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Articles 1 - 29 of 29
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China's Grand Strategy And Its Hegemonic Aspirations, Tianyi Yu
China's Grand Strategy And Its Hegemonic Aspirations, Tianyi Yu
Political Science Honors Projects
The rise of China has sparked a debate on two core questions: what are China's intentions, and, more specifically, does China aspire to become a global hegemon? At the heart of these questions lies the enduring topic of China's grand strategy, its implementation, and its narratives. This paper addresses these questions by examining China's statements regarding its national rejuvenation strategy and its use of military power. The analysis concludes that China harbors aspirations of first becoming a regional hegemon and then challenging the US-led world order. Moreover, the paper suggests that China is at a turning point in that strategic …
A Veneer Of Democracy: How El-Zu’Ama Dominate Lebanon’S Political System, Sami Banat
A Veneer Of Democracy: How El-Zu’Ama Dominate Lebanon’S Political System, Sami Banat
Political Science Honors Projects
As Lebanon has endured a never-ending cycle of crises for decades, scholars have sought explanations via the country’s intense sectarian system, and have investigated its origins extensively. However, this search has neglected the question of sectarianism’s permeance and maintenance. This paper will focus on the latter, and argues that the sectarian system is sustained by a sectarian elite class, known as el-zu’ama, via their own cults of personality enabling them to maintain control of their sects. This paper will examine pre-statehood history, the civil war, post-war reconstruction, and finally, modern failed challenges to the system to illustrate this thesis.
Constructing And Destructing The Peace: Models Of International Engagement In Post-Conflict States, Colin Churchill
Constructing And Destructing The Peace: Models Of International Engagement In Post-Conflict States, Colin Churchill
Political Science Honors Projects
Variance in the stability of post-conflict states presents an interesting predicament. What causes this variance in states two or three decades removed from civil conflict? In this paper, I argue that the type of engagement that international actors take towards post-conflict states explains differences in stability. I draw out four distinct models of international engagement from three case studies of Lebanon, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Northern Ireland that present the different ways that international actors have constructively and destructively engaged in these states. Furthering this analysis is an examination of the transition or possible transition between models in the cases.
Disruptive Innovation: The Rise Of The Knowledge-Sharing Market In China, Yaqing Lan
Disruptive Innovation: The Rise Of The Knowledge-Sharing Market In China, Yaqing Lan
International Studies Honors Projects
Innovation is a major subject of international political economy, but mainstream discussions focus on scientific research and development and detach innovation development from their social contexts. In response to this view, this project reveals the importance of cultural and social factors in influencing innovation development by examining the rise of the knowledge-sharing market (KSM) -- a social-network-site-based economy in China. It suggests the KSM is a disruptive innovation not only because it is pioneered by a latecomer in the global innovation market, China, but also because its emergence from the changing Chinese consumer demands disrupts the mainstream thinking of innovation.
Kissingerism And Iranian-American Relations: Prospects For Reconciliation And The Establishment Of A New Order, Kaleb D. Mazurek
Kissingerism And Iranian-American Relations: Prospects For Reconciliation And The Establishment Of A New Order, Kaleb D. Mazurek
International Studies Honors Projects
This thesis is an attempt to resurrect the strategic and philosophical thinking of Henry Kissinger in order to unlock the Iranian-American impasse. Encounters between the two countries have been in a state of deadlock since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, though its genesis dates back, at least, to the American-sponsored coup d’état of 1953. Within the American foreign policy establishment, no one looms larger than Dr. Kissinger: his contributions intersect the two worlds of academic diplomatic history and statecraft at the highest levels of international relations. He was the chief diplomat at a momentous period. Kissinger―through his writings and public policy―emphasizes …
Iran’S New Interventionism: Reconceptualizing Proxy Warfare In The Post-Arab Spring Middle East, Emmet Hollingshead
Iran’S New Interventionism: Reconceptualizing Proxy Warfare In The Post-Arab Spring Middle East, Emmet Hollingshead
