Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Understanding Public Support For Foreign Aid: A Cross-National Analysis, Erika Manning

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This thesis examines how public support for bilateral foreign aid in democratic donor countries, namely the United States and South Korea, is influenced by various methods of policy framing. Despite the benefits of bilateral aid to both donor and recipient countries, public support for distributing it has been on the decline due to fears that aid is ineffective. However, this trend may also be the product of the publics’ perceptions of where aid is going and for what purpose. To determine the effects of type of aid and perceptions of recipient countries on support for foreign aid, I conducted a …

Educating Strategic Lieutenants At West Point, Scott A. Silverstone

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This article argues West Point responded to the changing strategic environment from the end of the Cold War through the post-9/11 period by innovating its curriculum. Over the past several decades, however, the academy’s educational model has remained remarkably stable, rooted in an enduring commitment to a rigorous liberal education as the best preparation for officers confronting the inherent uncertainties of future wars.

New Documents Shed Light: Why Did Peacekeepers Withdraw During Rwanda’S 1994 Genocide?, Emily A. Willard

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Why did the international community decide to withdraw United Nations peacekeeping troops from Rwanda during the 1994 genocide? Analysis of newly released documents and results from an international conference with former U.N. and government officials sheds further light on our understanding of what took place leading up to and during the Rwandan genocide. This article focuses on two key moments: 1) the United States’ reluctance to support the peacekeeping mission from before its mandate began and prior to the killing of U.S. troops in Somalia in autumn 1993; and the United States’ central role pushing the United Nations Security Council …

Human Trafficking: Flying Under The Radar, Amber L. Hulsey

Dissertations

The global hegemon, the United States encompasses roughly 57,000 to 63,000 of the roughly 45.8 million slaves present across the world today (Walk Free Foundation 2016a). This dissertation research uses the theoretical lens of Human Security as a unique approach in that it is people-centered, focusing on the individual, rather than the more traditional theories in international relations that emphasize the state as the central actor. This dissertation focuses on the understudied area of human trafficking into and within the United States. More specifically, the objective of this research examines the movement of trafficked persons via air and details actions …

Deterrence & Security Assistance: The South China Sea, Tommy Ross

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This article identifies how the United States can apply security assistance to support regional security in the South China Sea in order to counter China’s assertive expansion strategy.

Beyond Massage Parlors: Exposing The Korean Commercial Sex Market In The United States, Youngbee Dale, Amy Levesque

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This paper describes the Korean commercial sex market in the U.S. beyond massage parlors. Prior to this study, the U.S. anti-trafficking efforts have heavily focused on combating massage parlors to fight prostitution and sex trafficking of Korean women in the U.S. This paper introduces the shift of trends taking place within the Korean sex market as a result of changing culture and policies. It then introduces various brothel models exploiting Korean women in the U.S. It also brings a more holistic view of the Korean sex market in the U.S. by relying on primary and secondary sources available in both …

Environmental Advocacy: Insights From East Asia, Mary Alice Haddad

Mary Alice Haddad

Regional Integration And Transnational Politics: Popular Sector Strategies In The Nafta Era, Maria Lorena Cook

Maria Lorena Cook

[Excerpt] This chapter argues that although economic integration between the United States and Mexico had been taking place for some time, it was the formal recognition of this process as represented by the discussions surrounding the North American Free Trade Agreement that facilitated transnational political action by non-state actors. Whereas the globalization of the economy and the prevalence of neoliberal economic policies may be considered by some to undermine popular sector organization and actions, formal recognition of regional economic integration in North America has produced a ‘transnational political’ arena that has expanded the resources available to non-governmental groups, increased their …

Regulation Of Hydraulic Fracturing Of Shale Gas Formations In The United States, Fatemeh Bagheri

