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www.aber.ac.uk/interpol Issue 90a Siwrnal Materion Mewnol’ INTERSTATEJournal of International Affairs MANAGING EDITOR’S COMMENTS THE INTERSTATE TEAM Photo by: Eilif SwEnSEn Managing Editor Greetings and Welcome from Interstate! Sam Garbett hat a year 2009 was. It has been quite himself made famous through the film The Pianist, a year for me and my newly assem- who placed their lives on the line to feed and shelter Wbled team. Not only have we gorged the violently oppressed Poles and Jews.2 From their Senior Editors our way through another year of academic study lives we can learn that behind the most dreadful of Marius William but we’ve revived an old friend of Aberystwyth’s. regimes and in the darkest of times, hope can find Eilif Swensen Interstate, our very own journal of world affairs, is her allies. There are many, many names I would Martin Taggart back after over 6 years of being shelved. And al- like to list in thanks here; their selflessness in times though 2009 has been a tough year for the world, where cowardice often dominates is an inspiration I believe, as always, there is much to be grateful for all mankind. Assistant Editors for. Accordingly, this will be a message of thanks, Sophie Kartalova my first of which must of course go to you, the So what of the future? The world staggers into 2010 Ilona Dudaite reader, and also my excellently enthusiastic team bruised, shaken and sobered. For us students there Tanaka Sarah Muchatuta of fellow students whose hard work has made this has been one overriding source of optimism, posi- celebratory issue possible. tivity and, above all, hope. Students in America and Roseanna Medd around the world flocked in their thousands to the Zakia Anwar It has been an important year for the Depart- aid of Senator Barack Obama and formed the bed- Rory F Lowings ment of International Politics too. After taking on rock of his successful grassroots campaign to be- yet another industrious batch of undergraduates come the most powerful man on Earth. For many of Igor Mechiem-Eyre and continuing to cruise with the best of them our generation, George W. Bush has been all we’ve at the top of the league tables we’ve also wel- known. It is to Barack Obama, a man who continu- Translation comed new academic staff. In 2009 the Depart- ally drives us to challenge ourselves to and to rise Elin Angharad Roberts ment turned 90 years old, a milestone that allows above history, where my third and final round of us all to reflect upon the history of international thanks resides. Thanks for reminding us of what we Nia Blackwell relations. Thinking back to 1919 and the work of can do at our best. Bethan Foweraker the Department’s founder, David Davies, I can- Bleddyn Bowen not help but to think of trenches, no-man’s-land Bethan Eleri Court and endless lengths of barbed wire draped in the Sam Garbett fog of war. So my second round of thanks goes out to human calibre shown by those who have or Online Editor still occupy places like these. My thanks goes to Managing Editor: 2009/2010 Darragh Horgan the human, any human, civilian and soldier, who battle for peace and international harmony - the ideas that so embody our Department’s concep- Graphics tion. It goes to those who stood with Ghandi, (ENDNOTES) Anja Bergersen Luther King or Mandela and achieved legacies Darragh Horgan which have become the gold-medals of the 20th 1 Dallaire, Roméo. Shake Hands with the Devil (Vintage Canada, Toronto, 2004). Century. I am grateful for the human sprit that can be found amidst our greatest tragedies. Departmental Advisors When the world turned its back on Rwanda, the Alastair Finlan 2 Telegraph Foreign Staff and Agencies, UN Force Commander, Roméo Dallaire, sacrificed German Officer of ‘Pianist’ fame honoured in Israel (Daily Gwenan Creunant every ounce of his strength, in the face of unwin- Telegraph, Jerusalem, February 16 2009) http://www. telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/4639609/ nable odds, to do all in his power for peace and German-officer-of-Pianist-fame-honoured-in-Israel.html humanity.1 German officers like Wilm Hosenfeld, (accessed December 4 2009). INTERSTATE THE INTERSTATE TEAM Photo by: Eilif SwEnSEn Issue 90a “Any opinions expressed in articles in this journal are solely those of the contributors and are not to be attributed to the Interstate Committee, the Department of International Politics AU, or Aberystwyth University.” Panta Rei: The Next Ninety Years of International Politics 3. Barack Obama And The Nobel Peace Prize: Justified Or World Optimism? 8. The Lisbon Treaty: Am I A Real Boy Now? 10. Surveillence Society - Selling Our Secrets? 