A Seminal Day?
Today may mark the last turn in my full-circle trip around international relations and politics. Or perhaps I'm just feeling a lil funny. I'd like to document my thoughts in case this really is a pivotal day.
So. I started by reading some articles in the New York Times. Despite being rather disappointed by the stupidity of certain contemporary situations covered, I found myself generally interested in Senate vote that put a time-frame on the Iraq war and also, rather surprisingly, in the news from Democratic Presindential Candidate debate. Then I found myself wanting to read two Op-Ed pieces by Krugman and Friedman (why oh why?), which I of course, and probably for the better, was unable to do because I don't subscribe to NYT Premiere or whatever.
Around this time, I suddenly started thinking about perhaps working on the election campaign of a candidate (assuming I find one with whom I can agree 75% or more of the time) after graduating in December. I mean, I've been contemplating what I want to do with my life in general, and what I want to be doing a year from now, and I don't have any set plans. Abruptly politics came back into my head. Yes, I'm as surprised as you are; if you're not surprised, I guess you didn't know that after taking Intro to Comparitive Politics and Intro to International Affairs two years ago as a freshman at the George Washington University, I absolutely abhorred anything remotely related to theories of international affairs or politics. I even stopped paying attention to the news completely for a lil under a year in order to avoid hearing anything political. Living with my father was particularly stressful at this time of my life.
I then finally decided to start my reading for Theories of American Foreign Policy, a course I'm currently taking at the Humboldt University of Berlin in English but with students from around Germany and Europe (and there's a Japanese girl and a few other Americans). I have to take this course (or another "international" politics course - most of which were equally unenticing) to complete my International Affairs major, which apart from this, I've gotten through without having to take any poli sci or int aff course beyond those horrid intros. Clearly I did not want to take the course at GW / with ambitious, superficial GW students. So here I am, taking a course on American foreign policy and another on US diplomatic history in Berlin. Whoops.
Anyhow, I've been a lil uneasy about taking this foreign policy course since we got the syllabus on Monday. The readings are quite similar to those I did for intro to int'l affairs, but this time around they are a little bit deeper. I hated intro to int'l affairs and it made me hate everything I had thought I wanted to do in life. Reliving it is therefore dangerous.
So now you can properly imagine the utter shock I felt as I read the first few readings, finding them interesting (almost like a book you don't want to put down), recalling with excitement names and characteristics of theories I thought I'd purged from my mind, and, above all, actually recognizing the merits of the various theories, including realism (well mostly defensive realism, but at times even other strains!) At one point, I even daydreamt a little about becoming a senator.
The world has really turned itself upside down today - well my world, anyway. Yesterday I spoke with Eric about the Foreign Service Exam for entry into the Foreign Service or other diplomatic State Department work: my prevailing career goal at least since the 7th grade (and up to about two years ago). He was commenting on how he's interested in the US History course we have together because it covers a large part of what is tested by the FSE; I was unaffected, or perhaps even a little repelled by the entrance of the particular topic into the conversation. Somehow that has now gotten me more interested in the material of that class as well (I had already been relatively interested).
So now I am going to shower. Shower's change weird moods I get into rather often, so we'll see if I'm feelin' it still after a lil cleansing. If not, you may be reading the blog of a future senator or, better yet, ambassador. (God, I feel like such a GW tool; but if it's meant to be, it's meant to be).
So. I started by reading some articles in the New York Times. Despite being rather disappointed by the stupidity of certain contemporary situations covered, I found myself generally interested in Senate vote that put a time-frame on the Iraq war and also, rather surprisingly, in the news from Democratic Presindential Candidate debate. Then I found myself wanting to read two Op-Ed pieces by Krugman and Friedman (why oh why?), which I of course, and probably for the better, was unable to do because I don't subscribe to NYT Premiere or whatever.
Around this time, I suddenly started thinking about perhaps working on the election campaign of a candidate (assuming I find one with whom I can agree 75% or more of the time) after graduating in December. I mean, I've been contemplating what I want to do with my life in general, and what I want to be doing a year from now, and I don't have any set plans. Abruptly politics came back into my head. Yes, I'm as surprised as you are; if you're not surprised, I guess you didn't know that after taking Intro to Comparitive Politics and Intro to International Affairs two years ago as a freshman at the George Washington University, I absolutely abhorred anything remotely related to theories of international affairs or politics. I even stopped paying attention to the news completely for a lil under a year in order to avoid hearing anything political. Living with my father was particularly stressful at this time of my life.
I then finally decided to start my reading for Theories of American Foreign Policy, a course I'm currently taking at the Humboldt University of Berlin in English but with students from around Germany and Europe (and there's a Japanese girl and a few other Americans). I have to take this course (or another "international" politics course - most of which were equally unenticing) to complete my International Affairs major, which apart from this, I've gotten through without having to take any poli sci or int aff course beyond those horrid intros. Clearly I did not want to take the course at GW / with ambitious, superficial GW students. So here I am, taking a course on American foreign policy and another on US diplomatic history in Berlin. Whoops.
Anyhow, I've been a lil uneasy about taking this foreign policy course since we got the syllabus on Monday. The readings are quite similar to those I did for intro to int'l affairs, but this time around they are a little bit deeper. I hated intro to int'l affairs and it made me hate everything I had thought I wanted to do in life. Reliving it is therefore dangerous.
So now you can properly imagine the utter shock I felt as I read the first few readings, finding them interesting (almost like a book you don't want to put down), recalling with excitement names and characteristics of theories I thought I'd purged from my mind, and, above all, actually recognizing the merits of the various theories, including realism (well mostly defensive realism, but at times even other strains!) At one point, I even daydreamt a little about becoming a senator.
The world has really turned itself upside down today - well my world, anyway. Yesterday I spoke with Eric about the Foreign Service Exam for entry into the Foreign Service or other diplomatic State Department work: my prevailing career goal at least since the 7th grade (and up to about two years ago). He was commenting on how he's interested in the US History course we have together because it covers a large part of what is tested by the FSE; I was unaffected, or perhaps even a little repelled by the entrance of the particular topic into the conversation. Somehow that has now gotten me more interested in the material of that class as well (I had already been relatively interested).
So now I am going to shower. Shower's change weird moods I get into rather often, so we'll see if I'm feelin' it still after a lil cleansing. If not, you may be reading the blog of a future senator or, better yet, ambassador. (God, I feel like such a GW tool; but if it's meant to be, it's meant to be).