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Re-Evaluating Peacebuilding In The Democratic Republic Of Congo: A Case Study In Dongo, Wilita Sanguma

Master's Theses

Re-evaluating Peacebuilding in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A case study in Dongo

The Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo) is a country rich with natural resources centered in the heart of Africa. Since the colonial era, the country has seen more bloodshed than peace and development. From 1996 to 2003, Congo experienced the worst conflict since World War II, with over six million people dead. Despite having the largest United Nations peacekeeping troops present; Congo continues to be plagued by violence. This research thesis argues that the international community failed to promote a lasting peace in Congo because the international …

Nordic Cooperation In The Post-Cold War Era: A Case Study Of Institutional Persistence, Pavla Landiss

Dissertations

Long-lasting cooperation among a group of nations is rare. Scholars of different traditions disagree about the possibilities of sustained cooperation. This dissertation focuses on the cooperation among the five nations in Northern Europe sometimes referred to as the Nordics – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, plus three self-governing territories – the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and the Åland Islands. They form a distinct region with a common identity and a well developed cooperation. The overarching norm is cooperation based on respect for national sovereignty. It started emerging in the 19th century, but was formalized first after World War II. The …

The Eupm And Eufor Althea Missions In Bosnia And Herzegovina: An Evaluation, Ewa Agata Maczynska

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The political changes in Europe and the shift in the world's balance of power brought about by the collapse of the Soviet Union forced the European Union in the early 1990's to redefine the possible role it wanted to play in the international arena. From being an organization focused mostly on economic cooperation, the European Union quickly transformed itself into a player interested also in the security realm. The first place where the EU attempted to prove itself as a new crisis management power was post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina, a country that needed physical, political and social reconstruction. As a result in …

Russian-Moldovan Relations After The Collapse Of The Soviet Union, Anna Napieralska

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

After the break-up of the Soviet Empire a newborn Republic of Moldova faced a series of challenges, one of which was creating the political and economic foundations that would allow it to become the sustainable European country. It proved to be an extremely difficult task. Indeed, at the beginning of the 1990's Moldova was widely known as the poorest and the least economically stable country on the old continent. During the first years of independence the Moldovan leaders realized that the greatest challenge would be to limit Russian influences on the domestic and foreign policy of the country. Since the …

Boland In The Wind: The Iran-Contra Affair And The Invitation To Struggle , Bretton G. Sciaroni

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Towards A Communicative Theory Of International Law, Timothy L. Meyer

Scholarly Works

Does international law's effectiveness require a clear distinction between law and non-law? This essay, which reviews Jean d'Aspremont's Formalism and the Sources of International Law, argues the answer is no. Ambiguity about the legal nature of international instruments has important benefits. Clarity in the law may encourage states to do the minimum necessary to comply, while some uncertainty about what the law requires may induce states to take extra efforts to ensure they are in compliance. Ambiguity in the law also promotes dynamic change, an important feature in rapidly developing areas of the law such as international environmental law and …

Nuclear Arms Control: Challenges And Opportunities In 2013, Steven Pifer

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

U.S. nuclear arms control policy must address numerous factors, including our strategic relationships with Russia and China, the potential for future nuclear weapons reductions--including non-strategic nuclear weapons, and the offense-defense relationship, given concerns that missile defense developments could in the future affect the nuclear balance. Washington DC must also consider its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, how to dissuade new countries from joining the nuclear weapons ranks, and what to do about the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which the United States has signed but not ratified. This presentation will explore challenges and opportunities facing Washington DC in the aftermath of …

The 2011 Mena Revolutions: A Study In U.S. Energy (In)Security, Jessie Rumsey

Journal of Strategic Security

The recent upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have brought into stark relief the conflict between democratic values and strategic interests in U.S. foreign policy. Americans are known for commitment to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, yet the U.S. Government is frequently unwilling to step forward and openly express even rhetorical support for reform movements in foreign countries. In fact, initial American reluctance to support the recent "Arab Spring" uprisings serves as another example of what scholars argue is a general exception in the MENA to broader post-Cold War rising costs of maintaining autocracy. This …

President-Elect Enrique Peña Nieto Tours Six Latin American Countries To Discuss Cooperation, Offers Insights On Domestic Plans In Key Areas, Carlos Navarro

NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America

This article discusses the significance of 2012 president-elect Enrique Peña Nieto's tour of Latin American countries in September 2012. In Brazil, Peña Nieto met with President Dilma Rousseff to strengthen cooperative and collaborative relations regarding their oil industries. Petrobras represents a potential model that Mexico's state-owned oil company PEMEX could follow in its efforts to modernize its practices and increase productivity.