Political Science Honors Projects
Iranian proxy groups in the Middle East pose a continuing challenge to stability, American interests, and peaceful self-governance in the region. From a strategic standpoint, Iran’s innovative use of proxy groups to pursue their political and military interests has proven difficult to understand and respond to within a comprehensive framework. This paper will argue in favor of reviving and modifying the ‘new wars’ literature as a theoretical framework for understanding Iranian proxy groups and regional interests. It analyses Iranian actions in fostering relationships with non-state actors in the region as an extension of the state into ‘new wars’ dynamics and …
Coca, Capitalism And Decolonization: State Violence In Bolivia Through Coca Policy, Margaret A. Poulos
Coca, Capitalism And Decolonization: State Violence In Bolivia Through Coca Policy, Margaret A. Poulos
Political Science Honors Projects
I approach Bolivian coca policy under Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous President, as a site to examine the broader issue of decolonization. My paper argues that the new General Law of Coca, passed in March 2017, is part of a larger systemic pattern of violence towards historically disenfranchised communities in Bolivia, despite Morales’ indigenous Aymara identity and pro-coca activism. Drawing on interviews I conducted and a postcolonial theoretical framework, I analyze how although Morales has rhetorically advocated for indigenous communities and decolonizing Bolivia, colonial legacies supplanted in the subjectivity of Bolivians and institutions of its government have persisted. I suggest …
Arms Control And Disarmament: Legitimacy, War, And Peace, Milo R. Ventura
Arms Control And Disarmament: Legitimacy, War, And Peace, Milo R. Ventura
International Studies Honors Projects
The 2013 Noble Peace Prize was awarded to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the same year that events in the Syrian Civil War made clear the difficulties of implementing global disarmament and the imperative for doing so. In relation to this situation, my thesis asks if arms control and disarmament reduce conflict and tensions between states. Attempts at chemical weapons disarmament have been relatively successful but global disarmament faces major obstacles that will be difficult to overcome. To be sure, arms control and disarmament can be beneficial to peace: they are not a cause of war, can …
Do Weapons Make Warfare? An Instrumental Variables Approach Towards Investigating The Relationship Between Small Arms Abundance, Civil Conflict Onset, And Civil Conflict Intensity, Gabriel S. Barrett
Do Weapons Make Warfare? An Instrumental Variables Approach Towards Investigating The Relationship Between Small Arms Abundance, Civil Conflict Onset, And Civil Conflict Intensity, Gabriel S. Barrett
Political Science Honors Projects
Scholars, journalists, and policymakers frequently attribute the intensity and onset of civil conflict to the abundance of small arms. However, the direction of causality has been difficult to assess due to a lack of data on the illicit small arms market and the plausibly endogenous relationship between the abundance of weapons and civil conflict. Using a new dataset of estimated small arms prices, I determine that a decrease in the price of small arms is significantly and negatively correlated with an increase in the intensity of conflict in the following year. I also determine that small arms prices increase in …
The Sino-American War Of Words: Soft Power As Coercion, Lucas Deane Myers
The Sino-American War Of Words: Soft Power As Coercion, Lucas Deane Myers
Political Science Honors Projects
Soft power is typically understood to involve attraction, or the influence an actor gains through the positive image of its institutions, ideals, and culture. However, this conception underplays the coercive side of soft power. Attractiveness is not a pre-existing, unchanging condition but a socially constructed reality that allows the attractive actor to exercise discursive power over other actors. Soft power conflicts appear, therefore, as a “war of words.” In such wars of words, participants utilize coercive soft power, or representational force, to reify a narrative and self-identity into social reality while simultaneously detracting from the opponent’s. Utilizing discourse analysis, I …
Defining Biometrics: Toward A Transnational Ethic Of Personal Information, Nicola Morrow
Defining Biometrics: Toward A Transnational Ethic Of Personal Information, Nicola Morrow
International Studies Honors Projects
