The National Interest

Introduction In the present times when we look at the Intelligence agencies, the first thing that strikes our mind is secrecy – the services must have the benefit of operational secrecy. Because the services work clandestinely and the nature of their tasks requires them to fulfil their obligations in secret, they are at odds with the principle of open society. In cases of these agencies, there arises a conflict between there operational need of secrecy and the democratic objective of…

The President has decided the following: 1) The President has created a new body of personnel which he is calling the "National Security Staff". The President believes that "The establishment of the new National Security Staff, under the direction of the National Security Advisor, will end the artificial divide between White House staff who have been dealing with national security and homeland security issues." (President Obama, 05/26/09) When the staff are all on the same page and not divided…

After 9/11, The United States was very intent on fighting and stopping terrorism and terrorist attacks. In order to help fight terrorism a bill called The Patriot Act was passed to help fight terrorism. Since then problems have arrived with the passing of this bill, problems that lead to questioning the legitimacy of The Patriot Act. If The Patriot Act was justified, then Edward Snowden would not have had to do what he did. The United States needs supervision while enforcing The Patriot Act to…

The National Security Administration (NSA) breach started by Edward Snowden started shockwaves of criticism in the government. However, it also revealed that many people will remain silent despite uncomfortableness of being monitored because goes against the majority. The majority, stems from the October, 2001, Patriot Act which the United States has since then taken liberties in the means of national security. The spiral of silence demonstrates that people are willing to sacrifice their privacy…

At the turn of the 20th century, it was evident that there was a "widespread concern about overcutting forests, flooding, and erosion..." (Sowards) throughout the United States. Many people were not aware of the environmental damage that their actions could lead to during this time period. As seen in the late 1800s, Americans hunted for bison, resulting in the extinction of the species. Likewise, as cities throughout the nation began to grow and overpopulate, pollution was an issue and was…

minerals, the expansion of cattle into the grasslands, and the mass clearing of land for the expansion of railroads, we began quickly decimating the only natural resources that were available to us. In 1872, Congress created the first national park, Yellowstone National Park. Although the creation of Yellowstone kick-started the conservation movement, it was only “partly to preserve an area of remarkable natural beauty and partly at the urging of the Northern Pacific Railroad, which was…

In the United States national security is top priority rather than privacy just a few days ago CNN reported that “White House asks Silicon Valley to Silence ISIS Online”. As you can see any average citizen would see this as an invasion of privacy and yes they are right because now Apple and Google will be overhearing our conversations instead of the National Security Agency. As, you may have read in the newspaper or heard in the news that the National Security Agency can’t not tap phones without…

Bigger Than I Really Am It was a normal summer afternoon when my mom called me into her bedroom. I had no ideas what to do for my 15th birthday on July 16th. I figured I would just see a movie, just like everyone normally does. I recently picked up an interest in Marvel movies and characters and my mom had actually taken notice. “Why don’t you go to this Wizard World thing? That Stan Lee guy you talk about is going to be there, and some Walking Dead characters.” Stan Lee is one of the original…

Williams, the best hitter in the history of baseball, was wildly popular at the time. Williams had won two of the last four Most Valuable Player awards in the MLB and was fresh of his 1949 MVP campaign (Montville p. 148). He also was placed in high regards after serving as a pilot in the Marines during World War II. However, once Williams returned from World War II, he was placed on inactive reserves. Williams and the public had largely forgotten about his status as an inactive reserve until…

the world. As an effort to unite the world as a whole, countries share economical, geographical, cultural, political, and social borders. However, this attempt of uniting the world also creates a major global issue over national security around the globe. To maintain the national security, countries have to take a local and global measure. A local measure would be amongst the country itself to protect themselves; however, for a global effort, countries must create alliances with other countries…