Untitled

My favorite academic subjects are ones to which I have had no exposure in high school. The passion I feel for both international politics and philosophy must be fulfilled extracurricularly, usually through personal reading. I have amassed a respectable library for both subjects and spend many hours studying them. I enjoy each for the same reason. Each discipline is based on conflict; international politics is a conflict of polities, economies, and societies, while philosophy is a conflict of ideas and systems of thought.

In international politics I consider myself a globalist; that is, I believe that the nation-state should no longer be the central actor in the politics of this planet. I not only read about world politics, I write on the subject as well. I have written several poems with subjects ranging from the Yugoslavian debacle to world unity that have been published and won awards. I have also used the National Peace Essay Contest to expound my theories. I won first place for the state of New Jersey in last year's contest sponsored by the United States Institute for Peace. I continue to write on the subject for my own enjoyment.

I was introduced to philosophy while reading a book about international politics. Francis Fukuyama's controversial tome, The End of History and the Last Man, interwove the two subjects brilliantly and by examining the philosophers mentioned in the book and others as well, I have grown to love many works by Plato, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant and others. My favorite philosophers are the often misunderstood modern German writers, Hegel and Nietzsche. The attempt by Hegel to personally comprehend the entire progress of History in his tripartite dialectic and Nietzsche's argumentative objectivism both intrigue me. Hegel's twentieth-century interpreter, Alexandre Kojeve, is incredibly brilliant. I also enjoy Eastern philosophy with equal vigor.

My career plans are found somewhere in the broad field of international relations, but I currently have no choice of specialization whether it be government foreign service, private consultation, international law, non-governmental organizations, or intergovernmental organizations. I do know that I would eventually like to end up in academia after some personal experience. I dream of unifying several current theories in the philosophy of international relations, including the End of History and Clash of Civilizations, along with some of my own