Allied Diplomacy Essay Example for Free

Allied Diplomacy Essay Due to Britains position as a major power, the country was able to reshape the Middle East and formulate agreements with several important cultures. However, some of the terms within these treaties were completely contradictory, creating dispute and controversy between parties. This very powerful mandate made many mistakes and errors in judgment that led to disastrous conflicts, such as providing assurances of things they werent able to fulfill and creating contradictory terms within official agreements. Britain was responsible for a great amount of problems in the Middle East during World War 1, but there were many other sources of instability with different origins and motives. Two of the most controversial events in the Middle East were the McMahon-Hussein agreement and the Balfour declaration, due to the profound difference in their terms. Whilst the Balfour Declaration promised to provide a National Homeland for the Jewish people, the McMahon- Hussein pact stated that Arab nationals would recover land previously owned by the Turks. At first sight, these terms were completely opposite, and according to the Jewish and the Arabs, impossible to fulfill at once. However, the British claimed that the way in which the Arabs had interpreted the McMahon-Hussein agreement was mistaken because they believed Palestine was to be given to them, just as Britain argued that the map used to establish the terms excluded Palestine from land that had to be given back to the Arab people. A minor phrase that stated that any land that was not purely Arab was to be excluded from the terms created a monumental disagreement when it came to this particular event. Hussein claimed Palestine had to be considered purely Arab as McMahon had a very different view. He believed the land in question was not of pure Arab nature because many other religious groups had established in Jerusalem under Turk rule, therefore eliminating the possibility of ultimate Arab presence in Palestine. Many Palestinians felt betrayed by the British government due to the use of inaccurate technicalities of language. The main purpose of the agreement Britain decided to make with Palestinian Arabs was to gain protection against Ottoman forces and their increasing power. In order to achieve their goal, British officials in Cairo contacted Sharif Hussein and informed him that if they were to assist them against Ottomans, Britain would support future Arab independence. The Arabs had to create a revolt and refer to the Ottomans as their enemies, in order to support the British government further. On the 10th of June 1916, the Arabs did effectively create a large physical conflict in order to fulfill the terms established and to gain the support they required for their ideal independence. The Arab army was founded and organized by the British government, but led by Sharif Husseins sons. Due to the amount of instability the Arab-British forces created in the region, the terms were now justified and Hussein demanded Britain to recognize Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Palestine and areas of the Arabian Peninsula as Arab countries. However, Syria and Lebanon were of French interest and therefore were discussed in the Sykes-Picot agreement that took place from 1915 to 1916. The United Kingdom recognized the freedom of the Arabs, creating not only a contradiction between the agreements made with France and Palestinians but a great dispute between the Jewish and Arabs, two religious groups that had been promised the same portion of land. As time passed, Britain started increasing the amount of conflict in the Middle East throughout grave contradictions and opposite statements. The McMahon-Hussein agreement occurred approximately two years before the Balfour declaration, increasing the dimension of the mistake made by the British government. Just after they had promised to return Middle Eastern territories to the Arabs, the major power was responsible for providing a very concrete assurance of giving the Jewish a national homeland within Palestine. Arthur James Balfour was very clear and was able to state this throughout a letter he wrote to Lord Rothschild on November 2nd, 1917. The Balfour Declaration urged Lionel Walter Rothschild to inform the Zionist Federation of the proposition and was clear that His Majestys government would use all its power to provide a National Homeland as long as no rights were violated in the process, even if they did belong to exterior ethnic groups. As mentioned before, this declaration was said to be completely  contradictory to the agreement made with Sharif Hussein according to Jewish interpretation. Jews believed they w ould receive the entire land of Palestine and would be able to make exclusive use of it, whereas the British argued they never promised the land in its whole and therefore were not breaking any promises or contradicting the terms made in previous agreements. The Treaty of Sevres confirmed the promise made to the Jewish people in the 1917 Balfour Declaration and initiated a long-term problem between the both Palestinian Arabs and Jews. With this treaty, European Powers managed to solve their internal conflicts and successes by reestablishing the map of the region according to what was convenient at the moment, but didnt really think of the long-term consequences of the new arrangement. By not taking Turkish interests into account, the treaty of Sevres was not of their liking and managed to create a larger sense of nationalism within the country, thus creating the war. The lack of precision presented in the three consecutive arrangements with the Arabs, French and Jewish created a great deal of controversy and instability in the Middle Eastern region. Even though the British government was undoubtedly responsible for the majority of the disputes in the Middle East during WW1, there were some exterior factors that accumulated and created outrageous amounts of discrepancies. It wouldnt be incorrect to say that Britain acted the way it did due to the pressure put on it by the initiation of the Holy War, announced by the Ottomans. After four entire centuries of rule, the Ottoman Empire collapsed and therefore contributed to the incessant tensions between inhabitants of several countries. The mentioned empire was the worlds most influential Islamic power and was responsible for putting a stop to its neutrality towards the allies and declaring a Holy War against France, Russia and Great Britain. This war initiation not only put pressure on Britain, but also encouraged the government to find support against the Ottomans, hence the McMahon-Hussein agreement and its terms. In retrospect, Britain was mostly responsible for the instability in the Middle East during the First World War but there were some factors and events having to do with the Ottoman war declaration that created tension  and controversy. If the treaties made with the French, Arabs and Jews had been coherent and logical when put together; the problems in the Middle East wouldnt have been so deeply catastrophic. To certain extent, there were some factors that put Britain in a very difficult position by threatening their empire and even though they were to blame for creating most of the conflicts during World War 1, they definitely werent responsible for starting the long sequence of instability. If it hadnt been for Britains lack of precision when presenting the terms, the long-term problem between Palestinian Arabs and Jews could have been reduced or avoided, despite their ambitious natures. The events and agreements mentioned were not the only sources of conflict between these two ethnic groups due to the disputes that had been occurring a long time before concerning land and respective properties. British officials could have definitely dealt with conflicts in a better way, avoiding the preposterous amount of tension and disputes in the Middle East from the beginning until de end of the war. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Palestinians. (n.d.). The McMahon Agreement. _History Learning Site_. Retrieved September 16, 2012, from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/mcmahon.htm The Balfour Declaration . (n.d.). _Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs_ . Retrieved September 16, 2012, from http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+Process/The+Balfour+Declaration.htm British Mandate for Palestine. (n.d.). _Middle East: MidEastWeb_. Retrieved September 17, 2012, from http://www.mideastweb.org/Middle-East-Encyclopedia/british_mandate_palestine.htm

