1. Viola George Shenouda
900133171
1- Containment was a strategy applied by the US and its allies during the Cold War, according to
some analysts, some aspects of it are still applied today. Comparatively assess the successes or
failures of this strategy before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
If we were to find a determiner of success and failure of strategies, then it is nothing but
time. Time corporates it all. In a world driven by self interest, in time interests change, and
stances change, shaping the circumstances that are able to promote or prohibit the application of
strategies. At the time of the cold war, containment of communism came in chorus with the
benefits of Europe. Promised by a superpower to be great in power, that part of the world
cooperated to constrain the other super power’s greatness, through isolation. Today, a world has
come to realize that the only thing to be held great is their connection.
Though containment was already exercised by the US through demonstrating and showing
off its power, as in the cases of Iran and Turkey in 1946, and though this was then proven
efficient enough to force the soviets to back down, it was bringing Western Europe under its
wing that said the final word. With US sharing the ideological threat with Europe, demolishing
the communist popularity in France and Italy by furnishing Europe’s economies, and claiming
the worry about the threatened freedom of the Greeks and Turks and the desire for collective
security, the Soviet Union was solely labelled as the villain, in the face of a peaceful prosperous
world.

2. Viola George Shenouda
900133171
However, yesterday’s enemy seems like today’s fellow. Today, European countries are
remarkably dependent on Russian energy. Recent statistics show dependence ranging from 13%
in Britain and 17% in France, to 28% in Italy, 40% in Greece and up to 91% in Poland and 98%
in Slovakia. (Baker, 2014). It is worth mentioning that recent sanctions on Russia by the United
States and the European Union for the intervention in Ukraine constrain trading some oil
industry technologies to Russia. While rules about the future of Europe’s dependence on Russian
energy is yet undecided, the restrictions introduced remain a threat to all the reliances, as the
sanctions are aimed to affect Russia’s reserves on the long term. The question now is, will
countries with such reliance remain in consent if Russia’s supply was to show a severe cut?
Simultaneously, China’s suspicion is rising regarding the United State’s policies in Asia.
In terms of the defense cooperation with Japan and the Philippines, the US is to heighten its
assets of ground, air, and missile defense in the region, along with military and technological
supply to neutral and antagonistic states like Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam
(Bosco, 2014). China’s lust for territorial hegemony, and the United States’ purposeful
opportunist movement remain under question, or perhaps just undercover. However, it might be
possible that China can be derived of its regional dominance, but not its global one. Being the
second largest economy in the world, and accounting for about one fourth of the global economy
in 2010, the well being of China’s economy is almost a synonym to that of the world’s. To
contain such an enormous trading associate is to paralyze the rest of the world along.

3. Viola George Shenouda
900133171
Having a historic threat, and an economic rival, the United States is also facing an
advancing nuclear power that it failed to halt. Attempts of containing Iran had several forms.
Through the moral aspect, the United States was the most keen on imposing measures for the
various sanctions issued by the United Nations in response to Iran’s violations. While the
broadcasted sanctions criminalized nuclear programs, issued arms’ embargoes, and frozen funds,
the United States is said to have implicitly and explicitly dictated red lines that would stimulate
action by the US forces if crossed by Tehran. Moreover was the deployment of US forces across
the Persian Gulf to frustrate any Iranian attack (Pollack). Achieving reasonable success in
stagnating Iran’s economy, nuclear programmes were nevertheless not brought to deactivation.
This failure is again on account of the connections of common interests. Russia and China,
remain in support of Iran’s aspirations, and are working to maintain its arms’ capacity. This is in
part through their veto right as members of the security council in the United Nations, employing
it against any nuclear restrictions directed against Iran, as well as direct weaponry and nuclear
supply. For instance, chinese made missiles were obtained by Tehran, threatening US ships and
naval vessels along the region of the Persian Gulf. In return, Iran acts as the major oil supply to
China, replacing Saudi Arabia in May 2009 (Simpson, 2010).
Accommodating no common ideological threat, and having conflicting interests instead,
any attempts of containment in the current time are clearly predicted to fail. Since the strategy’s
essence is isolation, the new world stands as evidence of its expiry date. The global survival
dictate the complete continuation of the acquired connections and Interdependence between all
the components constituting the present order. However, though the failure is predetermined, the

