Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Coalition Of The Ending: Why States Withdraw From International Military Coalitions, Weiss Mehrabi

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

This dissertation examines the causes and conditions motivating states to discontinue supporting an ongoing military coalition operation and prematurely abandon their partners. In exploring coalition defection through a three-article dissertation, I advance three separate theoretical arguments focusing on three levels of analysis.

The first article contributes to the literature by investigating the effects of political regime types on coalition abandonment during interstate wars. I argue that anocracies are dependable wartime partners and will not abandon coalition warfare earlier than autocracies and democracies. I advance two arguments for the theory of anocratic reliability. First, leaders of mixed regimes expect severe post-defeat …

The Formation Of Proxy Force And External State Relationships: Prospect Theory And Proxy Force Decision Making, Brandon Temple

Dissertations

Proxy war is a common tactic employed by great powers as a safer alternative to direct conflict, especially in the era of nuclear weapons. While proxy war is common, there is a lack of research on the formation of proxy-external state relationships. Previous research has typically examined the phenomena of proxy war through the perspective of the external state power, leaving a gap in the literature. This dissertation fills that gap by assessing the conditions under which armed groups enter into proxy relationships with external states. Using prospect theory as a framework for understanding more clearly armed group decision making …

Demobilizing And Reintegrating Ex-Combatants: Explaining Success And Failure On The National And Subnational Levels, Sally Sharif

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) is the largest intervention in nearly all the United Nation ongoing large-scale peacekeeping missions and is tasked with restoring public security, law, and order after conflict. A well-planned and flexible reintegration process is known to restore social capital and promote the viability of long-term peace locally, nationally, and internationally. War-torn countries run the risk of returning to war if former combatants are not provided with vocational skills, placed into employment, and reintegrated successfully. Through analyzing DDR programs on the macro-, meso-, and micro-levels, this dissertation is an attempt at finding determinants for a successful DDR …

Cross-National Variation In Women’S Rights: Europe And Civil War, Nourah Shuaibi

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation evaluates the impact of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on Women’s Social, Economic and Political rights in post-Conflict countries. In order to evaluate the relationship with sound causal logic, I set out to study multiple relationships to understand the impact of the variables in question. Looking at the nature of the relationship required an evaluation in 3 ways, which culminated in the writing of 4 separate chapters. Chapter 2 demonstrates the importance of understanding Women’s Rights and their role in economic development and peace building. This places women’s rights in context to set the scene for the rest of …

The Counterproductivity Of Protectionist Tariffs, David Korn

Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy

This paper questions whether protective tariffs are counterproductive as political-influence tools. This thesis will examine protective tariffs implemented throughout history in different circumstances and levels of technological development. In every case examined, the results and principles behind protective tariffs remain constant. The historical examples utilized in this research include Civil War taxes, the Smoot-Hawley tariff, and Trump’s tariffs against China in 2018. Each of these examples serve as consequential representations of protectionist tariff policy. Protectionist tariffs artificially raise prices and restrict markets while simultaneously propping up inefficient industries. Thus, this paper explores whether the benefits of protectionist tariffs justify their …

Sinister Intentions And Devastating Results: Intervention And Duration Of Civil Conflict, John M. Zak

Student Publications

In the post-Second World War era, intra-state conflict has become an increasingly prominent feature of the international system. Accompanying the increase in civil conflicts has been interventions by third-parties seeking to influence the outcome of those civil conflicts. This has had a decisive impact on the duration of civil conflict that this work seeks to analyze in detail. Using duration of civil conflict as the dependent variable and intervention as the independent variable, this work will seek to demonstrate empirically that intervention in civil conflict has a significant impact on prolonging the duration of the conflict and can contribute to …

Effects Of Un Peacekeeping Missions, Blake I. Dudley

Student Publications

Of everything the United Nations does, probably one its most scrutinized programs is its peacekeeping missions across the globe. Even though humanity is experiencing an unprecedented level of peace, deadly civil wars still occur across the world, especially in developing nations. The UN has become involved in many of these conflicts, sending peacekeeping forces to the country in crisis. UN peace efforts are very important because they have the potential to save thousands of lives and preventing the further damages of war. It is for this reason that it is vital to examine the UN peacekeeping missions and evaluate the …

The Most Critical Resource: How Climate Change Fuels The Crisis In Syria And The Implications For The World At Large, Edward Medeiros

