ISU: Independent Study Unit for World Issues Class
"As the world goes, right is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must"
-- Thucydides, The Peloponesian War, Book V, section 89
ISU Topics
Environmental Issues
- desertification
- biodiversity
- global warming
- El Nino
- hydrogen fuel
- alternate fuel sources
- renewable energy
- ozone depletion
- endangered species
- resources
- Green Revolution
- Agricultural Pollution in developed or developing countries
- Environmental Groups
- Wildlife Management
- Role of United Nations in environmental aspects of development
- environmental preservation
Economic Issues
- Industrialization, Economics and Energy
- mining/agriculture
- Nuclear energy
- Nuclear waste
- Nuclear War
- Chernobyl
- Three Mile Island
- Multinational corporations
- Pacific Rim Influence (APEC)
- European Union
- globalization
- Economic Organizations - WTO, NAFTA, EU, FTAA
- Embargoes and sanctions
- Cartels and Monopolies
- Industrial pollution
- Alternative Energy sources for developing countries
- consumerism
- sustainable development
- Colonialism
- Imperialism
- Economic Imperialism
- Quality of Life
- clean water supply
- Literacy
- Child Soldiers
- Child Labour
- arms trade
- Refugees
- Rural to urban migration
Geopolitics
- The changing role of the UN
- NATO
- Kosovo
- Crisis in Chechnya
- Crisis in East Timor
- Democracy/Dictatorship/Monarchies
- Communism
- Asia: the fall of the monarchy
- genocide and ethnic cleansins
- methods of resistance
- Sanctions and boycotts
- The USA: a nation in decline?
- Human rights
- Human rights in China
- Ultra-nationalism in Russia
- Debt in developing countries
- Foreign Aid
- Terrorism
- Illegal drug trade
- Tibet: A country or a region of China?
- First Nations people in North America
- Indigenous Peoples
- Basques in Spain
- Kurds in Southwest Asia
- Tamils in Sri Lanka
- Middle East Conflict
- Palestinians in Israel
- Serbians, Muslims and Croats in former Yugoslavia
- The United Nations
- Anti personnel land mines
Cultural
- overpopulation
- hunger
- poverty
- medical geography
- "hot zone" - global spread of diseases
- the AIDS Crisis
- Pharmaceuticals - Patents and Research
- global village
- gender discrimination
- Women - Reproductive Rights/Sexual Rights/Marriage Rights
- Women - Employment/Education
- persecution of gays and lesbians
- female genital mutilation
- cultural practices of indigenous groups
- Aboriginal peoples
- Prosyletization - Spread of Christianity (passive or violent)
- Spread of Islam ( passive or violent)
- Consumerism