Personal Perspective :: essays research papers

Personal Perspective Paper The author Ken Lakuta (date unknown) once wrote, â€Å"Opportunities exists in the air for just a few minutes. If you don’t obey your gut feeling right away, you’ve lost your chance† (Brown, quoting Lakuta, date unknown, p.3). I do not want to miss my chance! I intend to seize the moment and finish the courses necessary to obtain my master’s of business administration for many reasons. With the tools the University has made available to me such as â€Å"rEsource†, learning team environment, and problem-based learning I will successfully complete this program and achieve my goal. The Value of rEsource Research for information became easier with the creation of the Internet, just ask anyone who has conducted a manual library search for information. The University has taken the research process one step further by creating â€Å"rEsource.† Now any student can seek and obtain information from an endless collection of materials necessary to help one succeed in his/her degree program. All resources are available on-line and accessible from any location with an Internet access. Time is maximized allowing students to accomplish their objectives in half the time. The â€Å"rEsource† tool is only one leg of the three-legged stool provided to students. The second support system assures all students the ability to work as part of â€Å"learning teams.† The Value of Learning Teams When working with a group of people one is exposed to a variety of knowledge, backgrounds and experience. The value of learning teams is extremely beneficial. No one person possesses the knowledge necessary to cover every circumstance; however, as a group you are a link in a chain of knowledge with a wealth of experiences and resources. Each team member brings unique strengths, perspectives and working styles (Innergize, date unknown). For teams to be successful, they need to establish a common purpose and to become familiar with each members strengths and weaknesses. Establishing some basic ground rules is also essential for success of the group: 1) know your team members, 2) clear roles of responsibility, 3) effective communication, 4) accepted leadership, 5) accept and support one another, 6) check for understanding and agreement, 7) resolve conflicts constructively and quickly ((Innergize, date unknown, p. 1) and (Page and Donelan, 2003, p.126)). Successful teams need a balance of task and relationship roles. My experiences with team learning and problem-based learning (case studies) have been beneficial and I have enjoyed the opportunity and exposure.