The Regime Legitimacy Of One-China: How The Vatican Can Make China Whole Again, Jonathan David Bradley

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Currently, the sovereign state of Vatican City does not formally recognize the People's Republic of China. Nor does the Vatican recognize the Chinese Communist Party as the legitimate regime over China. Instead the Vatican recognizes the Republic of China on the island of Taiwan. There are 23 countries in the world who share the Vatican's legitimization of the Republic of Taiwan. The largest concentration of those countries is in heavily Catholic Central America. This thesis looks at the dynamics of the Sino-Vatican relationship in three areas: political tension management of the Chinese people by the CCP, improved relations between the …

Political Cooperation And International Environmental Governance In The Baltic Sea Region After World War Ii, Taavi Kelder

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Today, global environmental problems have become one of the most important international issues. This Master's thesis is about international environmental and political cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region after World War II. The Baltic Sea is surrounded by nine states and the degradation of the marine environment of the Baltic Sea has become a common problem. However, international environmental cooperation depends on many political factors: financial support, international organizations, the attitude of states, international law and the status of environmental issues in the international arena. This thesis focuses on different forms of political cooperation which have influenced international environmental governance …

Does Nation-Building Promote Liberty?, Lisa Jene Piergallini

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Nation-building has historically and contemporaneously been a significant part of the foreign policy of the United States, and has been embraced by Republicans and Democrats alike at one point or another. It is therefore worth delving into this matter with a new frame of reference--i.e., that of liberty promotion--to determine whether this fundamental value has been furthered by the process of nation-building. Does nation-building promote liberty in the local nation, the intervening nation, both, or neither? This question, though seemingly fundamental, has not attracted the consideration it deserves, and warrants further investigation on both theoretical and empirical grounds. It is …

Fanon: Violence And The Search For Human Dignity, Winston Langley

Winston E. Langley

Fanon informs us that interdependence in economics, politics, ethics, or aesthetics (and/or the social institutions with which they are associated) encompasses the interdependence of psyches in the form of confrontations, threats, forbearances, negotiations, accommodations, control, and domination, as persons and groups of persons seek to influence the conduct and shape the social being of others. Today, global and sub-global interdependence is often neither based on reciprocity nor equality. Rather, what one generally finds in the multiplicities of continuing and new (sometimes, instantaneous) connections, is a system of non-reciprocal, imposed interdependence, where one's peace is another's subjugation, one's wealth another's poverty, …

Not Congruent But Quite Complementary: U.S. And Chinese Approaches To Nontraditional Security, Lyle J. Goldstein

CMSI Red Books

U.S.-China relations, difficult in the best of times, have lurched in a dangerous direction since 2009. Against the backdrop of a weakened global economy and sharpened ideological tensions, there has been a disturbing new atmosphere of crisis in East Asia over the last two years, with incidents occurring in greater frequency and sowing serious doubts about the sustainability of the "long peace" that this region has enjoyed for decades. Indeed, any one of the following incidents could have escalated into a serious regional crisis: the sinking of the South Korean frigate Cheonan; the collision between a Japanese coast guard …

Learning From Libya, Acting In Syria, Caitlin A. Buckley

Journal of Strategic Security

The international community has reached an impasse. The violence committed by Syrian President Assad's government against opposition forces, who have been calling for democratic reform, regime change, and expanded rights, has necessitated a response from the international community. This article explores various ways the international community could respond to the crisis in Syria and the consequences of each approach. It compares the current calamity in Syria to the crisis in Libya and examines the international community's response to the violence perpetrated by Qaddafi's regime. It further analyzes reports, primarily from the UN and news sources, about the ongoing predicament in …

The American Duality: Exceptionalism Or Exemptionalism?, Courtney Muniz

Communication Studies

Discusses how the ethnocentric tendencies found within American exceptionalism translate into U.S. foreign policy.