4. Viola George Shenouda
900133171
United State’s aspirations cannot be denied, even when masked behind its claimed moral values
and eagerness to protect the suppressed and the world peace. Today, the US clings to the
argument of desiring freedom and self determination for Ukraine, protection and aided defense
for Asia, and to the same narrative against Iranian advancing nuclears. During his trip to Asia,
President Obama stated: “ Our goal is not to counter China. Our goal is not to contain China.”
(Bosco, 2014). Similarly, in a 2012 speech he declared a “no containment policy towards Iran.”
(Gwertzman, 2013). Yet similarly, back at the time the strategy was first put into practice,
Truman said, in justification to the assistance for Greece and Turkey against communists: “I
believe we must assist free peoples to work out their destinies in their own way” In extent,
Secretary George C. Marshall said about the United States’ policy that it was not “against any
country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos.” (A Short History of the
Department of State). Perhaps any investigation or suspicion would rather easily find the answer
in Kissinger’s: “Americans have never been comfortable acknowledging openly their own selfish
interests. Whether fighting world wars or local conflicts, American leaders always claimed to be
struggling in the name of principle, not interest.”

5. Viola George Shenouda
900133171
2- The bipolar international system of the Cold War disintegrated after the fall of the USSR, in
your opinion, can the emerging system be defined as a unipolar system or a multipolar system
and why?
“America is more preponderant than it was ten years ago, yet, ironically, power has also
become more diffuse. Thus, America’s ability to employ it to shape the rest of the world has
actually decreased,” wrote Kissinger describing his post cold war vision of the new world.
Today’s distribution of the several definitions and forms of power is significantly different than
the past bilateral era. The new order is new in the mere fact that power is actually and
unprecedentedly distributed. Mistakenly, a plain notion made out of the Soviet Union’s
miscarriage a statement about the United States’ subsequent monopoly of mothering the world.
Perhaps this notion forgot to take into account the fact the world’s juniors have matured.
Acknowledging the ongoing fact of being dependent on trade, or in some cases aid, the new
world’s players can yet no longer be subjected to orders or disciplines favored or dictated by a
superpower. Simply, they acquired the comprehension of being world players, a status that they
remain willing to prove, maintain and in some cases extend.
The most remarkable experiment of all remains the once paralyzed the now prosperous
and promising China. Undergoing a miserable experience during the communist era, China sets
the most sharp model of breaking free from the restraining ideological bonds to step into a
world’s market that it ended up in with leadership status. China’s status of being the second
largest economic power remains proof as not only to be an American rival, but perhaps a threat.

6. Viola George Shenouda
900133171
In 2011, and in accordance to the IMF’s predictions of China’s GDP surpassing the United
States’ in 2016, historians state that a multipolar map is happening Now. (Oxford proof on China
and the New world Order, part 1). An interesting way in which Yao Yang, a Director of a
Chinese Center for Economic Reform, puts it, is saying: “Assuming that the Chinese and the US
economies grow, respectively by 8% and 3% in real terms, that China’s inflation rate is 3.6% and
America’s is 2% (the averages of last the last decade), and that the renminbi appreciates against
the dollar by 3% per year (the average of the last six years), China will become the world’s
largest economy by 2021. By that time, both countries’ GDP will be about $24 trillion.” (Shaikh,
2011). Furthermore, Chinese human resources are equally noteworthy. In a 2008 report by the
US National Science Foundation, it was found that the United States had only 64,675 graduates
in engineering, while Chinese graduates amounted to 442,468 graduate (Foster, 2008). Similarly,
China has the world’s largest army with a manpower of 2,285,000 (James, 2012) while the
United States comes second with manpower of 1,429,995.
Catching up, comes India as a promising potential power. Several Indicators seem to be
qualifying it to capture that status in the near future. On the military aspect, India has the third
largest army right after the United States in terms of manpower, and has already increased its
military budget by 12% more than the last year. Since 2010, India became the world’s greatest
arms importer, and is already developing nuclear missiles, submarines and aircraft carriers. On
the economic aspect, it is Asia’s third largest economy in terms of GDP (Leaf, 2014). Further
predictions are made by the World Bank marking India as to be an “emerging economy growth
pole” in 10 years, reserving its seat next to China. (US report, 2012). In support, the Financial

7. Viola George Shenouda
900133171
Times declare that the largest portion of global growth in our decade is to happen in the
developing world, with China and India collectively sharing half of it (O’brien, 2013). It is
further revealed that is 2013, the emerging markets had a GDP share amounting to and
surpassing half of the world’s total. Even more alarming, within the next decade, the total GDP
of the developing world is predicted to exceed that of the developed world, according to the
Economist Intelligence Unit collected data (Foster, 2008) .
Simply put, the United States’ image as a superpower remains firm. Yet the concept of a
unipolar power is in a phase of acute challenge. Young powers are now determinedly keen on
developing more independent capabilities, hence reducing the United States’ monopoly portrait.
Most notable, Iran’s advancing nuclear capabilities and aspirations. Self development are evident
in rarely mentioned yet worth consider experiences. For instance, According to the US energy
Information Administration, Brazil’s discovery of its deepwater oil enabled it to multiply its oil
production up to 10 times in 2009. On the other hand, the United States’ oil dependence remain
its worrisome issue. With its huge demands ongoing, and its domestic top production
insufficient, the Middle East’s well being remains a duty of burden. The Middle East’s recent
disorders has proven to be unpredictable in outcome and influence. The region’s compass had
employed three different regimes in three years, and the United States stands clueless of what a
successful suitable foreign policy might be. It is somewhat ironic now remembering the
statement in president’s George W. Bush 2006 speech: “Keeping America competitive requires
affordable energy. And here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is
often imported from unstable parts of the world.” (Cavell, 2012). Looking down at it today, the

