Exams up!

With the desperation of an alcoholic searching for a drop of whisky, I searched my peanut sized brain for a drop of information. The instrument of terror they call ‘question paper lay before me. It well deserved its name. It put my very existence in question! The questions posed on international relations started pushing me to the precipice of frustration.

Like a pirate looking for the key to his secret treasure, I made some futile attempts at searching that chit I had hidden in my pocket only to find that it was stolen by the guy behind me. One suspicious look from the supervisor foiled my hopes of getting any external help.
To regain my composure, I then did that deep breathing exercise Baba Ramdev shows on TV and decided to confront the paper with whatever miniscule knowledge I had.
Compare and contrast the Realist and Idealist traditions in the study of international relations.

I answered as follows

Realism is a peculiar view of the world defined by the assumption that the international realm is anarchic and consists of independent political units called states. States are the main players in the system and inherently possess offensive military capabilities or power which makes them potentially dangerous for each other.

A Realist believes that all the governments in the world are suffering form schizophrenia. He believes that in international relations today, only fools and children tell the truth and ambiguity is the name of the game here. In short, he thinks that in today’s world, every nation is Genghis Khan.

An idealist on the other hand, believes strongly in the affective power of ideas. He believes that national opinions can be changed to integrate the values of peace, prosperity co-operation and justice. He hates war and thinks that we can actually achieve a peaceful world.
He believes that all the Genghis Khans can become Gandhis. For an idealist, I only have following words:
Lage Raho Munna Bhai.

Hoping that that answer would give me at least five of ten marks allotted to it, and moved on.

Examine the relevance of the UN in today’s world with appropriate examples.

Answer: The plight of the UN today can be best understood by the following example:
The world is like a big disco where everyone is dancing in a state of complete anarchy and the UN is a geek-among-freaks who is trying to introduce some rules to that chaos but alas! No one has time to listen to him! To sum up, I qute a statement made by some cynic about the UN.
‘The nations that cannot do anything individually, come together and decide that nothing can be done collectively-that’s the UN.

Two questions out of three were enough to get me passing marks in the test. Satisfied that my answers had filled out a considerable number of pages, I submitted my paper and strolled out of the class. Now I anxiously await the results and pray to Lord Ganesha
“Dear lord Ganesha, if you pass me in the exams, I will gift you a gold rat. However if you don’t pass me, I will use that gold to gift a ring to my girlfriend. So if you cant pass me, at least give me a GF.”

No matter what happens, I profit. In International relations, they call ti a ‘win-win situation. Thank you !

References: www.irtheory.com

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Letter to dad

Travelling in a bus

The battle over 300