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🤔 What are the key International Relations (IR) theories? Your short guide for basic understanding 👇

🔹Realism: Focuses on power, survival, and national interest. States are the main actors in an anarchic world system where conflict is inevitable.

Example: Cold War arms race, where both the US and USSR built up military power to secure their national interests.

🔹Liberalism: Emphasises cooperation between states through international institutions and organizations, promoting peace and mutual benefit. Liberals believe that human nature is inherently good, and global order can improve over time.

Example: Formation of the United Nations, promoting diplomacy to prevent wars.

🔹Constructivism: Argues that international relations are shaped by social norms, values, and identities. Reality in IR is not fixed, but constructed by the interactions and beliefs of states and their leaders.
Example: Changing perceptions of human rights globally, which have led to shifts in state behaviors and international laws.

🔹Marxism: Focuses on economic structures, class struggle, and the exploitation of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie. In IR, it emphasizes the inequality between wealthy and poorer nations.
Example: Global South countries being economically exploited by more powerful nations through unfair trade agreements.

🔹Postcolonialism: Analyses the effects of colonialism and imperialism on modern international relations. Focuses on the ongoing inequality and marginalisation of formerly colonised nations.

Example: The West's continued political and economic influence in the Middle East, often seen as neo-colonialism.

🔹English School: Sees international relations as a "society of states" where states, while sovereign, follow common rules and norms that create some order, even in an anarchic system.

Example: Diplomatic protocols & shared international laws, even among rivals.

🔹Neorealism/Neoliberalism: Modern versions of realism and liberalism that focus on the structure of the international system. Neorealism emphasises power dynamics, while neoliberalism stresses the role of institutions in promoting cooperation.

Example: Balance of power during the Cold War (Neorealism) and the role of NATO or the World Trade Organisation (Neoliberalism).

🔹Critical Theories: These theories question the assumptions and foundations of mainstream IR theories, focusing on power structures, inequality, and marginalised perspectives.

Example: Poststructuralists question the legitimacy of state sovereignty and explore how language shapes power dynamics in international relations.

~Mrunal Sir

Some recent change in functioning of the collegium system:

1.The accounts say,Collegium will now conduct interviews of candidates who have been recommended for elevation as judges to the High Courts.
2.The panel will also, to the extent possible, exclude from selection those whose close relatives have served or continue to serve as judges of the High Courts or the Supreme Court.

Article link 🔗
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-collegium-and-changes-it-may-still-be-early-days/article69069369.ece

#GS2 #Polity

India’s rising squash star Anahat Singh won the U-17 title in the British Junior Open with a fighting win over Egypt’s Malika El Karaksy. 

📰 Tamil Nadu CM Stalin offers $1m prize for deciphering Indus Valley script

Features-
• The script is found on seals, pottery,
tablets & tools
• Boustrophedon style : Written from right
to left & from left to right in alternate.
lines.
• Pictographic Nature - humans, animals,
plants, & geometric shapes.

Red Sea
Surrounding Countries.

"DESSEY"
D: Djibouti
E: Eritrea
S: Sudan
S: Saudi Arabia
E: Egypt
Y: Yemen

Loktak lake

📍 Manipur

• Freshwater lake
• Known for its unique
floating islands, 'phumdis'.

The lake houses the only floating national park in the world, the Keibul Lamjao National Park , 🏞️
which is the last natural habitat of the endangered brow-antlered deer or Sangai deer or the dancing deer, Manipur's state animal. 🦌

#RamsarSites

User 5347611255 changed name from Ayush to Shruti

V. Narayanan appointed new Space Secretary and ISRO chief - The Hindu
https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/v-narayanan-appointed-new-space-secretary-and-isro-chief/article69073962.ece