Discussion Board

THE QUESTION:

In your opinion, is it the responsibility of the United States to help other countries in need? Explain your answer using some of the thinking points provided.

THINKING POINTS:

Here are some thinking points to help you in your writing your post.

·         Who defines “help”? What if another country doesn’t want our “assistance”?

·         What if our help causes more harm than good? Are we responsible for repairing the “collateral damage”?

·         Some might argue that we should help our own first. With the current economic crisis, do you think the U.S. should focus more on helping those here in the US and less on other countries? Why or why not?

·         Or has increasing globalization made us essentially all one community?  No longer a distinction between “us” and “them”?

·         How might a conflict theorist (focus on change and inequality) answer this?

·         How might a functionalist theorist (focus on stability and consequences) answer this?

Some tough questions that will require a bit of critical thinking. Please remember to cite and reference any sources you use in composing your post. (I’d include with a definition of globalization, for example).