What have I learned this semester that I did not know before? Well there is a very simple answer to that question – A LOT. Obviously there are a lot of specifics regarding international politics that I had never heard of before, or thought about in terms of the ways we used them. For example, the aspects that make a certain country fall into the category of either developed, developing, or communist, post-communist, and post-authoritarian. But overall, the biggest thing I am taking from this class is definitely the same thing that I quickly realized was a thing in the very beginning of the semester. INTERNATIONAL POLITICS, and politics just in general, ARE COMPLICATED. More complicated than most people are aware. From an ordinary civilian view it may seem like a decision made my politicians or the president was not the right one. And maybe in some cases this is true, but I think it is important to understand with every decision, no matter how beneficial it is for the country, there always seems to be some kind of cost that is paid.
Something I really liked about the class was researching one country the entire semester according to the different topics, as opposed to looking at a new country each time. Mexico is one of our neighboring countries, and even so I knew very little about it at the start of the semester. Through my research I have been able to learn a lot about Mexico’s history, the state of the country today, and their relations with the United States. I feel like this kind of information is important to know because we are so close. I also found it interesting how I was able to make connections between what I was researching about Mexico, to what I was learning and researching for my Immigration class. It is useful to know these kinds of things in regards to what is currently going on between the two countries, and today’s current events related to Mexico.
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