Question #1

What is the most important issue in world politics today? Why?

While pondering this question, several possible answers came to mind. First was human rights. In my mind, a government’s primary function should be to protect the basic rights of its people, and whenever possible work to improve quality of life. However, as I sat down to write my response, my mind wandered to the economic stability of each country. Surely if a state had a good economy and ample funds it would be able to overcome factors that lead to human rights violations as well as the factors that decrease the quality of life?
As I thought it over, I began to think that it is impossible to pick one single most important issue. Each issue’s causes, complexities, and, even resolutions are dependent on other issues and events around the world. Even if I was able to pick an issue more important than the others, I would always be able to trace its origin back to another issue.
To use the soccer metaphor, the winner of a soccer match is not always the better team. Say that you thought the most important thing to consider when betting on a team was the quality of the players. Of course that is an important consideration, but would this team be able to win without superior training and technique? Are the players suited to the environment? Or even, has the opposing team locked any of the star players in a garage? Even though a team’s goal may be to work towards victory by recruiting the best players, it must consider and adapt to or control all of these other factors before it can have a winning team.
Another example that comes to mind is the recent Georgia-Russia conflict. The issue is much more complex than South Ossetia and Abkhazia wanting to break away from Georgia. Issues affecting other countries directly and indirectly influenced the outcome of this conflict. If Russia had not felt threatened by Georgia’s attempt to join the United Nations, possibly upsetting the balance of power, would Russia have decided to back the breakaway regions? If there had not been claims of human rights violations would the United States have decided to send aid? If Israel did not fear Russia’s alliance with Iran and Syria would they have given further aid to Georgia?
Balance of power, state security, human rights, and the economy all factored into the outcome of the Russia-Georgia conflict, and therefore must all be treated as important issues when looking at the conflict as a whole. Likewise, all of these factors must be taken into account when studying world politics as a whole because it is impossible to say that a single issue can be discussed without a mention of the others.