Honors College

The Syrian crisis, both domestic and international in scope, may well be the defining geopolitical challenge of the generation. Climate change may be the single greatest challenge to face humanity in the entirety of our species’ life history. The dramatic effects of climate change can be seen in the origins of the Syrian crisis when one looks to humanity’s single most critical resource: water. We take the word critical to have two meanings in this context: first, that water is essential to human survival and second that water is a resource in critical condition. Syria’s water crisis pre-dates the civil …

The Endgame: America’S Exit From Syria, Gray Thompson

Masters Theses

Ever since the 2011 Arab Spring protests in Syria fueled civil war costing nearly half a million lives to date, the US response has been cautious indecision. Syria became a proxy war with Russia, Iran, Hezbollah, the Turks, ISIS, the Kurds, and the local Syrian opposition all competing to support or oust Assad. All but the Kurds and select Syrian resistance groups opposed America. With billions spent on questionable war efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, President Obama, the American public, and most of the military establishment were leery of direct US involvement in Syria. Apart from supporting the fight against …

Out Of The Shadows: Women Of The Fmln Guerrilla Army In El Salvador’S Civil War, 1979–1992, Erica Gonzalez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Over the course of a century, revolutionary movements have emerged every few years across the region of Central America, movements that fought for overturning dictatorships and confronting socio-economic inequalities. Women experience higher levels of poverty, human rights violations and discrimination due to gender inequalities. Representing 30% of the FMLN guerrilla army, women in El Salvador took a quantum leap into one of the most horrific and violent armed conflicts in the history of the country (Montgomery 123). Theorists have sought to explain why women became involved in the war. Experts of insurgent collective action agree that women's participation played a …

Aiding To Repair: An Analysis On The Impact Of Foreign Aid In Rwanda After The 1994 Genocide, Mary Atta-Dakwa

International Relations Honors Papers

Between April 1994 to July 1994, about 1 million Hutus and Tutsis were murdered in the Rwandan genocide. The genocide not only severely declined the population of Rwandans, but largely impacted its infrastructure, government, and economy. After the genocide, about $15 billion US dollars was sent to provide humanitarian aid. Post-genocide Rwanda has seen a significant growth in its economy; however, speculators may question if the economic growth is attributed to the foreign aid it received after the 1994 genocide. This paper seeks to examine the impact of foreign aid on post-war reconstruction on Rwanda as a case study.

Stayin' Alive: Transnational Sanctuary And Insurgency, Matthew Murray

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The conventional wisdom of counterinsurgency runs that insurgent groups with bases in neighboring states (transnational sanctuaries) are relatively more difficult to defeat than comparable groups without such bases. Insurgents with transnational sanctuaries benefit from relative protection from attack by counterinsurgents, they may recruit, train, and arm safely in their sanctuaries, transmit propaganda into their target state, and use these sanctuaries as staging points for infiltration or raids into their target state. Counterinsurgents have gone to great lengths to disrupt or destroy insurgent bases in neighboring countries based on the belief that this is necessary to defeating insurgents. However, several groups …

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 …

Joining By Number: Military Intervention In Civil Wars, Zachary C. Shirkey

Publications and Research

Understanding why and when states militarily intervene in civil wars is crucial. Intervention can increase civil wars’ severity and the strategies employed in civil wars are shaped by the possibility of military intervention. This article argues that potential military interveners react to information revealed about warring parties’ intentions and relative power. Without revealed information, potential military interveners are unlikely to reconsider their initial decision to remain out of the war. Revealed information causes non-belligerent states to update their expectations about the trajectory of the civil war causing them, at times, to change their calculus about the benefits of belligerency and …

Finding Aid To The Collection Of Richard Cutts Shannon Materials., Richard Cutts Shannon, Colby College Special Collections

Finding Aids

The Richard Cutts Shannon collection contains diaries, correspondence, printed materials, photographs, artifacts, and clippings by and about Richard Cutts Shannon, Colby Class of 1862. Of note are many diaries Shannon kept throughout his life between 1862-1920, including his time as an aide-de-camp in the Civil War, a prisoner in Libby Prison, his voyage to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, his service as Secretary of the U.S. Legation in Brazil, as a U.S. Congressman, and an account of his tour around the world. This collection also contains photographs, artifacts (Shannon's riding gloves and saddlebag from the Civil War era), Shannon's accounts of …

