Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Complexities Of Coexisting: Foreign Aid Organizations And East African Governments, Lynsey Cooper

Honors Capstone Projects - All

When initiating projects, foreign aid organizations cannot simply go into another territory and begin their work. On top of the normal procedures of nongovernmental sector organizations and insitutitons, those from outside the domestic borders face additional measures. These measures are typically put in place by governments, typically on a national level. This paper explores the types of tensions and/or partnerships that may exist between foreign aid organizations and governments when crossing paths in this manner.

To narrow the scope of this broad topic, this paper focuses on developmental aid enacted by foreign aid organizations in East Africa through a case …

Saudi Arabia And Iran: Sectarianism, A Quest For Regional Hegemony, And International Alignments, Victoria Chen

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Saudi Arabia and Iran are two of the most influential countries in the Middle East. They have often clashed with each other for a number of reasons. Although Riyadh and Tehran frequently espouse their sectarian differences as an explanation and justification for their regional confrontations, sectarianism is only one variable of the complex relationship between the two countries. Therefore the main question for this research concerns the non-sectarian sources of contention between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and the ways in which Saudi and Iranian leaderships frame this confrontation around sectarianism. As the first step, using constructivist framework, this paper analyzes …

Proxy Conflict Turned Civil Crisis: Understanding Syrian Political Movements To United States Foreign Policy, Katherine Barymow

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The Syrian crisis in terms of its crimes against humanity has surpassed most politicians’ wildest expectations: it seems that with every passing news cycle the west is informed of new atrocities commited against innocent Syrian civilians, in addition to violence perpetrated by Syrian Islamists themselves against westerners in ill-advised cries for help. The extent of bloodshed can be both horrifying and mystifying to the average American. How is it possible that the international community allows these crimes to proliferate and self-perpetuate in this modern day-in-age? Hearts sink with every image of a child in dire straights as a result of …

All Politics Is Local: How The South Became Republican, Alexander Amico

Honors Capstone Projects - All

From 1876 until 1964, the Democratic Party held virtual dictatorial control over the American South. Beginning after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and that year’s presidential candidacy of anti-Civil Rights Act Republican Barry Goldwater, the South shifted reliably into the Republican column for presidential elections. Democrats still held a majority of all other offices in the region until the mid-1990s. This paper examines public opinion data in the American South, as well as partisan change in four Southern states, with an emphasis on the first time each state elected a Republican governor. I find that in …

Politics Of Exclusion: An Analysis Of The Intersections Of Marginalized Identities And The Olympic Industry, Emily Bonzagni

Honors Capstone Projects - All

“Politics of Exclusion: An Analysis of the Intersections of Marginalized Identities and the Olympic Industry” analyzes the policing power of the Olympic governing bodies and the media on marginalized athletes in the Olympic Games and the ways in which this system constructs norms of gender, race, class, and sexuality. By employing intersectional, Black feminist, research methods in four case studies over the span of Modern Olympic history, this research centers the stories and experiences of Babe Didrikson, Tidye Pickett, Caster Semenya and Chris Mosier to expose the discriminatory and exclusive practices of the Olympic Industry. The case studies reveal the …

International Intervention In Bosnia-Herzegovina And Macedonia From The 1990'S Through The 2000'S, Katherine Brisson

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This study researches international intervention and what makes it successful and unsuccessful. The analysis of the Bosnian and Macedonian interventions from the 1990’s through the 2000’s provides clues as to what makes intervention more successful for other international actors considering intervention. These two interventions are a great analytic tool because of their similar situations yet divergent outcomes and studying the successes and mistakes of each intervention is helpful in deciding what should be emphasized in future interventions. Bosnia and Macedonia were the two most multiethnic republics in Yugoslavia before their independence, each had forces from the United Nations and other …

The Economic, Health, And Psychological Effects Of The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Ilana Siegal

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This paper analyzes the economic, health, and psychological impacts of conflict and the effectiveness of United Nations agencies and organizations in addressing these issues. I use the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a case study, representing intractable conflicts due to disagreements regarding land, religion, politics, and ethnicity. Focusing on the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), I argue that the effectiveness of WHO and UNRWA programs depends on the economic wellbeing, conflict status, and the level of funding at the time. However, the largest factor impacting the economy, health, and psyche of the Palestinians is …

"Why Girls?": A Content Analysis Of The #Bringbackourgirls Movement And The Transnational Significance Of The Chibok Girls, Halima Shehu

Honors Capstone Projects - All

In the 2016-2017 academic year, I researched the transnational advocacy campaign #BringBackOurGirls, which was created in response to the kidnapping of 276 girls from Chibok, Nigeria by the Boko Haram. Boko Haram has committed many atrocities from 2011 to the present. However, the broader humanitarian crisis did not receive nearly as much attention as the kidnappings of the Chibok girls. Therefore, we must ask, why this is the case

