Threat to World Order and its Discontents
Threats to world stability appear to be leaping up on every side, and constant reporting on these challenges and difficulties turning our world upside-down is lending an aspect of gloom to our societal outlook. But are we sure such pessimism is warranted? How can we tell thoughtful reporting from alarmism or undue influence? Can we investigate the reasons for such doomsaying ourselves?
In this course, students will examine issues of globalism and geopolitics to better understand the world order as it exists today. Using Peter Zeihan's The End of the World is Just the Beginning as a base text, students will choose a topic that seems to threaten that order. They will pursue a research project to follow the likelihood, severity, and consequences of the topic chosen. Topics may include war, inflation, demographics, climate change, energy policy, industry, supply chains, and more.
Possible Catalog Searches
Click on some of the sample searches about your class topics below in the library catalog.
Recommended Ebooks & Print Books
Click on this link to search for books and articles on your topic. Type keywords relating to your topic in the box under "Search Everything."
Check out these books in print and/or online for further reading on topics relating to your course.
The Ages of Globalization : Geography, Technology, and Institutions by ISBN: 9780231550482Publication Date: 2020-06-02
Future Peace : Technology, Aggression, and the Rush to War by ISBN: 9780268201913Publication Date: 2022-03-01
Global Ecopolitics : Crisis, Governance, and Justice, Second Edition by ISBN: 9781487587895Publication Date: 2019-04-08
The Impact of Overbuilding on People and the Planet by ISBN: 9781527527614Publication Date: 2019-01-04
Overtime: America's Aging Workforce and the Future of Working Longer by ISBN: 0197512070Publication Date: 2022
A World in Disarray by Call Number: Transy Library General E840 .H323 2018ISBN: 0399562389Publication Date: 2018-01-02
Gather Background Information
Use broad reference materials to find out background information about your topic. This will help you narrow your future searches and will also give you keywords to find the most relevant sources. Credo can be a good place to start for that first step in research.
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Credo Reference provides access to a large number of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri and other reference books. Subjects covered include art, biography, history, literature, music, religion, and science and technology.
- Climate ChangeProvides a mind map and articles on climate change.
Additional Databases--Find Scholarly Articles
Below are suggested databases with scholarly articles on these topics.
Need more options? Library Databases A-Z
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals. Includes searchable PDF content going back as far as 1887. - Business Source Premier This link opens in a new window
Provides full text for nearly 3,800 scholarly business journals, including full text for more than 1,100 peer-reviewed business publications. - Communications and Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new window
Provides articles in areas related to communication and mass media. CMMC offers cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for more than 500 journals, and selected coverage of nearly 200 more, for a combined coverage of more than 690 titles. Furthermore, this database includes full text for over 380 journals. - HeinOnline Academic This link opens in a new window
HeinOnline Academic includes more than 2,700 journals covering political science, criminal justice, law, women’s studies and access to comprehensive coverage of fully-searchable U.S. federal government documents. Search both state and federal case law with Fastcase, a leading legal research service that provides “best-case-first” tools for fast research. The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) is included. It also includes classic treatises as well as rare items found in only a handful of libraries around the world. - JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Provides articles from 1,900+ scholarly journals in the arts, humanities, and sciences and around 5,000 ebooks. Coverage dates for journals are from the very first issue of each journal (the nineteenth or early twentieth centuries for many) and continues to 2 – 5 years prior to the current year (moving wall). - Sociological Collection This link opens in a new window
Access to more than 500 full text journals, including nearly 500 peer-reviewed titles. Sociological Collection offers information in all areas of sociology, including social behavior, human tendencies, interaction, relationships, community development, culture and social structure.
Scholarly Articles
Below are some scholarly articles about climate change, population aging, and global governance.
United States Congressional Reports and Hearings
Below are some United States congressional reports and hearings on the following topics: climate change, food security, and inflation. Congressional reports and hearings are available through HeinOnline.
News Resources
- NPR (National Public Radio) National Public Radio is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that delivers breaking national and world news. Also top stories from business, politics, health, science, technology, music, arts and culture.
- Newsbank : America's News This link opens in a new window
America’s News covers newspapers from around the country. Updated daily, this resource offers current and archived articles and video clips from news sources nationwide. It includes content for the Lexington Herald Leader. - Newspaper Source This link opens in a new window
Provides selected full text for 25 national (U.S.) and international newspapers. The database also contains full text television & radio news transcripts, and selected full text for more than 200 regional (U.S.) newspapers. - New York Times Academic Pass This link opens in a new window
To get full access to the nytimes.com website create an account at the site linked above using your Transy.edu email address. Don't forget to check your email to verify. - WSJ.com (The Wall Street Journal) sign up This link opens in a new window
Get full access to the business newspaper of record, The Wall Street Journal, website using your Transy.edu email address. Create your personal account at http://wsj.com/transy, then go to your email to verify. Read the Wall Street Journal at wsj.com
Videos
- Films On Demand: Humanities & Social Sciences Collection - Master Academic This link opens in a new window
Films On Demand is a web-based digital video delivery platform that allows you to view streaming videos from Films Media Group anytime, anywhere, 24/7. Thousands of videos are available for in-class use and remote viewing from the library, in the dorm, or at home. Films and film clips can be embedded in course management system (Moodle).
Below are some videos relating to your course topics.
Podcasts
Below are some podcasts about the future. Many of them discuss climate change.
Citation Information
- "MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The Purdue OWL, Purdue U Writing Lab, 2022This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.
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