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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Power, Responsibility, And Sexually Violent War Tactics: A Theoretical And Empirical Analysis Of Rape During Civil War, Jennifer L. Clemens Aug 2017

Power, Responsibility, And Sexually Violent War Tactics: A Theoretical And Empirical Analysis Of Rape During Civil War, Jennifer L. Clemens

Theses and Dissertations

Broadly, this dissertation asks, why rape? In address, this research posits a leadership preference-based strategic theory of rape during war; marking the first large-N, quantitative exploration of leadership preferences on the use of rape in civil war. Using an original dataset, preferences of armed group leaders are evaluated against the level of rape across all civil conflicts between 1980 - 2009. The results highlight three critical findings. First, evidence suggests that rape is distinctive from other human rights violations and is permitted or controlled differently than are more common forms of extra-combat violence (i.e., torture, extra-judicial killings, disappearances). This work …


The Liberal Commercial Peace, Regional Considerations: International Relations Of Southeast Asia, Latin America, And The European Union Countries, Chienwu Hsueh Jan 2015

The Liberal Commercial Peace, Regional Considerations: International Relations Of Southeast Asia, Latin America, And The European Union Countries, Chienwu Hsueh

Theses and Dissertations

Most of the large-N empirical studies on the liberal commercial peace theory demonstrate that, in general, trade has a robust pacifying effect in reducing the probability of dyadical militarized interstate disputes. However, why trade’s pacifying effect varies across time and space remains a puzzle that previous research has not yet solved. The liberal commercial peace literature suggests the following questions are in need of answers: Why does trade promote peace mainly in inter-region dyads but not in intra-region dyads? What are the preconditions that make trade’s pacifying effect work or not work? In this research, I argue that there are …


Soft Power, Ngos, And The Us War On Terror, Layla Saleh Dec 2012

Soft Power, Ngos, And The Us War On Terror, Layla Saleh

Theses and Dissertations

Bringing together foreign policy literature and INGO (international non-governmental organization) scholarship, this dissertation seeks to explain geographic and temporal variation in the US government's use of hard, soft and smart power in the War on Terror. Making an important theoretical contribution, I revise Nye's concept of soft power, more rigorously conceptualizing it as a consciously-utilized strategy employing methods other than hard power (military or economic sanctions) to influence a target government or population to enhance US interests. Soft power is a strategic means of achieving a foreign policy goal. I conceptualize smart power as including both soft and hard power, …