This thesis contributes to the literature by introducing a theory of event adoption to describe the relationship between an event-based advocacy campaign and Transnational Advocacy Networks. My research seeks to understand …

Political Ideology And Feelings Towards Feminism: Why Young People Reject The Feminist Label, Raychel Renna

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This project explores the relationship between political ideology, feminist selfidentification and support for feminist policy. The purpose of this research is to help explain why millennials reject the feminist label despite holding positive attitudes towards feminist policy. A survey of 312 Syracuse University students is used to study this relationship. Consistent with my hypothesis, I find that compared to conservatives, liberals are more likely to identify as feminist and support feminist policy. However, I also find that among liberals and conservatives, support for feminist policies is greater than self-identification as a feminist and the gap between selfidentification as a feminist …

The Influence Of Values And Recipient Groups On Social Welfare Policy Opinion, Christopher Pulliam

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The following paper examines how value-based considerations for social welfare policy opinion are affected by changes in the race of the program recipient. I propose a new model to understand social welfare policy opinion called the interactive model—where instrinsic considerations are tempered by extrinsic considerations. Through an original survey experiment, I find that humanitarianism and economic individualism do not have significant effects on social welfare policy opinion. However, egalitarianism is found to have a strong impact. When the race of the program recipient is changed from white to African-American, the impact of egalitarianism increases for views of Medicare. When the …

Power Shift: Germany's Energy Transition, Gabrielle Lichtenstein

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This project is an analysis of the German energy transition, called the Energiewende, and the dual power shift that is underway in the country’s electric sector. It is both a physical shift from conventional fossil fuels to renewable energy, as well as a socio-political shift in power from centralized utilities to community ownership of energy. The project examines three policy mechanisms — the feed-in tariff, emissions trading, and auctions — through the lens of ordoliberalism, a German variant of economic liberalism that believes in state intervention to maximize fair market competition. Using qualitative research of Anglophone sources, this project draws …

A Content Analysis Of The 2014 Immigration Crisis Media Coverage: An Intergroup Threat Theory Approach On The Age Of Immigrants, Carolee Lantigua

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The purpose of this research is to understand, through the intergroup threat theory, how the national and local press perceive unaccompanied minors through their media coverage. Using the 2014 immigration crisis, during which an exodus of unaccompanied minors crossed into the United States beginning in 2013, this paper investigates two central ideas: first, how does media coverage of young unaccompanied immigrants differ from the media coverage of non-minor immigrants? Second, how does spatial proximity to the American-Mexican border affect the tone of the media coverage young unaccompanied immigrants receive? I sampled two national newspapers and two local newspapers to interpret, …

The Effectiveness Of Unsc Sanctions: The Case Of North Korea, Victoria Kim

Honors Capstone Projects - All

UN Security Council sanctions have been ineffective in curbing North Korea’s nuclear weapons proliferation because North Korea’s economy is not open to trade with the rest of the world. Instead, multilateral sanctions provoke threatening nationalist responses from Pyongyang rather than the desired compliance. An alternative approach is needed. Using content analysis of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Debate statements (2006-2016) of the member nations of the Six-Party Talks and archival research of UN Security Council resolutions, this case study examines each country’s priorities and policies in addressing North Korea’s nuclear proliferation. I find that Japan and the Republic of Korea …

The Rise Of Panarchy, Connor Hakan

Honors Capstone Projects - All

“The youth of humanity all around our planet are intuitively revolting from all sovereignties and political ideologies. The youth of Earth are moving intuitively toward an utterly classless, raceless, omnicooperative, omniworld humanity.” - R. Buckminster Fuller

In the future, human beings will transcend from a one planet species to a multi-planet species. When human beings are a multi-planet species, a new form of government will rise above the old republics of democracy. This new form of government is called Panarchy.

Robert David Steele is a former CIA officer, and in his book, The Open-Source Everything Manifesto, he defines Panarchy …

Thawing Relations: Reaching The Jcpoa, Alicia Drummond

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Speculation surrounds the JCPOA amongst nearly all of its signatories. This project seeks to understand how the agreement commonly known as the “Nuclear Deal with Iran” came into being. The relationship between the US and Iran in recent history requires special attention for understanding both the difficulty and the significance of reaching the negotiating table. However, the other members of negotiations also enabled the process as a whole and had unique national interests driving their participation. Analyzing this context and depth of incentives reveals political and economic incentives for all seven of the relevant nations. For Iran and 5 of …