What Did We Learn from the Vietnam War? Essay -- Vietnam War Essays

â€Å"Teaching the Vietnam War makes one realize how the shape of a narrative determines, and is determined by, its content† (Franklin 246). The Vietnam War was one of America’s most controversial wars. Many of its aspects are still plagued with great uncertainty. Those aspects of the Vietnam War are argued and debated about, they were argued during the time of the war and the arguing has continued. The Vietnam War was indeed a time of confusion. Why did the war start? What was the United States’ real reason for getting involved? What was the objective of the war? What were the American soldiers really fighting, or in reality, dying for? How do you explain a war to someone who has not experienced firsthand, especially if you were not around yourself? There is no real answer. You can give the facts and figures, but that leaves out the true grit of a war. The human perspective must also be given. As with any war, the Vietnam War had many perspective: th e protestors, the politician, and lastly, but most importantly, the soldier (Although there are many other stories that could and should be told). Through the facts and figures and the eyes of those who were there, an individual could learn about the Vietnam War, although how many actually want to understand war is uncertain. The facts and figures are one of the first things that should be learned about the war (Although many would argue the facts). The Vietnamese waged an anti-colonial war against France between 1945 and 1954. They received $2.6 billion in financial aid from the United States to aid their efforts. The Geneva Convention followed the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, where Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam all received independence. Vietnam was momentarily divide... ...n Vietnamese deaths. Still today, many Americans still ask whether the American effort in the Vietnam War was necessary, a sin, a mistake, or a noble cause, or an idealistic, if failed, effort to protect the South Vietnamese people from the North. In order to truly understand the war you and to determine your own answer to the many questions it is still pending, you must look at the war from every perspective and understand the many facts it produced. Dr. Carl Sagan wrote, â€Å"You have to know the past to understand the present†. The Vietnam War is a large part of America’s past. It is important to know of the Vietnam War and to know of those who experienced, so you may learn of how America came to be as it is today and were it may be heading, of whether or not we learned from our mistakes or if we are destined to repeats those made during the Vietnam War again.

Get Prepared My Speech Essay

Regarding our introduction speech as my first formal one in front of the class, I felt so awkward that I forgot every details which we should pay attention to. First is the Eye Contact. There was a kind of hook that I can’t control myself from moving my sights out of the back row, where our professor sat. The second Delivery part is Vocal Pause which was my most serious issue during all the speech. Words just went out of my mind since I wrote my name on the board. I was a little unaware when my name was called on the second because I preferred the third place so that I got enough time to calm down and organized sentences. Every preparation I did was showing randomly in my head. For example, my personal considerations on how tough will a military mission be had appeared first rather than an interesting getter. Some details I added to make a rich description became a simple word, not including some parts I even forgot to say. The last issue is about Body language that it may help audiences to know where the person in the speech is. Thanked for the outlines paper so that I knew where I should put my hands on. I was easily lost my minds but caught up on time by fingering which line I would read next. By recollecting fragments of my speech, I keep telling myself it would be better if I performed in that way. An interesting beginning, more eye contacts or less pause while I was expressing. All the problems I mentioned above is because I didn’t realize there was more nervousness than I expected. In another words, I didn’t rehearse enough to conquer that as Ronald B. and George states, â€Å"A smooth and natural delivery is the result of extensive practice. Get to know your material until you feel comfortable with your presentation† (page 342). After switched to a listener, contents were not the only part that attracted me but how different they performed from mine. By observing their moves, their body languages were perfectly coordinated with the rhythm of presentations. It became a talk like he or she was introducing a friend of his or her to you instead of reading a research paper. About the cadence they spoke, the variable tone caught my attention all the time and I couldn’t wait to know what was on the next. I confessed that I am the selective listener who responds only to the parts of a speaker’s remarks that interested me. With those changing tones and plentiful body languages, the contents were easily understood and appealing. I am very pleased to be enrolled in this class to figure out what is my weakness and how I can beat them to be a qualified speaker. Works Citied Adler, Ronald B. and Rodman, George. Understanding Human Communication with Carrie Cropley Hutchinson, 11th edition. Print.