Innovations in biotechnology, computer science, and engineering throughout the late 20th and early 21st centuries dramatically expanded possible modes of data-based surveillance and personal identification. More specifically, new technologies facilitated enormous growth in the biometrics sector. The response to the explosion of biometric technologies was two-fold. While intelligence agencies, militaries, and multinational corporations embraced new opportunities to fortify and expand security measures, many individuals objected to what they perceived as serious threats to privacy and bodily autonomy. These reactions spurred both further technological innovation, and a simultaneous proliferation of hastily drafted policies, laws, and regulations governing the collection, …
Adapting To A Protracted Refugee Crisis: Analyzing The Humanitarian Response To The Syrian Refugee Crisis In Jordan, Zoe A. Bowman
Adapting To A Protracted Refugee Crisis: Analyzing The Humanitarian Response To The Syrian Refugee Crisis In Jordan, Zoe A. Bowman
Political Science Honors Projects
In the past, refugee status was considered a short-term consequence of conflict. Today, protracted refugee situations (PRS) are the norm rather than the exception. This shift has forced humanitarian actors to develop new strategies to handle the challenges of working with refugees in the long-term. This project examines the protracted refugee crisis of Syrian refugees in Jordan. Using interviews conducted in the summer of 2015 in Amman, Jordan, this paper asks (1) what are the implication of the PRS for Syrians in Jordan and (2) how can solutions implemented in past PRS provide answers on how to respond to the …
Swords Into Stethoscopes: How The U.S. Military Could Conduct Medical Diplomacy, Oliver Kendall
Swords Into Stethoscopes: How The U.S. Military Could Conduct Medical Diplomacy, Oliver Kendall
Political Science Honors Projects
Since the early 1960’s, Cuba and China have won international appreciation by sending doctors abroad to help where they are needed. While there was surprise in some quarters when U.S. military personnel were deployed to combat Ebola in the last months of 2014, the Department of Defense actually has a long history of medical activity. In its current form, DoD medical outreach cannot likely garner soft power in the way that the Chinese and Cuban programs can, but with a few modifications, the U.S. military could be a serious conductor of medical diplomacy that would save countless lives and benefit …
Escaping Thucydides' Trap: Change, Conflict, And The Future Of The American-Led Order, Elijah Wohl
Escaping Thucydides' Trap: Change, Conflict, And The Future Of The American-Led Order, Elijah Wohl
Political Science Honors Projects
For centuries the discourse surrounding change in the international system has revolved around Thucydides’ thesis that change and conflict are synonymous as great powers rise and fall. This argument has regularly provided a historical model for major change in the international system. It remains pertinent today as the rise of new great powers – particularly Brazil, India, and China – have fundamentally altered the balance of power in the international system. This has resulted in an international order increasingly susceptible to pressures for change across economic, political, and structural spectrums. In this study I argue that as power shifts from …
Improving U.S. State Department Cultural Exchanges With The Middle East: A Case Study Comparison Of Iraq And Jordan, Irene K. Gibson
Improving U.S. State Department Cultural Exchanges With The Middle East: A Case Study Comparison Of Iraq And Jordan, Irene K. Gibson
Political Science Honors Projects
The U.S. State Department conducts cultural exchanges with the purpose of encouraging participants to instigate changes in their home countries. Despite extensive efforts by programs to measure their impact on participants, these effects are only indirect correlates or background variables for the ultimate goal of direct action. This thesis explores the impact of State Department cultural exchanges with the Middle East by drawing on eight interviews with exchange administrators of numerous programs in Iraq and Jordan. The case studies of Iraq and Jordan allow more careful scrutiny of the types of factors, both internal and external to programs, that affect …
The Utility Of Darkness: Figments Of A State Called The Democratic Republic Of The Congo, Aimee M. Mackie
The Utility Of Darkness: Figments Of A State Called The Democratic Republic Of The Congo, Aimee M. Mackie
International Studies Honors Projects
Since the Heart of Darkness brought the cruelty of King Leopold’s rule of the Congo to the world’s attention, it has been viewed internationally as the locus ofinhumanity. My thesis examines how this perception has excused the role of neocolonial actors in furthering destabilization. After independence, the United States and Belgium, with the assistance of Mobutu Sese-Seko, exploited the nominally sovereign Congo. The weakening of the Congolese state has continued in recent years through a lack of accountability for international interventions brought about by bureaucratic secrecy, popular ignorance, and human rights rhetoric.
