The lecture that was discussed last Monday is about theories that describe world politics, even before; I have the background in understanding these theories. But in terms of IR, it's different and hard to understand. But when my professor and my classmates discussed and shared their knowledge about this topic, it helped me gain new ideas about it.
The three main things that I learned from in this session are...
Realism was dominant during the cold war. The importance of power in all states and what I heard is that this theory is an antidote to international institutions. The interest of this theory is survival of the state, and if all states are trying to be powerful there is a security dilemma. Liberalism is an economic interdependence between states and spread of diplomacy. The last is the Constructivism theory is changing norms of sovereignty, human rights, and ideas in politics. While discussing, I knew that every theory has disadvantages and advantages like liberalism; I thought that it is the best theory because of its advantages that was read and was discussed in the class. The new words that surprised me were the difference between Truth and truth that was actually giving me a headache like the difference between the State and state.
Learn...
In our first session in which we discussed those theories and other factors and after understanding this different kind of topics, I know that this will help me in the future because it will help not just for this subject and our future subjects but also in our everyday lives. Before getting this PHIFOCY subject, these three theories are always discussed by our past professors because they already taught us the basic knowledge about IR. The issues caught my interest, and what I would like to study in more detail is about the conflict between North Korea and South Korea. What I liked most about the session was our Professor really explains the subject matter so that we can actually understand what issue will be discussed.
EXPECTATIONS...
"Philippine Foreign Policy"
I thought this subject was very difficult because I have to read a lot. But when our first session ended I think that I can follow and learn more because we did new activities like forming a big circle and sharing my thoughts and opinions to my classmates, creating blogs and making notes. Even if I don't have the guts to explain in front of people because I am a person who really doesn't talk much and I can't explain what i really know while people are looking and listening to me, but I can write what I feel. I expect that this subject will help us with our subjects for this term, and for our professors to guide us. Thank you ^_^