How Jane Yolen’s perspective on personal discovery is conveyed in Briar Rose Essay

Jane Yolen places strong emphasis on the notion of personal discovery which becomes the fundamental message in the text ‘Briar Rose’. Yolen sets the protagonist, Rebecca Berlin on a quest of personal discovery, a quest which is strongly connected to the past, a past which takes its roots in the holocaust. Yolen captivates the responder through the utilisation of the sophisticated language techniques: allegory, narrative structure, and multiple narrative voices to convey the significance of personal discovery. Yolen embedded personal discovery as a core theme in the text to convey strong views on personal discovery through the use of allegory to drive the story along giving it a sense of realism. Gemma’s telling and retelling of the fairy tale is a constant feature in the text. â€Å"I curse you Briar Rose, I curse you† This quote demonstrates Rebecca’s lack of comprehension of the fairy tale, a fairy tale Becca grew up listening to as an adult, it em barks on a journey which takes its roots in America and leads to Poland and enables Becca to unveil the fairy tale. It is through her solemn pledge that Becca commences her personal discovery and quest for her identity. As she commences her quest to personal discovery she begins to unveil the fairy tale which is Gemma’s allegory of the horrific events in the Jewish holocaust that impacted millions of Jews, who suffered at the hands of the Nazi’s. Yolen has successfully interwoven the allegorical structure in the narrative to convey the significance of personal discovery. Yolen has successfully demonstrated the technique of multiple narrative voices to illustrate her strong views on personal discovery. It is through the intertwining of the voices of Gemma, Josef Potocki and Rebecca that the truth behind Gemma’s past is unveiled. In particular the narration of Potocki brings the horrors inflicted on the Jews to the forefront of the personal discovery. â€Å"It was enormous, full of shadows: shadows of arms, of legs, of heads thrown back, mouths open in silenced screams.† Yolen captures the horrors expounded on the Jews effectively and makes the responder shiver with fear at the evil enaxed by the Nazi soldiers. Potocki’s voice/narrative brings Becca closer to unveiling the mystery of Gemma’s non-existent past. Josef’s account explicitly detailing the horrors of the holocaust is  juxtaposed against Gemma’s fairytale, alluding to the fact that such horrors are hard to articulate by the victims. In Briar Rose, Yolen has strongly conveyed personal discovery through impact and importance of one’s knowledge of family history to understanding an individual’s identity. Yolen has fundamentally embedded repetitive dialogue to positively convey personal discovery. Becca’s journey on persona discovery is initiated by her resolute promise on Gemma’s death bed to find the castle in the quote where Gemma recites â€Å"Promise me you will find the castle. â€Å"Promise me you’ll find the prince. Promise me you will find the maker of the spells.† The repetition of â€Å"promise† is captivatingly utilised to emphasise and enable the responder to understand the significance of the pledge. The composer effectively portrays this through Becca’s tone when she says â€Å"I’m going to solve it†¦ The riddle and the mystery†¦ I’m going to find the castle and the prince and reclaim our heritage.† It is the resol ve with which Becca makes the pledge that the responder comes to realise the significance of the pledge and that it is a central message to the novel and through this single event that personal discovery is set into motion. This quest of personal discovery is reinforced and intensified by Becca’s determination and strong bond with her grandmother and allows the responders to acknowledge that it is the driving force behind her ambition and enduring perseverance to discover the truth within the enigma of the fairy tale. Yolen establishes the close connection through Gemma’s praise of Becca’s devotion to the fairy tale when she says â€Å"you always understand† a trait that makes the responders find Becca appealing. This has significantly influenced her choices and actions, as she embarks on the quest of personal discovery with the given secret wooden box that has ‘briar’ and a rose carved on its lid (symbolism and repetition of the rose) and filled with Gemma’s possessions inside in order to reclaim Gemma’s heritage. Yolen has successfully demonstrated personal discovery through the use of repetition in the text Briar Rose. Yolen has purposefully made Becca the heroine more appealing than her sisters Shana and Sylvia. Yolen has effectively demonstrated the importance of personal discovery in the text Briar Rose by embedding numerous sophisticated language techniques in her novel. The personal discovery undertaken by Becca, leads her to the core of the  holocaust, and brings to the forefront the experience of Gemma; Yolen uses the fairytale to create a sense of good versus bad, good versus evil. Yolen through Becca makes the responder realise the significance of personal discovery. The words of Stan aptly sum Yolen’s views on personal discovery- ‘What is past is prologue’

