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1. Description of Our Team
We are a team of students from Raffles Institution; all of us are currently Year 4 students.
Colin Tan is the leader of the group. He is a student with a wide range of interests and is also a Red Cross Member. He built and debugged the website, reviewed material, and handled delegation of workload and technical work.
Jeremy Tan is a Literature Raffles Academy student whose interests lie in the humanities and arts. The Raffles Academy programme is an accelerated learning programme which offers greater breadth and depth of knowledge and inquiry. He edits much of the project material and created the documentary.
Louis Lai is a student with interests across the spectrum of the humanities. He scripted and edited the project material and documentary, aside from interviewing persons of interest.
Kartik Panwar is a student with interests in science. He is one of the more skilled technicians that handle the website and graphic designs. He also interviews people of interest and reviews the project material.
2. Summary of Our Project
Deterrence is a core theory behind defence strategies and national arms acquisition. This theory has sparked off much debate regarding its consequences and weaknesses. The project exemplifies these strengths, weaknesses and consequences and weighs deterrence against other types of peace-protecting strategies such as appeasement, and in so doing, evaluates deterrence and the defence model of the 21st Century, thereafter introducing alternatives and a personal closure. The website also features an introduction to Singapore, a small nation which makes major use of the deterrence theory, arms acquisition and development.
3. Our Computer and Internet Access
A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%
B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:none
C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dial-up modem
D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6
E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):
Our school itself provides a network that is reliable and useful for the many projects from the Research Education Subject. All of our students have access to the internet at home with differing connection rates, but all are above-average.
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
a. Technical Skills 2 of our members were not very skilled at using the computer software, although the other 2 had their hands full with the website. Jeremy and Louis had to understand how to create a documentary from scratch, which they eventually did. This was made possible by Apple’s simplified film-making software.
b. Interviewing We found that most of those whom with we would be speaking to were overseas and unable to return. What we did was to employ communications technologies such as Skype and other free software to capture the interview. We also used e-mail interviews to communicate with those who were unable to meet with us. During the interview, we were extremely nervous, which caused repetition in questions and slight irrationality during the interview. Despite knowing of the background of these individuals, one of us was intimidated. We all managed to calm down eventually, and overcame this problem by mental focus. This problem also developed us as academics and exposed us more to the techniques of interviewing.
c. Communication Our workload was supposedly group work. However, we were separated into different classes and could not meet up often due to varieties of commitments and miscellaneous school work. We compiled information and directions on Wednesdays of 2010 and Tuesdays of 2011 to integrate our work and continue with work delegation and also made valid use of e-mails.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
Peace has great value in the hearts of kind men, but reality is harsh. The current peace is unstable, while ideal, utopian peace is a paradox and is not accommodated. We must value this peace and seek to make it sustainable, as well as initiate a movement towards ideal and eternal peace. Otherwise, large-scale conflict will plague us once more.
6. How did your activities and research for this Doors to Diplomacy Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
a. Appreciating peace and sovereignty: We learn to appreciate what the world currently has and put forth suggestions and debate to sustain these values or to further them. We forget how we achieved this peace and never truly reflected on the value of such. Throughout this project we see how desperate every nation is to protect their rights to self-rule, which set us thinking about how significant peace and sovereignty is.
b. Exposure to the dynamic world: Deterrence is a theory in application, and requires fine-tuning. Along with the various other components of diplomacy we discover more about the world and have a much broader arsenal of knowledge regarding current affairs. It compels us to stay aware of current affairs and take note of what is happening. Awareness of current affairs adds to our knowledge and is a crucial component for all denizens of the global village.
c. Future Problem Solving: We were tasked to take a stand regarding our project’s direction and the objectives. In our case, stands related to solutions to maintain the fragile peace. It took a bit of dynamism and flexibility to comprehend how all the elements of deterrence work and how we could mitigate these problems.
d. International Relations: They serve as communication cables and even leverage in the modern context, and are affected by a large amount of factors. These relations are maintained due to the high stakes involved, and Diplomats do have a hard time doing so. Maintaining relations will require compromise on both ends, though this is often the cause of late action. In general, exposure to aspects and elements of Diplomacy has shown us that these relations are beyond just basic friendship and truce.
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