Pepperdine Policy Review

The practice of hydraulic fracturing has become increasingly common over the years since it has been looked at to replace energy derived from coal. Though hydraulic fracturing may be one of the better forms of obtaining energy, it comes with its own set of problems ranging from environmental problems to health problems if the appropriate safeguards are not implemented when completing the process. Regulations at the local, state, and federal level are assessed to determine which entity should regulate the practice and many technologies are reviewed in order to offer suggestions which allow the process to be completed without significant …

Forecasting The Future: The Early United States Weather Bureau, Robert T. Canning

Honors Theses

The national weather service of the United States came into being in 1870 for the practical utility of the American people. The interaction between weather, agriculture, and commerce provided the impetus for the inception of the service. Many historians put forward the notion of an obdurate weather bureau, a scientific backwater with no interest in modernization until after World War II. I disagree with this popular historiography and instead offer a history of the weather bureau’s attempts to institute the latest meteorological practices that takes into consideration the burdens and obligations of the bureau, as well as the historical context. …

Premature Judgment, Todd Landman

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Just as Mark Twain said in 1897, “The report of my death was an exaggeration,” many commentators have prematurely reported the death of human rights. For example, in 1999, in The Theory and Reality of the Protection of International Human Rights , J. Shand Watson sees human rights as a “mere fiction” in light of a century of state-sponsored killing. One year later, Costas Douzinas, through an appeal to history, philosophy, and psychoanalysis proclaimed the “end of human rights.” It is thus no surprise that the article by Joshua Kurlantzick is yet another attempt to warn us that human rights …

U.S. Department Of State Humanitarian Mine-Action Support In Colombia, Edmund Trimakas

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Years of conflict between the Colombian government and the militant groupFuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia has left the country littered with landmines and millions of internally displaced persons. The Colombian government is trying to address this situation. The Bureau of Political-Military Affairs’ Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the U.S. Department of State is working with Colombian organizations and nongovernmenal organizations to clean up contaminated areas and resettle Colombia’s IDPs.

Gubernatorial Reputation And Vertical Tax Externalities: All Smoke, No Fire?, Per G. Fredriksson, Khawaja Mamun

WCBT Working Papers

This paper investigates whether reputation-building strategies guide U.S. governors’ responses to changes in federal cigarette taxes (i.e. vertical tax interactions). Using 1975-2000 state cigarette tax data, we find that reputation-building strategies affect the nature of vertical tax externalities. Lame duck governors exhibit a more negative response to changes in the federal cigarette tax. Thus, by reducing the state tax base and by causing a decline in the state tax, an increase in the federal tax rate reduces state tax revenues in states headed by lame ducks.

Why Has The United States Never Ratified The Un Convention On The Elimination Of All Forms Of Discrimination Against Women?, Hannah Elizabeth Kington

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted by the United Nations in 1979, has now been ratified by 185 countries, consisting of more than ninety percent of all UN members. The United States, however, has never ratified the Convention. The history of the Convention provides evidence of global support for women’s rights. While there are complex reasons behind the United States’ failure to ratify CEDAW, the United States’ commitment to unilateralism, an attitude of “American exceptionalism” and the long-term inequality and discrimination against women in the U.S. all contribute to the stifling of …

The Quick Reaction Demining Force: The United States' Response To Humanitarian Demining Crises, Hayden Roberts

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Humanitarian crises, particularly crises in which landmines are involved, may occur without warning and require an immediate response. Examples of such crises include Hurricane Mitch, which struck Central America in 1988, the rapid, post-air war return of refugees to mine-infested Kosovo in 1999, and tropical cyclones Hudah and Eline that ravaged Mozambique in 2000, displacing thousands of landmines. To respond to such emergency situations quickly and efficiently, the United States developed a Quick Reaction Demining Force (QRDF).

The U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program In Iraq, Cisr Jmu

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The United States government has developed a wide-ranging plan to build an indigenous mine action capability within Iraq. The plan will help rid Iraq of the threat of landmines and UXO so that the country can focus on rebuilding its society.

