Listening to the presentations today was enjoyable because this was one of the few times for me where I got to see people present during class about something that they had a strong opinion for rather then simply presenting because they had to.

However something that really got me thinking was the triangular model showing the definitions of rising and falling stars and well as the neutral dominant powers. I was reading a Newsweek article titled “The Problem with presidents” and it states that with the world so interconnected and globalization progressing at exponential rates, now more then ever we need global leaders rather then just national leaders. Here we see the leaders of China and India and even the USA doing exactly that. They are fitting the definition of a rising star because they are countries governed by global leaders. The leaders of these countries are jumping on the globalization bandwagon because they know and as the article “Rising up to the Global Challenge” states , “growth is rarely just in the home market” because now the world is your home market. For example they are keen on investing in new ideas as well as learn from other people’s success. In short, any nation has the opportunity to be a rising star as long as they have a global perspective rather then isolating themselves. Just take a look at Brazil and President Da silva’s effort to learn from others and improve themselves transforming the nation from an economic nothing to an emerging market powerhouse.

Peoples attitude’s determine the outcome of their position in world dominance.

Another thing that intrigued me was the discussions that were brought up after the very interesting and enjoyable presentation that showed the changing roles that women play now and how they are more empowered. It made me feel rather old fashioned to think that family was more important than ambition be it whether the man or woman takes the back seat to ensure a good upbringing for one’s children but I don’t mean being a house wife/husband of course. However on the topic of the presentation, world change had allowed for the empowering of women for example the equal rights amendment…and things like this should be encouraged. If we haven’t already, we should allow women to be on the same playing field as us men be it allowing women in certain countries to finally have excess to education all the way to removing that glass ceiling that everyone talks about. There are certain things that women are much better at doing then men and if you want society to be at it’s optimal productivity, women empowerment is a key factor.

An issue for further discussion I feel should be the issue on globalization and it’s correlation with being a dominant power. Does that mean for one to be a dominant power globalization is a priority rather than an option?