NGO responses
[Pin It]
RESPOND 150 words to EACH post
POST ONE
The IGO I decided to choose was the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). I find this to be one of the more interesting IGOs because I have friends who I have served with in the military you have spent time attached to them as a military command.
NATO’s homepage: http://www.nato.int/
The website is self is extremely modern especially when you see other government websites and how primitive they can be. It presents its website using bright colors as decoration and uses large almost childlike font for its text. Their mission concept does not seem to me to be presented professionally like other government websites. They rely heavily on graphics and an interactive interface. Their mission statement is the safeguarding of freedom and security through political and military means for its twenty-nine nation members. This mission’s statement is then broken down into mini reading points some of which are alliance, collective defense, transatlantic link, and 2010 strategic concept. The organization itself how no standing military force and is reliant on member nations to contribute forces on a voluntary basis once an operation has begun. NATO currently has 7 ongoing military operations such as Kosovo, Afghanistan, and their civil emergency operations as the need arises.
Article and Video discussing the issue regarding NATO’s frontier in Poland https://news.vice.com/video/the-russians-are-coming-natos-frontier
This article discusses NATOs closest frontier to Russia and its current aggression in Eastern Europe. VICE news was able to embed and interview various members of NATO’s troops stationed on the border and those who conduct various drills in preparation of a possible attack from Russian Forces. The exercise was conducted by NATO and its premise was that a fictional country attack Poland’s border. NATO troops were ordered to deploy to Poland to assist in its defense. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg arrived in Poland to watch the exercises progress. I believe NATO’s efforts on countries bordering Russia is great, but I also feel like it is far more political than actually being militarily effective. As discussing in the article and video, since Russia’s aggression in Ukraine many Polish civilians volunteered to join nonmilitary paramilitary groups. These militia’s would make up a large portion of the force expected to hold against Russian aggression until NATO could respond with a reasonable force and seems unpractical to holding back any force from a first world country. VICE can often be very critical of every government with attempts to appeal to the “hipster” young crowd (which I am). However, many of their news coverage offers interesting insight to events not seen from other news agencies.
Second article discussing the merging and formation of a new branch with Russia’s military to counter NATO : http://thediplomat.com/2015/08/russia-creates-powerful-new-military-branch-to-counter-nato/
This is a unique article because it discusses Russia’s concern of NATO as a threat against their interests and expansions in Europe. This action from Russia helps add validity that regardless of mass budget cuts to NATO, Russia still does not view NATO as powerless. However, it does point to the fact that Russia believes it may be able to counter and combat NATO for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union.
POST TWO
I decided to discuss the Non Governmental Organization of ExxonMobil. Exxon and Mobile were both decedents of Standard Oil which was founded by John D. Rockafeller. Standard Oil had a huge monopoly on oil and the United States supreme court dismembered the oil giant in 1911. Exxon and Mobil were reunited in 1999 to form ExxonMobil.
ExxonMobil is all about energy, this is made very clear by their company mission statement of “Energy Lives Here”. [1] This mission statement is a pretty profound statement that’s been backed up by a century of energy production. ExxonMobil is one of the largest non state owned energy producers in the world.
Greenpeace and environmentalists have made ExxonMobile their “villain” to attack on climate change, however ExxonMobil has done an incredible amount of development and investment in technology to reduce green house gas emissions. Just last month Suzanne Goldenberg wrote an article on theguardian.com on the subject of climate change. She references an email from an ExxonMobil scientist discussing ExxonMobil’s knowledge and awareness of effects of CO2 on the environment as early as 1981 where climate change wasn’t a public issue until around 1989. ExxonMobil was looking into developing one of the worlds largest natural gas fields in the world in south-east Asia, off Indonesia. ExxonMobile decided to NOT develop the field because of the science. They discovered that it would become the largest contributor to CO2 in the atmosphere, and without regulation or a masses of public opinion or incredible resistance to it, they decided to not develop. The article appears to be attacking ExxonMobil’s position against climate change regulation and their apparent efforts to fund climate change deniers. This was interesting to me because as this article appears to be attacking ExxonMobil on climate change, it cites the email which refers to ExxonMobil’s knowledge of green house gas emission and decision to not develop a huge pot of money, because of the environmental effect. [2]
Another article on NewYorker.com appeared to be attacking ExxonMobil’s impact on politics and policy, but began with President Obama’s double standard on oil companies. While he openly states his opposition to the oil industry, he brags about how much more domestic drilling he’s encouraged. Regardless of that, it’s interesting to see attacks on large corporations for their influence and funding of politics, especially if it’s not the politicians they themselves support. ExxonMobil tends to support the republican party significantly more than the left. They support those who work to not over regulate a the industry. Can you blame them? After reading these three websites, it’s interesting to see how much ExxonMobil does in the interest of environmental protection, it appears they see the value of ethical, safe production of energy. [3]
[1] “Learn More about ExxonMobil.” ExxonMobil. Accessed August 12, 2015. http://corporate.exxonmobil.com.