Stable And Unstable Dictators: Examining The Effects Of Authoritarian Regime Classifications On Domestic Terrorism, 1972-2008, Yahve Gallegos

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis examined four authoritarian regime types and their relationship with domestic terrorism. It is argued that military authoritarian regimes are more likely to experience civil strife than other forms of authoritarian regimes. In addition, this Thesis challenges the notion that multi-party authoritarian regimes and civil strife are positively correlated. This study also demonstrates the relationship between regime type and domestic terrorism when controlling for when the country is experiencing civil war. To conduct this research, I used data from the Global Terrorism Database, Correlates of War, and Hadenius and Teorell's "Authoritarian Regime Types Revisited". The results demonstrate that military …

Private Soldiers In Africa: A Look At The Effects Of Private Military Contractors And Mercenaries On The Duration Of Civil Wars In Africa From 1960 To 2003., Seth H. Loven

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis examines the effect of private soldiers, both Mercenaries and Private Military Contractors (PMC), on the duration of civil wars in Africa from 1960 to 2003. Linear regression is used to determine if private soldiers increase or decrease the duration of civil wars. Ultimately it is found they have little to no statistical impact. This is contrary to the expectations of the theoretical literature on private military contractors, some of which expects private soldiers to profit from war and seek to lengthen duration, and some of which expects the use of additional private soldiers to shorten the duration of …

Pathways To Civil War, Susumu Suzuki

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation is about conflict escalation to civil war, and examines why some political confrontations escalate and why principal conflict actors continue fighting rather than reaching a number of political arrangements at various points of the course of conflict. Unlike previous studies, this study treats the progression to civil war as one of complex alternate paths. In so doing, building on the perspective of asymmetric information (i.e. uncertainty) problems as a cause of war, this study claims that involving each conflict actor's cognitive variances about its opponent's willingness to resolve and military strength would bolster either side's costly military mobilization …

An Examination Of The Varying Role Of The United Nations In The Civil Wars Of Rwanda And El Salvador, Vanessa Jaramillo-Cano

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this work is to examine the efforts of the United Nations in the Post-Cold War era with special emphasis on peacekeeping missions. A comparative study of recent United Nations peacekeeping operations will be completed to identify the variables that encourage or discourage international (UN) involvement in cases of civil conflict. For the purpose of this work, civil conflict will be narrowly defined as a domestic conflict with two major armed groups (ie: civil wars). Two countries will be studied to explore the nature of the respective conflicts, the transitional methods used by the peacekeeping mission to return …

Creed Vs. Deed: Secession, Legitimacy, And The Use Of Child Soldiers, Trace C. Lasley

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

The use of child soldiers has troubled human rights activists, policy-makers, and local communities for decades. Although rebellions around the world routinely use children in their activities, many do not. Despite its overwhelming importance for conflict resolution, the topic of child soldiers remains understudied. My research blends classic rational choice and constructivist themes to develop an explanation for when child soldiers will be used, and when they will be avoided.

The likelihood of child recruitment is influenced by the value of international opinion; this is determined by the groups' long-term goals. Secessionist rebellions desire to have their own state. However, …

Coups And Conflict: The Paradox Of Coup-Proofing, Jonathan M. Powell

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

This study develops a leader-centric theory of civil-military relations that expands upon three broad areas of research. Specifically, the study suggests that leaders will evaluate multiple threats to their political survival and will ultimately implement strategy that is most likely to keep them in power. While Downs (1957) has noted such a tendency in democracies, this study expands this rationale to authoritarian regimes by focusing on the primary means of authoritarian removal: the military coup. In contrast to the state-centric nature of traditional international relations theory, this dissertation finds that leaders frequently undermine the power of the state in order …

When Laws And Representation Are Not Enough: Enduring Impunity And Post-Conflict Sexual Violence In Liberia And Sierra Leone, Ashley D. Kitchen

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the course of history, literature and examination on the impact of civil war has focused little on women, especially in the cases of wartime rape. While the factors which sustain wartime rape are examined with frequency, using gender as an analytical lens, the analysis regarding post-conflict sexual violence and rape is studied far less, leading to the question: what factors are correlated with the continuance of widespread acts of rape even after the cessation of official conflict? Liberia and Sierra Leone suffered high levels of both wartime rape and also post-conflict sexual violence. This comparative case study, using process …