International Legitimacy: Engaging the World's Leading Forums

While my main goal for this blog is to create a forum where I can share my thoughts on how globalization is affecting African nations, I also aim for this to be a resource for anyone wishing to extend their knowledge about the topics I discuss within my writing. With this in mind, in my link roll I have placed the links to ten websites that are of highest quality and credibility within the field of International Relations. UNICEF is an extremely well known non governmental organization; their breadth is incredibly extensive, so the website is quite daunting for anyone who does not know what they are explicitly looking for. Because of this, I have included two pages buried within UNICEF’s archives that are extremely relevant for Africa’s future and development: Unite for Children Unite Against AIDS and The State of The World’s Children 2008. The former is fairly easy to navigate and provides valuable insight while the latter is more interactive and engages the material effectively. The logo shown to the right is that of the United Nations, the most renown international coalition of states; their website, like UNICEF’s, is an amazing compilation of tremendous information that has been meticulously organized for in depth research; it is extremely thorough in its content but perhaps too thorough for any novice trying to attain an overview of current world affairs. One of the UN’s departments, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has created an efficient site, allowing for simple searches; however the page is filled with an overwhelming amount of textual headlines making it seem busier than need be. The United Nations Women Watch is similar to the FAO in its profuse overuse of words on its homepage, but the site is filled with great pertinent stories and links to other great sources! The Center for Global Development is yet another website that makes liberal use of small font and information cramming. The benefit to this page is that the headlines are updated almost daily, and the articles are extremely thorough and well written. I have made direct reference and links to the ONE Campaign in previous posts and have made it available again because the website provides its information so successfully making it an invaluable forum. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also been successful in creating a simple, traversable site with easy access to all of its pertinent information. Lastly, BBC Africa is one of the best places for anyone trying to get a general overview of the daily passings of affairs on the continent. The information is relevant, updated around the clock, and is one of the most credible sites of international news reporting.