Year taken: Senior
Through the course International Relations (IR), I learned about international security, international law and human rights, and international political economy. I wasn’t a person who likes to talk about politics or the affairs happening between countries before, but after taking the course, reading and thinking about the news that are not close or seem to be related to me everyday have become a part of my life. I realized international relations is not only about politics and tactical diplomacy, and countries are deeply connected to each other. So, everything happening around the world is actually related to me. I still remember the class discussions on the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine. All the IR values can be implemented and many international law and human rights are being violated, for example, the Russian invasion violates international laws that calls for maintenance of international peace and security through restraint in the use of force or the threat. Human rights, such as the right to life, are being violated. Many Russians are protesting against the fight. So, in this case, the right to opinion is not violated. The fact that everything we learnt in class can be implemented in this issue was fascinating and also let me realize how IR can be used to examine an issue in daily life.
We also learned how human rights law can be contradictory, which reminds me of my GSD project. For vaccines, the right to life and the right of religion are against each other, since taking vaccines will protect your life and the lives of people around you, but if it’s someone’s belief to not take vaccines, does it mean they violate the right to life? I also looked into the topic of life-long imprisonment and taught the class about it, after I found out the complexity of human rights and how it affects policy making. Life-long imprisonment basically takes away all the freedom a person has, which definitely violates human rights; however, it is the way to lessen the number of death penalty.
The course International Relations enables me to peek into the world from a more comprehensive perspective. It teaches me how the complex relationship between countries form and how each country maximizes their profit by building up a good relationship with other countries. Most importantly, it makes me become more aware of what is happening in the world and proactive to find more information, since now I gained the knowledge to understand and analyze them.