Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Week2 - Reflection

Like the first week, the second week had been a challenging week. I am still trying to get used to the in class discussions, and to process infinite amount of information.
Our visit to spy museum made me think that it is vital to balance politics and relations on surface and undercover. I was really surprised by how much big of a role spying plays in world politics. It also got me thinking on how Machiavelli is all for the ends justify the means and neccessary evil. Spying can be considered as evil, but still it is almost inevitable. Machiavelli's advice on politics can be considered outdated and not very useful. However, it still in some parts applies to today's politic world, like necessary evil which is big part of international relations.
Machiavelli was very challenging for me. It was difficult to understand all the historical background and what he was trying to say. I am still getting used to the whole class discsussion and readings, so I prepared to defend my position which was against the book. However, in class, we were to defend the objecting opinion. I did not know what to do and got little nervous, but I now think it can prepare myself to defend myside even more efficiently. It was all so new and challenging for me, as an international non-english speaking student, but still I will learn a lot from this experience and continue to try.

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