SonjaBe.com International Relations – Be Here | Be You | Be True

By Michelle Blanchet. What do you picture when you think of Colombia?  Cocaine?  Gang warfare? Sadly, violence is nothing new to Colombia, and has instilled a bad reputation to an otherwise wonderful country.  Decades of conflict have often left the state powerless to control paramilitary groups, or to manage organized crime. Drug and arms trafficking have intensified the entire situation, which have caused the country to periodically hit some of the highest homicide and crime rates in the world. Read More »

By Nadia Buhna Burma, the once feudal society, colonized by the British Empire in the late 19th century, became independent in 1948. Soon after gaining independence, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (another name used for the country) was plunged into a decades-long civil war as a result of a military coup in 1962. The year 2008 brought the Burmese constitutional reform leading to a general election in 2010 in which the military-backed administration of President Thein Sein took power replacing the military junta. Claims that the elections were neither free nor fair were made by national and international bodies. The April 2012 result of the by elections in Burma, however, is a promising sign of a successful pro democracy movement in the country as National League for Democracy, led by Nobel  peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, Read More »

Does investing in force ever help to diminish violence and corruption in a broken country?  When taking a look at Afghanistan, it is rather unrealistic to assume that more security is the correct solution for fixing the nation’s ills.  Afghanistan suffers one of the lowest GDPs in the world, is known for its massive corruption, and endures unending violence year after year.  Despite these facts, many influential bodies, including the U.S. and EU, continue to inject more and more money into Afghanistan’s National Police Force.  Is this really the best method for advancing Afghan society? Read More »