemporary human rights concerns introduces the human rights instruments—provincial, national, and international—which protect Canadians. The volume begins with an outline of the history of human rights before moving on to discuss such important topics as the relationship between political institutions and rights protection, rights issues pertaining to specific communities, and cross-cutting rights issues that affect most or all citizens. Contemporary and comprehensive, Human Rights: Current Issues and Controversies is a valuable resource for anyone interested in learning more about human rights