“Normalizing” Japan?: Contestation, Identity Construction, And The Evolution Of Security Policy, Daisuke Minami
“Normalizing” Japan?: Contestation, Identity Construction, And The Evolution Of Security Policy, Daisuke Minami
Political Science Honors Projects
In this thesis, I address two puzzles regarding Japan’s security policy: (1) its minimalist military posture despite its economic power during the Cold War and (2) the recent shift from this minimalist security policy to an assertive one marked by a strengthening of its international security role and military. I argue that although many IR scholars, mainly from the realist camp, claim that the formation of the original security policy (puzzle 1) and subsequent transformation (puzzle 2) is driven by the state’s rational response to external conditions in the international security environment, it can more adequately be explained by the …
The Development Of A New Paradigm Of Humanitarian Intervention: Assessing The Responsibility To Protect, Jayne Discenza
The Development Of A New Paradigm Of Humanitarian Intervention: Assessing The Responsibility To Protect, Jayne Discenza
Political Science Honors Projects
The Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) concept aimed to clarify the relationship between state sovereignty and humanitarian intervention, and its invocation during the recent intervention in Libya provides an opportunity to assess its impact. This project compares the events of Libya with the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina of the early 1990s, examining the framing of these conflicts as well as the perceived role of other states, the engagement of international organizations with the concept, and the effect on operations during the humanitarian interventions themselves. Providing a historical comparison more accurately situates the contributions of RtoP in the re-prioritization of human rights over …
Making War And Securing Peace: The Viability Of Peace Enforcement As A Mechanism For Promoting And Securing Civil War Termination, Shawn H. Greene
Making War And Securing Peace: The Viability Of Peace Enforcement As A Mechanism For Promoting And Securing Civil War Termination, Shawn H. Greene
Political Science Honors Projects
Peace enforcement—the threat or use of military force to compel belligerent adherence to a civil war settlement—has become increasingly salient in the past decade. Using a hazards analysis of all civil wars and associated third party interventions between 1945 and 2013 in addition to three structured, focused case studies, I argue that peace enforcement operations that 1) utilize the appropriate typological spoiler management strategy and 2) maintain legitimacy and impartiality through close cooperation with UN peacekeepers, are the most successful at catalyzing civil war termination and securing durable peace. I also provide a theoretical framework through which to study peace …
Social Media And The Transformation Of The Humanitarian Narrative: A Comparative Analysis Of Humanitarian Discourse In Libya 2011 And Bosnia 1994, Ellen Noble
Political Science Honors Projects
Within humanitarian discourse, there is a prevailing narrative: the powerful liberal heroes are saving the helpless, weak victims. However, the beginning of the 21st century marks the expansion of the digital revolution throughout lesser-developed states. Growing access to the Internet has enabled aid recipients to communicate with the outside world, giving them an unprecedented opportunity to reshape discourses surrounding humanitarianism. Through a comparative discourse analysis of Libyan Tweets, 1994 newspaper reports on Bosnia, and 2011 newspaper reports on Libya, this paper analyzes whether aid recipient discourse can resist the dominant humanitarian narrative and if that resistance can influence dominant …
Theology Of Global Citizenship: Belonging Beyond Boundaries, God Within Boundaries, Jisoo Hong
Theology Of Global Citizenship: Belonging Beyond Boundaries, God Within Boundaries, Jisoo Hong
Political Science Honors Projects
Though creating identity and belongingness under the sovereign requires an enclosure by boundaries, the very act of drawing boundaries imposes inevitable challenges. The limitations of the Westphalian system based on territorial boundaries are becoming more tangible with transnational flows threatening individual’s sense of belonging and the state’s exercise of sovereignty. Global citizenship is suggested as a possible “solution” transcending these arbitrarily drawn boundaries. Nonetheless, my political theological examination concludes that global citizenship is yet another translation of the human beings’ old wish for belonging to, protection from, and unity under a “god,” albeit with new boundaries that differentiate us from …
A State Within A State: The Case Of Chechnya, Hanna Zimnitskaya
A State Within A State: The Case Of Chechnya, Hanna Zimnitskaya
International Studies Honors Projects
After the USSR's dissolution, Russia struggled to reassert its Great Power status by enhancing its internal might and territorial cohesion. Futile military campaigns against the rebellious Chechen people pushed the Kremlin to strike a bargain with an unorthodox warlord: Ramzan Kadyrov, who was to become a faithful ally, while in return Chechnya received an unprecedented level of autonomy. This thesis examines the dynamics of Kadyrov's ascent to power, specifically the Islamization of public space and the monopolization of Chechen security forces, and concludes that, in the long run, the unwavering consolidation of his rule menaces Russia's re-emerging 'greatness'.
Language In The Name Of National Security: The Transformation Of Arabic Language Instruction In U.S. Institutions Of Higher Education, Evelyn Daugherty
Language In The Name Of National Security: The Transformation Of Arabic Language Instruction In U.S. Institutions Of Higher Education, Evelyn Daugherty
Sociology Honors Projects
Government designation of Arabic as a “strategic language” following WWII transformed Arabic language instruction in U.S. institutions of higher education. Funding from the government created a shift away from teaching students to read and translate classical Arabic for academic purposes and toward teaching modern varieties of the language for communication. I employ a three-pronged institutional analysis that takes into account the role of government, the role of professional associations, and the role of individual instructors in the redefinition of norms governing Arabic language instruction during the past seventy years. I find that coercive pressure stemming from government interest affected Arabic …
Building An Asia-Pacific Security Community: A Role For Australia?, Jonathan K. Chen
Building An Asia-Pacific Security Community: A Role For Australia?, Jonathan K. Chen
Political Science Honors Projects
Australia’s foreign policy has recently shifted from great-power dependency towards self-reliance in the Asia-Pacific. In light of this shift, there have been calls for the creation of a regional security community. This project looks at two existing security communities, the OSCE and ASEAN, to ascertain the necessary conditions for building a security community. From there, I examine whether or not these conditions exist in the Asia-Pacific, and investigate Australia’s ability to produce the remaining conditions. I conclude that Australia does not have the diplomatic power to overcome regional competition, and that rivalries amongst regional powers mitigate against the community’s creation.