Argentina Nationalizes Subsidiary Of Spanish Oil Company Repsol, Andrés Gaudín

NotiEn: An Analytical Digest About Energy Issues in Latin America

On April 16, the administration of Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner decided that the state should retake control of its oil industry, transferred in the 1990s to the Spanish multinational Repsol. The executive sent Congress a bill proposing the expropriation of 51% of the oil company's shares. Before being acquired by the Spaniards, the company was known as Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF) and was then renamed Repsol YPF.

Role-Playing And Simulation Based Learning In Higher Education: Case Study In Model United Nations, Jason Fortin

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

It is currently estimated that more than 200,000 high school and university students participate in model United Nations each year. With over 400 annual conferences in thirty-five countries, this fifty-year-old tradition has redefined how students engage international relations in an academic setting (Educational Outreach 1). Active learning has been heralded for decades as a superior technique to teach various disciplines, including international relations. It allows students to experience deep learning and develop skills unattainable through conventional pedagogical methods. This paper explores the specific impact of a model United Nations simulation on the academic experience and student performance through a controlled …

Eastern Promises: Poland's Role As A Regional Actor In The European Union's Eastern Policy-- The Example Of Belarus, Max David Reinke

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The present thesis will analyze Poland's current and potential role as an effective regional actor in mediating the European Union's (EU) relations with its easternmost neighbors. In order to most accurately assess this, this thesis will examine Poland's relationship with Belarus, specifically democratization efforts and forging a strong, resolute association with the European Union. Being a successful post-communist transition state and recent EU Member State, Poland has for some time seen itself to be the most-qualified country to bridge Eastern and Western Europe. Belarus in particular is a country of concern for the Polish government because it is a bordering …

American Propaganda, Popular Media, And The Fall Of Jacobo Arbenz, Zachary Carl Fisher

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In June 1954, President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman of Guatemala resigned in the face of a coup led by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas. While the United States publicly denied involvement, the coup was in fact the culmination of a plan called PBSUCCESS (CIA codeword), led by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Although PBSUCCESS lived up to its namesake, it was aided (both intentionally and unintentionally) by various U.S. media outlets. For the duration of Arbenz Guzman's regime, he and his country had been the subject of U.S. suspicions of undue Communist and Soviet influence. A general anti-Communist attitude permeated virtually all …

How Will Ypf's Nationalization Affect Argentina?, Inter-American Dialogue's Latin American Energy Advisor

Latin American Energy Dialogue, White Papers and Reports

Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner on April 16 announced that the government was immediately taking control of the nation's largest oil producer, YPF, and sending legislation to Congress to seize Repsol's 51 percent stake in the company. Fernández's government has complained that YPF under-invested in Argentina and has sent too much oil, and profits, abroad. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy blasted Argentina's action, saying it lacked justification and was a 'negative decision for everyone.' Was the government justified in taking over YPF? How will the takeover affect investment in all sectors of Argentina's economy? How will the move affect …

Can Argentina Block Energy Development In The Falklands?, Inter-American Dialogue's Latin American Energy Advisor

Latin American Energy Dialogue, White Papers and Reports

Last month, the Argentine government said it had begun legal proceedings against five British oil companies it has accused of carrying out ""illegal operations"" in waters near the disputed Falkland Islands. It also asked stock markets in New York and London to warn investors of its claim that the exploration companies are working illegally. Will investors be scared away by the threats? What is the oil potential for the disputed islands and how will Argentina's campaign affect their development?

Labor Rights, Human Rights And A Critical Sociology Of Law, Richard R. Weiner

Faculty Publications

Arguing for a transnational labor movement increasingly poses transnational labor rights as transnational human rights. Sociologically, how can such transnational labor rights be secured by institutions at a global level? Moving from human rights to transnational social rights? A seemingly aporia between the concepts of labor rights and human rights can be dialectically mediated by the tradition of a critical sociology of law in yielding a critical sociology of rights.