Educating The United States: Landmines In And Out Of The Classroom, Susanna Sprinkel

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Enthusiastic students are giving back to their global community as U.S. Department of State-assisted landmine education programs are being launched in grammar schools, colleges and universities across the nation. In these programs, students are given a chance to both learn more about the global landmine crisis and to actively contribute to the mine action community.

The Confederacy’S Bomb Brothers, Peggy Robbins

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

George and Gabriel Rains had a knack for blowing things up during the American Civil War between 1861-1865. They were the Confederacy’s “Bomb Brothers.” Were they fathers of the modern day land mine?

U.S. Humanitarian Demining In The Middle East, Stacy L. Smith

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The United States seeks to relieve human suffering caused by landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) while promoting U.S. foreign policy interests. U.S. objectives are to reduce civilian casualties, create conditions for the safe return of refugees and displaced persons to their homes and reinforce an affected country’s stability. The U.S. seeks to accomplish these objectives by helping to establish and support sustainable indigenous mine action capabilities in mine-affected nations where appropriate. Since fiscal year 1993, the United States has committed almost $500 million (U.S.) to global mine action initiatives, including research and development and survivor assistance. Nearly $90 million (U.S.) …

Southeast Asia Air Combat Data, Tom Smith

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency's Tom Smith details the United State's efforts to create an informational and relational database for mine/UXO identification in Southeast Asia and its importance in targeting landmines.

The U.S. Humanitarian Demining Program In The Balkans, Matt Murphy

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

As a result of years of conflict in the Balkans, countless landmines have been laid in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. Bosnia-Herzegovina's landmine problem is severe, with an estimated 750,000 landmines and an undetermined quantity of unexploded ordnance infesting some 186 square miles of land. These hidden killers have killed and maimed hundreds, vastly impeded the return of refugees to their homes, and hindered international efforts to help people in the region.

What Is A Central City In The United States? Applying A Statistical Technique For Developing Taxonomies, Edward W. Hill, John F. Brennan, Harold L. Wolman

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Develops a method that uses cluster analysis to group central cities in the United States. Selection of the candidate cluster solutions; Median characteristics of the clusters; Stressed central cities; Healthy central cities.

A Call For Standardized Data: The Demining 2010 Initiative Conference As An Opportunity For Consensus, C. Jared Coffin

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

In response to the problem of landmines around the world, the United States has created a Demining 2010 Initiative that is "a U.S.-led initiative to develop, marshal and commit the resources" to end the landmine threat to civilians by the year 2010. One aspect of this initiative is the Demining 2010 Initiative Conference, to be held in the summer of 1998. This conference offers an opportunity to standardize data collection methods to more accurately assess the landmine problem.

Trends. From Pumpkin Papers To Pumpkin Capers: Washington Scandals, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses how in the late 1940s and into the 1950s--an era of both Communist hysteria and significant Communist threat within the United States (US)--pumpkin connoted scandal, as in the infamous pumpkin papers.

Hydroelectric Power Potential At Corps Of Engineers Projects : A Report, Ralph L. Trisko, United States. Army., Institiute For Water Resources

Dickey-Lincoln School Lakes Project

This report completes phase one of the study. It is intended to fill the need, recognized at the outset, for a broad framework within which subsequent more detailed study at the project level might take place. It is an overview of physical hydropower potential in the context of energy and water resources and demands, energy economics, and federal policy, organization, and practices pertaining to hydropower development and marketing.

The History And Enforcement Of The Federal Food, Drug, And Cosmetic Act Since 1938, William Ebert Morrissey

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

In the undertaking a recent history of such a fundamental law as one that deals with food, drugs and cosmetics in its relationship to the human race, we should realize that such a field has a history possibly as old as man himself. There have always been individuals in the good and welfare of others, and there have always been individuals interested in taking advantage of their fellow man for personal gain, frequently in an exceedingly unscrupulous manner.

The Solicitor General of the United States, in a recent paper read at the commemoration the the fortieth anniversary of the original …