Summer 2023
Get off to a good start!
DP1 Students: IA Engagements!
Get off to a good start!
The school is collecting recommendations for summer work from DP teachers. You'll find that the rigor of DP courses is rather different from what you have done in MYP; many courses move more quickly and you're expected to familiarize yourself with new material within a shorter period of time. For DP Global Politics, some of the best preparation you can do is just getting into the habit of reading, and start acclimating yourself to reading about political issues specifically.
Politics is a brooooooad subject, and as you'll see in the course most of the things we care about on a daily basis can be linked to politics in some way (air quality, what is taught in schools, why Taiwan insists on making you "give back" some of the days off on long weekends, etc.) In addition to reading and learning about local issues, which you can access through Taiwanese media, it's good to start expoising yourself to more international perspectives.
This is a long book, but good. And literally ANY part of it can be valuable reading. Samantha Power is currently the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (U.S. AID), and she is a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, a foreign policy advisor to Barack Obama, and a journalist who covered (and wrote a book on) genocide in Eastern Europe and Africa. This book is essentially her memoir, but it's also a great exploration of how someone's views changed throughout their experiences and how she worked to change and improve institutions (as a diplomat) that she once criticized (as a journalist.)
If you don't want to read an entire book, but maybe just a few chapters, this is an excellent choice! There are ten chapters that all start with a map of a specific country and its borders. Marshall analyzes how these maps influence the ways that countries behave (like why Russia is so aggressive with its neighbors, why China makes outrageous claims about its borders, and why the U.S. was able to dominate so much of the 20th century.) Rather than focusing people and ideas, which can change, Marshall argues that Geography (which is unchanging) is a dominant factor in explaining why countries act the way they act.
Those of you with an interest in Economics might enjoy this one! Economic Development is one of the major themes of the Global Politics course, alongside Globalization, which explains how and why the world has become increasingly interconnected and interdependent over the last fifty years (or four-hundred years, depending on who you ask.) Dr. Rivoli personally follows the path that a T-Shirt takes from the cotton fields of Western China all the way to a storefront in the United States. An intriguing mix of history, economics, culture, and sociology -- this is a terrific read.
Even though the title comes from a Mao Zedong quote (yes, really) this is a landmark book about development and human rights.
One of the authors also summarizes many themes from the book in a TED talk, found here: Sheryl WuDunn, "Our Century's Greatest Injustice"
This book won the Pulitzer Prize in 2016 (winning the General Non-Fiction Pulitzer Prize is essentially saying you've written an incredible book.) It gets into the how and why of ISIS's rise to power in the Levant region of the Middle East, as well as the ways that decisions by the international community helped influence their rise and their ability to take control. Even though ISIS's influence has declined dramatically since 2016, this is still an essential read about conflict, ideology, and the ways that decisions made far away can have ramifications for millions of people in a completely different part of the world.
MDID has subscriptions to several of these sources -- including the NYT, Economist, and Foreign Affairs. Sadly, access to those resources typically requires you to be on a Mingdao WIFI network, so you will not be able to enjoy full, unrestricted access at home during the summer. You should still be able to access some articles for free before hitting the "paywall." I'd recommend using Incognito Mode / Private Browsing, and more than one device, to expand your access to articles from sources that will ask for payment.
News and commentary magazine updated on a regular basis. These articles tend to be written for an educated audience, so they are not easy, but the writers are GREAT and there is a wide variety of articles. Articles on international events are your best bet here.
You will run into the Times' "paywall" after reading a few articles. Open the page again in "Incognito Mode" and you should be able to continue reading. The New York Times is widely considered one of the best newspapers in the world, and their world news section is second to none.
Also writes on international affairs, but most articles have a pretty obvious interest in economic ideas, factors, and decisions.
As long as you register an account with an email address, you'll get a limited number of free articles.
It's from England, but that's ok. We'll forgive them. (This is a rather good news source, often with shorter articles that are more direct about what is going on.)
I don't think the name leaves much to the imagination -- you should know what to expect here :)
Map-based articles, usually focused on things linked to the U.S., but occationally covering broader topics.
"Longform Journalism" just means articles that are longer than 1,000 words (though some can nearly reach 20,000... which, in my opinion, is a book.) This site collects longform articles from all across the web, on a wide range of topics. On the day that I'm writing this description, the story at the top of the page is about Lil Nas X, so clearly not everything is about Global Politics :)
Take a look, sit back, and enjoy -- I visit this site at least twice a week and just go through a few random articles when I'm not looking for anything in particular.
UPDATE: Longform has shut down their recommendations, so there are no new articles being posted. The "Best Of" links on the left-hand side of the page still include live links. I'd recommend checking out things from 2017-2021, as they are the most contemporary.
Johnny Harris is a former video producer for Vox, an "explainer" news site, who now has his own channel on YouTube. He produces a lot of high quality videos about different regions of the world and occasionally covers topics from Global Politics. At the very least, his videos are usually 10-20 minutes well-spent. I've linked a few of his (and other) Vox series below, as well.
Each of the below links are playlists with multiple (sometimes dozens) of videos. That should keep you busy :)
This is a 2009 documentary about a pair of guys who are basically... Global Politics Pranksters? They plan and pull off outrageous stunts like pretending to be a massive oil company apologizing for a terrible disaster (which real oil companies never actually do.) This is equal parts hilarious and horrifying, as the targets of the pranks are actual people and they're also TERRIBLE people. I LOVE this film.
Inspiration for the Engagement Activity? (Please do not take that seriously, I don't want students to get in trouble with the law... or do I?)