Prompt: Reflect on the differences between where you grew up or where you live now and where your exchange partners live. Some factors to consider here are the universal and the particular, environment and culture

I grew up and lived in Mount Holly Springs for my entire life and I am a currently a senior at Boiling Springs High School. The exchange partners I talked to came from Colombia and the United Arab Emirates. I noted how Nour from the UAE had a similar experience in growing up in a small town as me and we could relate to many of the same experiences with the familiarity that everyone has with each other in a small community and the closer relations that individuals have with each other. Camilo had a different experience with his time in Bogota, the capital of Colombia, and of course a much larger city and community than where I have grown up in. In addition, Camilo and Nour have had very different cultural experiences in their respective home countries compared to my hometown. Nour talked about how her schools in the UAE were often very competitive between students and stricter norms were enforced in some schools while others were more casual and similar to the United States.

I think that it has been incredibly interesting to see the different experiences and cultures that people come from around the world and talking with a large variety of people from different areas of the world and with wildly different experiences can greatly expand your knowledge of the world as a whole which relates very well to International Relations. I am glad that this class allows for conservations and interaction with exchange partners and engaging with individuals from around the world because it can help you to better understand and contextualize issues that may appear in discussion of international relations. I enjoyed talking with the exchange partners on their experiences in their home countries and I hope to have more time in the future to talk and work with them.

Prompt: Taking the concepts of self and other, think about your community (your home, your college or university, some other community in which you are involved) and consider who belongs and who is an outsider. What group or groups do you experience primarily as plural others, rather than as individuals? How does that affect your perceptions of them? What are the social and practical effects of othering?

In the Cumberland County area, the main demographic group and insiders are those who are generally middle-class Christian and in many cases (at least at Boiling Springs High School or other small high schools in the area) have family that lives in the area and legacy of family living in the region. Individuals outside of these broad demographics, such as recent immigrants from Pakistan or India, are often seen as others who are not normally considered to be full members of the community. I feel like this is mostly limited to the more rural regions of the county/area, however, and I imagine that this is completely absent at Dickinson or in towns such as Mechanicsburg and Camphill. Many foreign groups are generally seen as others in many places in the United States, primarily Muslims in recent years, but also groups such as the Chinese and Hispanic immigrants across the border are often used in political talking points to drum up fear or promote a more nationalist platform that a candidate is running on. Perceiving these groups as others rather than as individuals can often make people dehumanize them or make broad generalizations about them that are not fully in line with reality. This creates a social effect where the othered group will look increasingly inwardly to themselves as the broader accepted group does not accept them, thereby increasing their distrust of them because of their reclusiveness. In addition, extreme cases of othering can lead to increased violence and tensions between different social groups in a community, often weakening the community as a whole or leading to internal strife in a huge community such as an entire state or nation. Thinking of people as individuals and treating each person with initial respect and evaluating each person on an individual basis is the best policy to avoid othering and becoming prejudice or discriminatory towards a certain group. More people evaluating each other as individuals with the larger social group of context removed would likely make the world a better place.

Prompt: How do national and international factors interact in empowering some states of the Global South to make more progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals than other states?

States such as Singapore have made far more impressive and longer strides towards UN goals compared to states such as Turkey and Bangladesh. Singapore has the notable benefits of being a wealthier nation with a strong government that promotes international investments and business interests in the nation, promoting economic growth and stronger institutions in the country. Singapore’s tiny size and strategic location also makes development goals more easier to accomplish on the scale of their country and ease of access to global trade and resources from around the world. On the other hand, Turkey and Bangladesh struggle due to their comparatively poorer populations and significantly wider range of issues they experience as a result of their size. Both states suffer from corrupt governments and institutions that stifle growth and progress towards economic and human rights development goals. In addition, both states are not as attractive to global trade networks and international business interests compared to other states such as Singapore, partially due to their internal issues, further intensifying the systemic issues they face in their countries. States with competent governments, strong institutions, and attractive qualities to foreign interests will make much more progress towards UN sustainable development goals than poorer nations with corrupt governments and controversial international human rights concerns.