The Social Evolution Of War And Transformation In Political Organization, Talon J. Powers
The Social Evolution Of War And Transformation In Political Organization, Talon J. Powers
Political Science Honors Projects
Until recently, international relations theory has treated the territorial state as a transhistorical constant. The post-positivist turn, however, revives the question of the state’s origins and future sustainability. By drawing together the contributions of historical sociologists and social theorists of war, this thesis provides a model for change in political organization stemming from foundational transformations in warfare. This model considers not only warfighting practices, but the social and broader historical context in which war is embedded. Through analysis of the feudal and modern cases, I demonstrate why warfare is the best lens through which to evaluate change in political organization.
New World, New War: Understanding Global Jihad, Kabir Sethi
New World, New War: Understanding Global Jihad, Kabir Sethi
Political Science Honors Projects
Scholars tend to explain contemporary conflicts by referring to ambiguously defined processes of globalization. Given this conceptual vacuum, I build a theoretical model that explains the transformation of war through a rigorous analysis of globalization from multiple temporal perspectives. This Braudelian model, which examines the warfighting paradigm, the social mode of warfare, and the historical structure of war, is then used to explain globalist radical Islam. My findings indicate that the emergence of global network societies has had a profound, transformative effect on jihadist violence and, more broadly, on the global mode of warfare.
Timing Justice: Lessons From The Tribunals In Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, And Cambodia, Zoe B. Whaley
Timing Justice: Lessons From The Tribunals In Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, And Cambodia, Zoe B. Whaley
Political Science Honors Projects
Scholarship on tribunals for mass human rights violations overlooks how the presence or absence of conflict influences its effectiveness. I argue that implementing a tribunal during conflict undermines its ability to effectively pursue justice—as I demonstrate with a case study of the Yugoslav Tribunal. Ongoing conflict makes challenges of transitional justice more acute. The absence of conflict eases a tribunal’s ability to carry out certain necessary activities such as collecting evidence. I demonstrate this using a case study of the Rwanda Tribunal. Examining tribunals in Sierra Leone and Cambodia suggests that hybrid structures influence the effectiveness of these accountability mechanisms.
American Humanitarian Intervention: How National Interests, Domestic And International Factors, And 'Historical Milieu' Shape U.S. Intervention Policy, Grant Stegner
Political Science Honors Projects
This paper examines why the US intervenes militarily in some humanitarian crises, but not in others. While US national interests at stake in humanitarian intervention scenarios initially guide policy formation, causal factors such as domestic and international influences, and 'historical milieu' create an 'operational environment' in which national interests and intervention policy evolve. These causal factors are then applied to the 1999 US-led NATO intervention in Kosovo, and the US' current non-intervention in Darfur. US humanitarian interventions and non-interventions form a broader, non-linear trajectory of engagements in which past precedents and experiences continually reshape subsequent intervention policy. The critical denominator …
Establishing Multicultural Interdependence In Europe: Overcoming The Legal Challenges Facing Cosmopolitan Citizens, Jessica L. Hawkinson
Establishing Multicultural Interdependence In Europe: Overcoming The Legal Challenges Facing Cosmopolitan Citizens, Jessica L. Hawkinson
International Studies Honors Projects
Modern states and legal structures around the world are pressed by the forces of globalization to accommodate increasingly diverse multicultural populations. Older and more frequently followed models for cultural integration are rooted in theories of assimilation or liberal pluralism. These theories can demand unbalanced changes from either minority communities or the state. Few theories identify the dual process of interdependence necessary for the democratic inclusion of diverse minority communities in Europe. This thesis explores the historical intent and shortcomings of immigration and integration legislation as it relates to ethnic minority communities in Great Britain and the Netherlands, and makes a …