Lesson 10. Theories of IR.

Warm-up

1. March’s local election results in Turkey delivered a harsh blow to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Just under a year since the presidential election, in which Erdogan won another five years in power, Turkey’s main opposition party—the Republican People’s Party (CHP)—won big victories. in a majority of the country’s largest cities, including Istanbul,the economic powerhouse of Turkey. Thirty-five provincial capitals (out of a total of 81) now have a CHP mayor, while the AKP-led People’s Alliance has just 24. The CHP also scraped (обойти) past Erdogan’s party in the country overall, garnering 37.8 percent of the votes compared with 35.5 percent for the AKP. The CHP’s victory is a hopeful signal of the resilience (устойчивость) of Turkish democracy and its electoral system. After the CHP’s disappointing results in last year’s presidential election,where it managed a little over 47 percent of the vote, its share of the national vote came as a shock to many experts. It was a surprising achievement, not least because nearly 90 percent of Turkey’s media is in the hands of the government or its supporters, granting the ruling party a lopsided (одностороннее, однобокое) advantage when campaigning.

2. The requirement to hold a referendum for amendments to the constitution (enshrined in the document since 1982) provides a level of protection for Turkish democracy. Compare this to Hungary, where the erosion of democracy has largely been carried out through legal means. Hungary’s original constitution tipped the balance in favor of large parties, and in 2010, when Fidesz (Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s right-wing populist party) won 53 percent of the vote, it was able to convert its small majority into 68 percent of the seats in the parliament. Subsequently, though the bar for writing a new Hungarian constitution was set at a four fifths majority, the rule itself could be overturned by a two-thirds majority— which Fidesz did, and then it immediately began drafting a constitution that gave the government significant new powers. In contrast, Turkey’s constitution means that Erdogan is still beholden to the public. He has already made significant changes to the constitution, including amending it in 2017 to shift from a parliamentary system to a presidential one. Those amendments were accepted both by the parliament and— narrowly—through a referendum. Further revisions, and the introduction of a new document, will require significant public support the president may not have.

3. A large majority—88 percent— of Jewish Israelis polled in January believed the astounding number of Palestinian deaths, which had surpassed 25,000 at the time, was justified. A large majority ofthe Jewish public also thinks that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are using adequate or even too little force in Gaza. Couched (поддерживаемый) in the idea that Hamas forced this “war of no choice” upon Israel and the people of Gaza and that Hamas must be destroyed as a matter of Israeli survival, even the threat of imminent (неминуемый) famine in Gaza has not provoked opposition to the campaign. Further, in a February poll by the Israel Democracy Institute, around two thirds of Jewish respondents (63 percent) said they opposed the proposal for Israel to agree in principle to the establishment of an independent, demilitarized Palestinian state. Israeli leaders have framed the governments—such as Ireland, Norway, and Spain—that moved recently to unilaterally recognize Palestine as rewarding the Palestinians for the Oct. 7 attack.

Warm-up 2

Poli Sci

In the upcoming series of classes we shall discuss various theories of Inernational Relations:)

For this time the topic of the discussion is Approaches & System Theory

Reading & Discussing

Virus Alert!

https://breakingnewsenglish.com/2408/240819-mpox.html

Homework

Task 1.

Task 2.

Nouns:

1. The study calculated that replacing weekly fruit juice ... with whole fruits could bring health benefits. (consume)
2. For my birthday Mother baked a cake with yellow ... . (ice)
3. Carbohydrates, proteins and fats are called ... because they provide the fuel your body needs. (nutrition)
4. Many women have to juggle ... and a full-time job. (mother)
5. ... are unavoidable when three ... live under one roof. (argue, generate)
6. Her deep ... of her sister was evident. (hate)
7. Older people who live alone often need help with gardening and house ... (maintain)
8. Positive attitude helps employees to get along with ... and managers. (worker)
9. China’s air... has cut life ... by an average of 5.5 years in the north of the country and caused higher rates of lung cancer. (pollute, expect)
10. It is much safer to use stainless steel or glass ... instead of plastic ones. (contain)

Adjectives:

1. My favorite ... book is “Appetite” by Nigel Slater. (cooker)
2. Eating can also make you ..., and so can waking up in the morning. (thirst)
3. You shouldn’t rest on your laurels but try to improve your ... performance. (academy)
4. Highly ... gas is naturally found in coal mines. (explode)
5. An ... species is a species of organisms facing a very high risk of extinction. (danger)
6. The most... earthquake struck in Shanxi, China 1556. (disaster)
7. ... exploitation of nature by man has resulted in the effects we have to deal with now. (thought)
8. Laos is a landlocked ... country, widely covered by tropical forest. (mountain)
9. I decided to take a walk. It would be too ... to wait in the queue. (tire)

Task 3. EXTRA

A.

RESTORATION, LOOK, DEMOLITION, EXTEND, GOTH, ACCOMMODATE, PANELLING, UNEXPECTED

Located in Wiltshire, an outstanding and beautifully __________ (1), late ________ (2) style manor house was built of limestone. Originally it was a much larger property that was mostly ___________ (3). Solid in appearance and structure, it offers _________ (4) and well presented ___________ (5). As one would ___________ (6) there is a grand drawing room with oak _________ (7) walls and a large open fireplace. The large windows __________ (8) a parkland setting.

B.

FORM, ILLEGAL, EDUCATIONAL, QUALIFICATIONS, TUITION

Home education is when a child is __________ (1) at home rather than at school. It's perfectly __________ (2) in the UK and one doesn’t need to be a __________ (3) teacher to do so. Children who are home educated receive all their education from their parents, sometimes with the help of outside __________ (4). If you decide to home educate your child you don’t have to follow __________ (5) rules about how you teach or when you teach.

C.

CHIEF, SEARCH, SCIENCE, INDUCE, COLLECT, APPLY, ADOPTION, FOUND

English philosopher, statesman, and jurist who rose to become Lei Chancellor (1618—1621) to James I but is __________ (1) remembered for the status he gave to __________ (2) research in England. Although his name is associated with the method of __________ (3) and the rejection of a priori reasoning in science, the painstaking __________ (4) of miscellaneous facts without any use of error theory which he supported in the Novum Organum has never been __________ (5) as a practical method of __________ (6). The __________ (7) of the Baconian method was, however, an important object in the __________ (8) of the Royal Society some years later.