Progress Assignment: Zeweis and Steinbergs Articles

Progress Assignment
Your Name
January 3, 2017
Your Institution of Affiliation
1
The main point of Zewei’s article revolves on discussing a phenomenon where a more dominant system/ideology (western) clashes with a least dominant one (Confucianism in China). According to him, when this happens (domestically or internationally), the least dominant one tends to either be engulfed or swayed by the other one, despite its conservative nature. In the article, Zewei, showed how a very conservative society like Ancient China, was forced by the western forces to reach a compromise between their own beliefs and the outside, even if it’s almost the exact opposite of their own. However, Zewei also emphasized that in times like these, least dominant forces have their own way of dealing with things such as what the Qing government did by the end of the 19th century. According to him, the collision between two ideologies and the dynamics within each of the nations were unique for the fact that even if China was forced to change its ways, its foreign relations still remained uninfluenced. Zewei then pointed out that this happened because of the fact that China only applied the Unequal Treaty Regime within its own borders and not what was originally agreed upon by the two forces CITATION Zew11 \l 1033 (Zewei, 2011). In summary, the article pointed out that even if the whole process of integration is characterized by coercion by the dominant forces, it still proved to be beneficial for it paved way for its own modernization CITATION Zew11 \l 1033 (Zewei, 2011).
2
Steinberg’s article discussed about the effectiveness and the extent of NGOs’ (Non-government Organizations) power in influencing public decisions and actions which are supposedly held by a state’s government. In particular, Steinberg’s article dwelled on the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict (and human rights) and what role do NGO’s pla...