Unsigning The Rome Statute: Examining The Relationship Between The United States And The International Criminal Court, Allison Naylor

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

Presently, 120 states are parties to the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court (ICC). A state that one will not find on the list, however, would be the United States. This project examines the relationship between the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the United States. The United States took part in the negotiating process, signing the Rome Statute under President Bill Clinton, but was not fully satisfied with the agreement reached. Under President Bush, however, the Rome Statute was unsigned. Presently, the United States remains unsigned on the Rome Statute. The relationship between the Court and the United States …

Engendering The History Of Race And International Relations: The Career Of Edith Sampson, 1927–1978, Gwen Jordan

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Edith Sampson was one of the leading black women lawyers in Chicago for over fifty years. She was admitted to the bar in 1927 and achieved a number of firsts in her career: the first black woman judge in Illinois, the first African American delegate to the United Nations, and the first African American appointed to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Sampson was also a pro-democracy, international spokesperson for the U.S. government during the Cold War, a position that earned her scorn from more radical African Americans, contributed to a misinterpretation of her activism, and resulted in her relative obscurity …

Codifying Custom, Timothy L. Meyer

Scholarly Works

Codifying decentralized forms of law, such as the common law and customary law, has been a cornerstone of the positivist turn in legal theory since at least the nineteenth century. Commentators laud codification’s purported virtues, including systematizing, centralizing, and clarifying the law. These attributes are thought to increase the general welfare of those subject to legal rules, and therefore to justify and explain codification. The codification literature, however, overlooks codification’s distributive consequences. In so doing, the literature misses the primary motive for codification: to define legal rules in a way that advantages individual codifying institutions, regardless of how codification affects …

Book Review, International Organizations: Politics, Law, Practice (2010), Timothy L. Meyer

Scholarly Works

This essay reviews Ian Hurd’s International Organizations: Politics, Law, Practice. International law and international relations scholars are increasingly interested in the variation in the structures and powers of international organizations, as well as how that variation affects state decisions to comply with international law. Hurd’s book offers a nuanced overview of the relationship between the legal powers of international organizations and the political contexts in which they operate. The book uses eight case studies, including the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the International Court of Justice, and the International Labor Organization, to assess how different political environments and institutional …

“As Wide As The World”: Examining And Overcoming American Neo-Imperialism In Three Novels, Lindsey A. Becker

Antonian Scholars Honors Program

This paper demonstrates the connection between multi-cultural literature and international relations through the analysis of three late twenty-first century novels and their interaction with global politics, specifically following World War II. Within the context of the Cold War, the United States pursued control over foreign nations in order to contain communism, a desire that pushed the US to become a global superpower and a neo-imperialist state. I assert that Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony (1977), Paul Theroux’s The Mosquito Coast (1981), and Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible (1998) discuss and critique American neo-imperialism. Kingsolver’s key contribution to our understanding of neo-imperialism …

On Chinese Foreign Policy: A Big Stick, An Equally Big Carrot, Hannah K. Fishman

The Macalester Review

This paper attempts to provide a framework for analyzing China's newfound assertiveness. Does a rising China pose a systemic threat to the world order, or will Beijing's rise be characterized by what policy officials refer to as a "Peaceful Rise"? This paper argues that China is "building a bigger stick and a bigger carrot" to increase its hard and soft power capabilities; however, this policy won't necessarily pose a threat. The United States must strengthen Western-central international institutions and guide Beijing into this framework if the US wants to see a "Peaceful Rise."

Honor The King. Yes, But Emulate The King?, Michael E. Cafferky

Faculty Works

In seeking to discern God's will for their lives, top-echelon Christian leaders would do well to consider the biblical ideals embedded in the concept of kingship. The paper explores the biblical characteristics of the ideal king with the goal of identifying lessons for contemporary top-echelon leaders. It also reviews the connection between creation and kingship and the biblical concept of the Kingship of God, biblical guidance available in the selection, anointing and annual renewal of the king, and the duties and role of the king. It draws lessons regarding contemporary top-echelon Christian leaders in terms of personal traits, behaviors and …