[2] Goldenberg, Suzanne. July 8, 2015. Accessed August 12, 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/08/exxon-climate-change-1981-climate-denier-funding.
[3] Coll, Steve. “Gusher.” The New Yorker. April 9, 2012. Accessed August 12, 2015. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/04/09/gusher.
POST THREE
Amnesty International is one of the largest non-governmental organizations in the international system and one of the most influential. Along with the Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International monitors international states and actors for abuses of human rights and violations of international law (Amnesty International 2015). Their three main foundations of operations are to: advocate human rights worldwide, bring torturers to justice, change oppressive laws, and free individuals jailed for voicing their opinions (Amnesty International 2015). The organization is funded by its members and conducts their operations by lobbying governments, groups, and companies. Amnesty International seems to be an organization with a clearly defined mission and a broad scope of objectives to cover, but sometimes their scope may fall short of the bigger picture.
A controversial vote that recently was decided in Amnesty International was for the decriminalizing of sex work. The policy recommends that all aspects of consensual adult sex work should be decriminalized while still classifying coercion into the industry or sex with a minor a human rights violation (Alter 2015). In addition to protecting sex workers, the resolution recommends protection for individuals buying sex, pimping, and operating a brothel. This vote by Amnesty International, in my opinion, constitutes a narrow point of view of the sex industry. Proposing decriminalization of the sex industry to protect sex workers who voluntarily choose the profession is amicable; however, there are many who do not choose the profession. The vote recommends those who pimp and operate a brothel protection, but they must be held equally accountable since the majority of sex workers worldwide are there without their consent. Allowing the decriminalization of all aspects will allow the sex industry pimps and brothels to take advantage of the system. Although the mission for Amnesty International is honorable in protecting sex industry workers, I do not believe they are not considering the multiple avenues that concern the entirety of the sex industry business. Their website vows to combat human rights watch but seems to fall short of the whole picture.
Another story covers a recent allegation by Amnesty International against the United Nations and their peacekeepers. Amnesty International received allegations of killings and sexual assault by UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (Smith and Lewis 2015). Amnesty International interviewed 15 witnesses to the alleged killings and the victim of the sexual assault and her family. Amnesty International determined the allegations to be credible and submitted their report to the UN, who has stated that a full investigation to be conducted. Amnesty International claims that they hold everyone accountable for their actions and will investigate violations of human rights, and the United Nations was not excluded from that. Amnesty International listened and investigated the allegations and submitted their report to the United Nations as per their mission statement to advocate human rights and bring torturers to justice.
In conclusion, Amnesty International does their duties per firmly held beliefs to hold everyone accountable in the international system for their actions. Though some of their decisions may seem to fall short of the bigger picture, they do not appear to discriminate or take any allegations of violations lightly. Amnesty International continues to uphold their mission statement stated on their website.
References
Alter, Charlotte. 2015. “Argues that laws that stigmatize sex workers violate human right.” Amnesty International Votes to Recommend Decriminalizing Sex Work. Accessed on August 11, 2015. https://www.amnesty.org/en/who-we-are/
Amnesty International. 2015. “What Does Amnesty Do?” Who we are. Accessed on August 11, 2015. https://www.amnesty.org/en/who-we-are/
Smith, David, and Paul Lewis. 2015. “Amnesty International claims troops raped 12-year-old girl and shot dead a father and his son while indiscriminately shooting in the street after armed clashes.” UN peacekeepers accused of killing and rape in Central African Republic. Accessed on August 12, 2015. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/11/un-peacekeepers-accused-killing-rape-central-african-republic