8. Viola George Shenouda
900133171
region has taken the term instability to a new, severely active definition. Today, we live at a time
when the term unipolar no longer makes sense. We live at a time when a power who once took
the initiative to resurrect Europe’s economy and shape the world’s system accordingly, became
itself integrated in its advocated system and inevitably dependent on it. Most notably, we live at
a time when domestic narratives have confused a superpower’s policies and stances. In fact, its
historic stance in the time of a great war, was what once brought it to the track of global power
and influence at all. It was what made the world first view it and accept it as such. Today, its
very element of taking stands, is severely twitching.
3- Is the metaphor of the Panopticon relevant to the history of colonialism, neocolonialism and
super power expansion between 1914 and 2014? if yes, then why, and if not, then why not.

9. Viola George Shenouda
900133171
The notion of being personally and constantly watched holds little recognition in the minds
of most people. I remember looking at the observation cameras in the classes and corridors of my
school and mocking its illusion. To my surprise, I once passed by a little room on my exam day
to find this vast monitoring screen, in front of which a man actually stayed and watched, as a job.
However, this was not as marvellous as that experiment I saw in scientific thinking class. In
Belgium, a number of random people were invited to have their minds read by a fortune teller.
The man was able to reveal their tiniest life details, their houses’ description, their bank
accounts’ numbers, its balance, how much money they spent at different times, and what was it
spent on. Moreover, all the information about their friends, their love lives, and even the hidden
tattoos on their bodies was told by the fortune teller. After the participants’ amazement, the
magic was revealed. In a room next to the fortune teller, was a group of technicians researching
each participant’s internet actions and dictating them to him in an earpiece on the spot. The aim
of the experiment was to reveal to people how their entire life is online, and that it only takes a
skilled user to penetrate it all. Though this vast network piercing each and every detail of our
lives, Panopticism as described by Foucault to be “running through society without interruption
in space or time” can never be more easily exercised.
Panopticism’s essence is marked by it being a novelty to the tangible materialistic exercise
of power during History’s traumas. Both phases of the world wars manifested by Imperial
consolidations or protectorate and mandates supervision have failed to survive. Whether on a
level of domestic discipline or global surveillance, the theory of Panopticism emerges to
substitute the physical corporal element of control. As clearly stated by Foucault: “Panopticism

10. Viola George Shenouda
900133171
made possible a political take off in relation to the traditional ritual, costly, violent forms of
power, which soon fell into disuse.” Today, is the era of network warfare.
An example of a modern day panopticism exerciser that I will be considering in
comparison to the theory is the United States’ National Security Agency, the superpower’s
agency of domestic and global monitoring in co operation with the intelligence. Though created
as a communication center during the second world war (Gellman, 2013), its widened scope of
surveillance operated through today’s electronic and technological facilities. As evidenced by the
scandal leak of NSA’s document in 2013, the agency detains communications of more than a
billion person across the globe. Furthermore, it was found to have the ability to monitor foreign
countries through trafficking their domestic internet (Obar, 2013). Documents revealed that the
agency collected 97.1 billion computer data items globally, amidst which France, the UK, and
Germany were included, in only month. Another document revealed that several network
hardwares like routers and servers were purposely shipped to certain organizations to enable the
NSA have secret access through (Gallagher, 2014). Through its global reach, the agency have
applied the Panopticon’s feature of having “a role of external surveillance, developing around
themselves a whole margin of lateral controls.”
As the top secret documents were leaked by an agency’s ex contractor, data revealed the
agency’s shocking practice of wide domestic surveillance targeting US citizens. Having been
published in the prominent The Washington Post and The Guardian (Greenwald, 2013), the news
was met by strong disapproval from the public. In response, President Obama appeared on
National Tv, in attempt to relief the public saying “We don’t have a domestic spying program”

