The primary unit of international relations is the state. The state forms with the monopolization of legitimate violence in an area. The concept of legitimacy is imagined here as the Deleuzian concept of a body-without-organs. The organs form the structure of how legitimacy is used as a function. The organization of organs upon the body, I call a monad, borrowing from functional programming. Sites of mobilization, I define as separate bodies but as part of legitimacy as a body as a whole, in a more coherent sense, such as race, gender, religion, and so on.

Despite Mongolic being a relatively young language family, there are a surprising amount of archaisms and innovations one can spot even in basic vocabulary such as numerals. With recent findings in the field, supported by data from neighboring languages, these numerals’ history are beginning to be understood. The biggest aid has been the deciphering of Khitan, a language of a sister branch to Mongolic, which helps reconstruct a deeper layer of Mongolic-Khitan languages (referred to also as Serbi-Mongolic).

There is a difference between undertaking self study in languages and taking language classes. Language classes have a teacher and this teacher is the person who structures the lesson plan for the students. Each session, the teacher goes over material and assigns homework for the students, rinse and repeat. Perhaps there are fun games and exercises to practice the material every once in a while. This has several effects which may hinder the typical student who takes such a class, but let’s go over the benefits.

Hungary has experienced democratic backsliding in recent years, which stands out since it is a country in the EU, located at the center of Europe, and surrounded by strong democracies. Yet somehow, a strong wave of right-wing parties who openly declare themselves to be against “liberal democracy” has taken hold in the country, in stark contrast to the standard seen in the European Union. The prime minister of this party, Viktor Orbán declared that “illiberal democracy” is the country’s future, which led some to question what exactly this entails, and how such a concept has taken hold in a country surrounded by democracies.

The People’s Republic of China’s ruling party, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) consistently and proudly calls itself a democracy. However, in the West, it is obvious to see that there is little parallel in what is defined as a democracy here, and the structure in China seen today. Equally puzzling, the democratic movements in China from the Democracy Wall movement in 1978-1979 to the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 were cracked down on specifically with the rhetoric of democracy by the Chinese government.

Ever since the Kuomintang (KMT) fled to the island of Taiwan in 1949, it has been the sole party in power until moves towards democratization in the 80s. While the present liberal democracy status of Taiwan is unquestionable, there are still remnants from the old party rule which prevents further democratization in Taiwanese politics. Every step of the way from the establishment of the Republic of China in Taiwan, to its eventual democratization, local factionalism has been a key element in the KMT’s hold on power and electoral strategy.

為何臺灣國語與中國普通話有他們現在的差異? 每人都知道中國的中文與臺灣的中文不同，最明顯的是在臺灣人們的翹舌音和平舌音的差別不大。然而這樣的差別不是我今日討論的，而是為何兩者的標準中文有現今的差異。簡單的解釋是「就是因為它們分開那麼多年，肯定有一些差別」，然而如此解釋還不完整。因此我要提出更完整的解釋。 首先，國語和普通話何時分開了？標準國語的發音1928年出現了，當時的語言學家以北京音為基礎，不過他們也為了訂一些字標準音開會了。這些語言學家注重韻書和音變規律訂發音。其次，1949以後，中國已經有一個新政府。這個共產黨訂定國音時也以北京話為基底，不過卻更注重北方的口語發音。 舉一個例子，「微」這個字的古代發音國際音標上是「/mʉi/」。假如便用語音演變的規律，現代官話的發音應該是「ㄨㄟˊ」，因而民國訂定的發音是「ㄨㄟˊ」。但北方方言將字的二聲變成一聲，因此中共的標準音卻是「ㄨㄟ」。 1949以來，臺灣與中國的歷史也分開了，所以他們的語言也發展得不同。有最大差異的地方是科技，因為很多從國外來的技術詞必須要被翻譯，而且既然兩者已經分開了，他們以不同的詞翻譯。比如，在中國標準詞「網絡」，但在臺灣他們說「網路」，或者是臺灣的「軟體」是中國的「軟件」． 由此可見臺灣與中國的中文差異歷史又長又复杂．

The postmodern world has made us lonely and more susceptible to ideological thinking. Furthermore, ideological thinking and its effects are unnoticed as a result of ideologies becoming invisible to itself. With coming of the modern world, our attitude shifted to a belief in progress, development over time, and most importantly, a sense of control over progression. Things such as objective reality where there is a cause and a measurable effect as a result.

Asia is a Western notion. Etymologically it is theorized to have come from a Hittite word meaning “Northwest Anatolia” which was eventually borrowed into Greek from where it spread throughout Europe. From its root, it inherently comes from the perspective of the West looking East. Asia is not a concept born out of Asia. This idea of “Asia” eventually found its way to the U.S. where it became a racialized concept denoting everyone hailing from the massive continent of Asia as they imagined it.

I am a graduating student at George Mason University in International Relations. My current research interests are in the political economy of Chinese foreign policy and its potential effect on Central Asia and Mongolian economies in the future. I have conducted research on the effects of Central Asian and Mongolian political economies on democratization outcomes, tracing of KMT ideology concerning China, and currently the communist theory behind the Belt and Road Initiative.