14. A Parcel Of Rogues - Scotland’s Politicians And The Issue Of Independence 18. Still The Good Fight? The Commonwealth Of Nations Turn 60 23. A Report on Electoral Turnout In The United Kingdom: Long Term And Contemporary Factors Of Voting 30. “Interstate is a journal of World Affairs, put together completely by the students of Aberystwyth University. The content of the journal is dictated by the contributor who can be student, staff or politician. If you wish to submit an article or if you have a query about the journal then please contact the following:” The Managing Editor Interstate Journal of World Affairs Department of International Politics Aberystwyth University Penglais Aberystwyth SY23 3FE Wales Or contact: [email protected] INTERSTATE PANTA REI: THE NEXT NINETY YEARS OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS Panta Rei: The Next Ninety Years Of International Politics By Igor Merheim-Eyre rom Heraclitus to Marx, intellectuals war era into a supra-national organisation, have often recognised changes in the co-ordinating socio-economic policies of its Fflow of history. Certain periods tend member states. Whilst bitter arguments to be more dynamic than others but, in rage between Europhiles and Europhobes the end, all things move. Just as the past over the effects of EU’s increased powers ninety years have been some of the most on the sovereignty of its member-states, memorable mankind has known, the next the main focus should be on the direction ninety years are promising to be no less and effectiveness of the EU policy strategy. intensive. Whilst it is not possible to predict the full ninety years, it is at least possible Along with the Lisbon Treaty, the positions to see what the current developments and of a President of the European Council patterns in International Relations might and High Representative of the Union for bring in the immediate future. Whether Foreign Affairs have been established in as a result of human nature, folly or the order to provide a strengthened forum for hand of God, we can be almost certain common policies. Herman Van Rompuy, that wars, famines, disappearances and President of the Council, has already appearances of states and alliances will pledged a more dynamic role for the still occur. Often enough history repeats European Union in solving the current itself, and sometimes avenges itself with economic crisis, considering it the most the most devastating effect. important part of the domestic agenda for 2010.1 With the BBC terming it a long- EUROPEAN UNION term economic coordination plan, it may be possible to say that the EU institutions From the European Coal and Steel are finding a new confidence to deal with Community (ECSC) to the European Union, issues that were once dealt with by the the bureaucracy of Brussels has evolved member-state.2 from a trading organisation of the post- As the current economic crisis in Greece INTERSTATE 3 INTERSTATE PANTA REI: THE NEXT NINETY YEARS OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS is showing, the Union may find itself in a Russian intervention in South Ossetia, so position strong enough to prevent in future Russia took an uncompromising stance on one of its member-states from announcing the issue of the missile bases. bankruptcy, despite the current EU rules that prohibit its members from lending But, whilst the first year of the Obama money to member states struggling with Administration has seen Russia allowing high deficits. But, with the Greek debt at 4,500 over flight rights through Russian 121 per cent of its GDP and a deficit of territory per year and a promise (however 12.2 per cent, the German magazine Der vague it may be) to help in preventing Iran Spiegel believes that the EU is prepared from creating nuclear missiles, political to bend the rules, as the ‘consequences analysts believe that both sides expect too would also be dire’ and ‘confidence in the much. Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Moscow’s euro shattered’.3 Russia in Global Affairs, for example, claims that it is a Western ‘fantasy’ that Russia RUSSIA AND THE US holds a key to solving the Iranian problem, arguing that the best Russia can do is to Despite it being too early to suggest intensify its diplomatic efforts in the near whether the increased powers of the future. On the other hand, Alexander Rahr European Union and its President will of the German Council on Foreign Relations eventually lead to anything comparable doubts the Western, particularly American to Schlesinger’s ‘Imperial Presidency’, it is and Central European, desire to accept also too soon to predict the direction of the President Medvedev’s rapprochement and European Common Foreign Policy. Whilst desire for ‘eternal peace’, by creating ‘an Kissinger will soon be granted the long- expanded alliance in which Russia and awaited dialling code for Europe, the lack the West act in concert to stabilize the of European Armed Forces may prompt the European continent’.4 major powers to ask the twisted Stalinist question, ‘how many battalion does However, the Middle-East may prove the Europe have?’ Thus, one can cautiously testing point for such future alliance.