11. Viola George Shenouda
900133171
and stating that the American people are not subject to spying (Henderson, 2013). Here, the
exemplars we are viewing discards Bentham’s Panopticism principle, namely that “power should
be visible and unverifiable.” While the panopticon’s model rely on promoting self subjection
through giving the prisoner the illusion of being watched, this surveillance’s objective operates
the other way round. It can only function through secrecy. This is in part due to its target of
actual observation rather than the theory’s aimed self discipline, and in part due to its secret
nature and questioned legality, which is the complete opposite to the panopticon’s democratic
feature of being opened to citizen’s and world committees, as proposed by Foucault.
Another theoretical feature that is practically unattainable and especially in the modern day
practice of Panopticism, is isolation. As the model suggests curbing the observed individualists’
means of communication, the nature of today’s world labels this feature impossible. The same
network that gives authorities access to people’s everyday life, gives people an unprecedented
capability to connect. This remains alarming as vast movements can erupt through these means
of assembly. An Egyptian uprising was started through a Facebook page. And though claims
have been made about targeted surveillance of social networks (in this case in attempt to promote
self subjection), it failed to halt the political practice through this electronic medium. However,
Foucault’s description of the theory’s feature to reach “the dust of events, actions, behavior,
opinions” if applied to today’s social networks, would again demand the individuals not to be
aware of the surveillance.

12. Viola George Shenouda
900133171
Noteworthy, today’s means of information possess a threat, though rare, to the inspector
himself. For instance, in February 1999, a group of hackers succeeded to access England’s
military satellite and signalled false warefare information. Computer units and forces of Scotland
and the United States tried to track the hacker, but their attempts failed. Also, in December 2000,
a hacker gained control of the government’s software technology and stole the source code
controlling missile systems. Again, the officials of Washington’s trail reached no success.
(Iozzio, 2008). In conclusion, it seems that Panopticism can be applied to different eras, in
accordance with its circumstances and objectives. As the eighteenth century proposed techniques
of discipline, and Bentham designed an architectural mechanism of it, each time period will
determine its own model of Panopticism, compatible with its targeted practice. However, today’s
version seems significantly critical. Today’s world mediums do not only force the prisoners’
walls porous, but might even enable the prisoner and the Inspector to switch roles.
Sources

13. Viola George Shenouda
900133171
- Coordinated Sanctions Aim at Russia’s Ability to Tap Its Oil Reserves, By Peter Baker,
Alan Cowell and James Kanter, 2014.
- China and America: Dancing Around The Containment Question, by Joseph A. Bosco,
2014.
- Containing Iran, Kenneth M. Pollack.
- Russian and Chinese support for Tehran, George L. Simpson, 2010.
- A new Containment Policy for Iran, North Korea, Bernard Gwertzman, 2013
- A Short History of the Department of State, Office of the Historian.
- Oxford proof on China and the New world Order, part 1, Caixinonline
- When will China become a Global Superpower, Thair Sheikh, 2011
- Competing in the Multipolar world, Mark Foster, 2008.
- International Institute for Strategic Studies; Hackett, James (ed.) (7 March 2012). The
Military Balance 2012. London: Routledge. ISBN 1857436423.
- "Armed Forces Strength Figures for December 31, 2013". United States Department of
Defense.
- With China on the Rise, America must woo India, Paul J. Leaf, 2014.
- India Inching closer to China, will be an eco powerhouse by 2030: US report, 2012.
- Emerging Power: Developing Nations Now Claim the Majority of World GDP, Matthew
O’Brien, 2013.
- Brazil’s top 11 Resource Riches, Bloomberg.
- America’s Dependency on Middle East Oil, Colin S. Cavell, 2012.

14. Viola George Shenouda
900133171
- Gellman, Barton; Greg Miller (August 29, 2013). "U.S. spy network’s successes, failures
and objectives detailed in ‘black budget’ summary". The Washington Post. p. 3.
- Obar, Jonathan A.; Clement, Andrew (2013). "Internet Surveillance and Boomerang
Routing: A Call for Canadian Network Sovereignty". TEM 2013: Proceedings of the
Technology & Emerging Media Track - Annual Conference of the Canadian
Communication Association (Victoria, June 5–7, 2012).
- France in the NSA's crosshair : phone networks under surveillance Le Monde 21 October
2013
- Gallagher, Sean (2014-05-14). "Photos of an NSA "upgrade" factory show Cisco router
getting implant". Ars Technica.
- Greenwald, Glenn. "NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers
daily". The Guardian. Retrieved August 16, 2013.Exclusive: Top secret court order
requiring Verizon to hand over all call data shows scale of domestic surveillance under
Obama
- Henderson. "Obama To Leno: 'There Is No Spying On Americans,” 2013.
- The 10 Most Mysterious Cyber Crimes, Corinne Iozzio, 2008.