Investment and Pioneer Petroleum

Pioneer Petroleum Case I. Statement of Problem As Pioneer Petroleum continues to progress as a company, they are trying to determine the best way to approach a minimum rate of return. As of right now, they have two approaches they can take. The first would be taking a single cutoff rate based on the company’s overall WACC. The second, rather than a single cutoff, there would be multiple cutoff rates due to the risk-profit characteristics. II. Statement of Facts and Assumption Pioneer Petroleum’s approach to capital budgeting was to only accept investments with positive net present value.Currently, Pioneer Petroleum calculated their WACC at 9% shown in Figure 1 below. In calculating their WACC, PPC uses book value weights. When dealing with practicality, it is better to use market value weights because it provides what the expectations of the market and the investors have. By using this information, it can show what a company needs to do to gain new capital. III. Analysi s Pioneer Petroleum was created after merging with multiple firms causing it to branch out into different markets.With multiple projects, the most effective thing PPC could do is to implement using single corporate cost of capital to evaluate their multiple projects. By doing this they can interpret different risk associated with different industries. Pioneer Petroleum’s other option would be to use multiple cutoff rates, but going in this direction may not provide the most accurate information since there are many components associated with different industries. IV. Recommendation My recommendation for Pioneer Petroleum would be to use a single cutoff rate and each individual division.It would be wise for them to do this rather than looking at the company as a whole. Not only should Pioneer only invest in projects with positive net present value, but they also need to assume the different risks associated with it. Something else they might consider is the length of the matur ity for the project. More risk could be found in younger projects and older projects as well. By using a single cutoff rate, they can analyze more precisely how much it will effect their decisions in the future. Figure 1 WACC = Rdebt(1-TC)(D/V) + Requity(E/V) 9% = . 12(1-. 34)(. 5) + (. 10)(. 5)

Markan Interpretation of Miracles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Markan Interpretation of Miracles - Essay Example The setting of the miracles is important and includes the physical environment in which the characters in the gospel lived, as well as, the props that make up the environment. Three settings figure prominently in the gospel of Mark; the wilderness, the sea, and Jerusalem. The sea is important in the gospel of Mark, being referred to forty nine times or brought up directly. There is no other setting is given attention in the gospel of Mark. There is an obvious relationship between the miracles present in the gospel of Mark and the sea and these are stressed in two ways: the placement of references to the sea in the gospel’s first half and the number of miracles happening in the sea. In the story of Mark, the sea is a locale of chaos, destruction, fellowship and instruction (Blackburn 32). In the Markan story events, the two thousand swine and all the demons that possessed them are drowned in the sea. In addition, a dramatic storm in the sea threatens Christ and his disciples wi th destruction. This scene served to demonstrate the faith and dominion of Jesus over evil, as well as reveal the disciples’ lack of faith. At one point, the writer describes Christ as teaching while in a boat. Jesus, in this case, is pictured as a man on the sea. Such images are filled with various possibilities for mediation between the spatial opposites. Such settings in the gospel of Mark cast an unquestionable link between the content of Christ’s parables, as well as his teachings of the kingdom’s in-breaking (Boring 12). The wilderness is encountered in the early parts of the of Mark’s gospel. John the Baptist makes an appearance in the wilderness, then Jesus is driven into the wilderness, and Peter then comes to him in the wilderness. Finally, Christ and his disciples go to the wilderness during a retreat, where the multitude follows them. In the opening chapter, mark points the audience towards the wilderness, four times, which bears importance fr om a symbolic or mythical standpoint. The Jewish scriptures offer two interpretations of the wilderness: a place of divine providence and divine testing, as well as a place containing prophesied transformation in the messianic age (Telford 40). The two aspects are linked into the Markan scheme. The wilderness threatens Yahweh’s people very existence, but also greatly illuminates God’s readiness and power to dispel the threat. There is evidence that the story of the wilderness carries a dual significance. The wilderness at times is threatening and hostile while, at other times it turns into a place of preparation. The wilderness is the locale for the testing of the disciples, as well as, a demonstration of God’s power in Christ. God’s provision of bread is made more dramatic in the gospel, by the harsh nature of the wilderness and can be associated with the incident during which Yahweh provided manna to the Israelites in the desert. Such emphasis on the se tting argues for the view that there is a deeper and parabolic meaning to the miracles performed in the desert (Telford 43). Jerusalem, just like the wilderness and the sea, provides a key setting for the narrative of Mark to take place. Jerusalem in the gospel is representative of the geo-political space within which the gospel can be interpreted. While reading the gospel of mark, the reader becomes gradually aware of the final destination of Christ is Jerusalem. In the gospel of Mar