T. M. Devine - Recovering Scotland's Slavery Past: The Caribbean Connection

Scotland like Ireland in some wars was not determined to be a legitimate fighting force, so their wounded soldiers were shot at or killed. It was a type of political oppression that both nations felt in the Easter Rising and Culloden. With political acknowledgment, they may have been treated better, arguably of course, but it was the rejection by the British of their political acknowledgment that led to horrifying suffering. As well as well known religious oppression, there was, of course, the ethnic oppression, erasing of their culture and language. Scottish nationalism is not a conservative concept that wants to kick every nationality out of the country, in fact, Scotland is a world leader in community development and resettling refugees. Scottish nationalism is an independence movement, similar to that of the Catalans. This is where Robert Burns has been adopted as a Scottish revolutionary, with his Jacobite sympathies, as Scottish nationalism is freedom fighting and an independence movement.

Barry R. Posen - The Sources Of Military Doctrine: France, Britain And Germany Between The World Wars

Machiavelli's writings should be used as a warning of how power manifests itself. Is it case of people being drawn into power by their nature, or does it say something about the position of power in a physical sense and how it impacts on the normal everyday people? Warning signs of the beginnings of fascism should understand that it starts from nationalism, not in a state sense because the state can be interpreted as an authoritarian dominant force on freedom, or it can be the lifeblood of a society, because many casualties of the Nazi party were German citizens. But when there is a fierce nationalism of a people, and a clearly defined enemy, and this enemy is in fact internal and part of the society, then there will be violence. If mankind wants to survive then he should make the state and take it global to accommodate all people.

T. M. Devine - Independence Or Union: Scotland's Past And Scotland's Present

Taking a journalistic view of Scotland's past is acknowledging that there was a shared plight of freedom from the ultimate oppressor, the English, a sense of misery and hopelessness from the suffering and sheer carnage that took place throughout the highlands very similar to the great Russian literature. It was bleak but beautiful. It all culminated in a great expression of philosophy in the enlightenment era, one last push before capitulation. From an IR perspective there was definitely state building from the likes of Wallace and Bruce, and when it came to Charles Edward Stuart the cause had nearly gone, where the Highlanders became powerless and pawns to the greater powers. The greatest triumph to the Scots was having Mary Stuart's son become king of not only Scotland, but England, Ireland and Wales. James VI and I was Scotland's greatest triumph.

John Lewis Gaddis - We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History

Thomas Hobbes is one of the founding fathers of the realist branch of IR, he could also be interpreted as also a neo-classical realist because as detailed in his major and famous work Leviathan, the explanation of humanity in it's rugged detailed analysis, because of Hobbes wrote other works explaining the very details of things, Leviathan is a work capturing man's ugly side. Man is greedy and warlike, and it is only the state that can save his wretched existence, but for Hobbes, the state is personified as it takes human aspects to its appearance and personality. For Hobbes, the Leviathan is just like mankind, greedy and warlike, so Hobbes could be identified as a forerunner of neorealism as his invention of Leviathan, the personification of the state is in fact, and he, or she, is just like mankind, selfish and greedy. The importance of the fact that states or the leaders of states being selfish is very important now as ever because the politicians throughout the world are further out of touch with the everyday people, as detailed in the climate change activism of the modern era.

Charlotte Randall And William Edward Morris - Starting With Hume

David Hume is identified on the blurb of this book as the greatest philosopher to ever write in the English language. His theories on free will and the existence of a god were ground-breaking for his time, and they predate existentialism of Kierkegaard and Satre by a considerable timespan. Prominent Scots were not afraid to delve into the controversial, as Lord Darnley was homosexual who actually slept with the person he supposedly murdered or had murdered, Rizzio. James I and IV happened to be openly gay. As it appears it to be so Charles Edward Stuart was typecast as a literal antichrist to the English, the bringer of great doom that would lead to the death and destruction to the English way of life.

John J. Mearsheimer - Conventional Deterrence

Waltz did coin the term "neo-realist'' in the 70s, with states being identified as selfish, rather than the self-preservation theory of Hobbes with people, individuals, being self-orientated. Where Waltz and Mearsheimer differ is the fact that the latter believes states act offensively, whereas Waltz believes states act defensively. Fascism can be identified as first being a solution to greed, where a state blames its problems and failings on an opponent. The state will claim that this enemy is denying them economic growth, so the problem is the 'other', so therefore violence needs to happen. Fascism is the use of violence, both from the state and the individual, (In the case of WWII Hitler targeting the Jews and others and then using the German state to invade Poland). Mankind will seek to use himself and his state in acts of violence. Many people interpret the realist branch as warmongering, but Sun Tzu wrote about war damage limitation in his book The Art of War.

T. M. Devine - Clanship To Crofter's War: The Social Transformation Of The Scottish Highlands

What is interesting in the English media channels is the framing taking place around Charles Edward Stuart. When the Jacobites invaded England, images were circulated throughout the country of the king and they can only be described as feminine. This spoilt, rich and Catholic Italian wearing a kilt leading the savages from the north. Post risings also many people believed the king to be homosexual, as he fled for his life dressed as a woman to escape the redcoats. In reality, Charles was not effeminate but trained as a young child in military strategy. His father would personally take him to battles and they would observe on a faraway hill. There was a lot of planning around the risings from the exiled Stuarts. There was a shared trust that the Highlanders would not abandon their claim. Charles after returning to Rome a failed man took up drinking and would eventually fall into domestic abuse with his spouse, beating her, ultra-masculine behaviour far from the image portrayed to the English. He would even travel to London incognito later in life to observe what could have been.