Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

When You Play The Game Of Drones, You Win Or You Die: Examining The Role Of U.S. Drone Strikes In U.S. And English Language Allies Newspapers From 2008-2019, Melissa Aho

Dissertations

In the years following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States ramped up its usage of drones and drone strikes around the world. Spanning three United States’ presidents, drone strikes became a regular feature in the US military arsenal. While American newspaper media and citizens have been very pro-drone, global citizens view drones in a far more negative light. This study examines US military drone strikes and English-speaking allied newspapers in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom and evaluates if coverage remains positive or negative depending on the newspaper’s conservative or liberal leanings from 2008–2019. …

An Analysis Of China’S Claims And Their Development Of Artificial Islands In The South China Sea; Are They One Step Closer To Becoming A World Power?, John Pugliese

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the complex foreign conflict occurring in the South China Sea. There are two primary theories utilized to study this conflict, realism, and liberalism. The realism study involves both offensive and defensive realism. While the study of liberalism has a strong focus on international law. These theories are then applied to how China has been constructing artificial islands in the South China Sea.

The first chapter focuses on how surrounding countries have reacted to China’s island building, particularly the Philippines. This includes an analysis of an international law case between the two countries, where the Philippines accused China …

Christian Identity Meets Identity Politics: A Lutheran Approach To Political Engagement, Michael Hanson

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Identity politics has become a frequently referenced and much maligned term used to describe a trend in political engagement in the early 21^st century. Identity politics is employed across the political spectrum and has critics on both the left and right in the United States. Christian Identity Meets Identity Politics examines the contours of identity politics to understand and consider the concerns which lead neighbors to engage in identity politics, accounts for the needs of those neighbors who are denied God’s gift of justice through the state, considers criticisms leveled against identity politics within the greater view of Western …

Lolita In The Contemporary American Classroom: Pedagogical And Learning Approaches, Jasmine Revels

Master’s Theses and Projects

The purpose of this study is to discover effective collegiate-level teaching and learning strategies for Vladimir Nabokov’s 1958 novel Lolita in the midst of the current American political and social climate. Some of the factors of the current political and social climate in the United States thought to have an effect on the teaching of Lolita, and were thus considered for further inquiry, were cancel culture, the Me Too Movement, and trigger warnings. Primary research was collected from college students and English college professors. To obtain this research and the opinions of respondents regarding this topic, a combination of both …

The Future Of Artificial Intelligence In The Healthcare Industry, Erika Bonnist

Honors Theses

Technology has played an immense role in the evolution of healthcare delivery for the United States and on an international scale. Today, perhaps no innovation offers more potential than artificial intelligence. Utilizing machine intelligence as opposed to human intelligence for the purposes of planning, offering solutions, and providing insights, AI has the ability to alter traditional dynamics between doctors, patients, and administrators; this reality is now producing both elation at artificial intelligence's medical promise and uncertainty regarding its capacity in current systems. Nevertheless, current trends reveal that interest in AI among healthcare stakeholders is continuously increasing, and with the current …

Defining “Firm Nationality”; An Exploration Of The Modern Firm Within The Context Of United States-China Relations, Cory Sachs

Honors Theses

The turn of the 21^st century marked the beginning of a modern age in human history. As developing nations continued on their paths to industrialization, global markets became inter-connected, and large swaths of the people were lifted out of poverty throughout the world. As market demand increased due to the influx of new capital, new alliances between nations were drawn and the production of goods transformed.

Today, firms are more globally fragmented than ever before. Rarely do firms house all facets of production in one location and serve only one market; instead, production is separated to cheapen product cost …

The United States And Its Coercive Democratization Attempts In Japan And Iraq, Noah Shepardson

College Honors Program

The United States engaged in coercive democratization (bringing democracy to a country via coercive measures such as occupation) endeavors in both Japan and Iraq, achieving drastically different results. The democratization of Japan is typically regarded as the gold standard of coercive democratization due to Japan’s rapid social and economic development following the United States’ occupation of the country in the years after World War II. The United States’ democratization effort in Iraq, on the other hand, has failed to create such prosperous conditions and has arguably made Iraq more unstable. This thesis seeks to identify why coercive democratization worked in …

Educating For Democracy: Policy Recommendations For The Revitalization Of Civic Learning In The United States, Meghan E. O'Brien

Community Engagement Student Work

The recent decades have brought upon a dramatic shift in the United States’ political and social climate. Increases in ideological polarization and extremism have taken hold as individual trust, knowledge, and participation in democratic processes has declined (Gould et al., 2011). These trends have contributed to the rising severity of social issues facing the United States - climate change, income inequality, systemic racism - as well as an inability to collectively address these issues. The need for a solution to these trends has never been greater as the nation struggles to perfect a democratic structure in which citizens are equitably …

The Poverty In Usa: An In-Depth Analysis Of The Last Two Decades, Sara Negri

Economics Theses & Dissertations

Poverty is a global problem that affects not only the undeveloped states but also the most developed ones. This research paper will analyze this problem in depth, trying to summarize several definitions, several causes that can lead to an increase in the poverty rate, and policies implemented by the government in order to reduce the total number of poor people. The author analyzed the poverty rate in each state of the United States from 1990 to 2019 using a panel data analysis. She found out that California is the state with the highest value of poor people in the U.S. …

The National Interest And The Roots Of American-Saudi Diplomacy, Oliver B. Wiegel

Theses and Dissertations

This paper analyzes the beginnings of diplomacy between the United States and Saudi Arabia during the interwar years and World War II. It explores how national interest was decided upon, how oil companies affected American foreign policy, and the American government’s strategic interest in Saudi oil reserves.

Can Small Donations Have Big Consequences? Candidate Ideology, Small Donations, And Election Results In The 2016 And 2018 Congressional Cycles, Michael Borecki

Honors Projects

Small donors have provided an increased share of total campaign contributions in the 2016, 2018, and 2020 U.S. federal election cycles, including about $3 billion of the $14.4 billion raised in 2020. Campaign funding is still dominated by an influential set of large donors, but small donations may be the basis for an effective response to the disproportionate amount of “big money” in politics. This study investigates whether candidates who are more extreme perform better with small donors, and then examines the impact of small donations and overall funding on election results. These analyses were performed using linear sum-of-squares regression …

A ‘Hermit Kingdom’ No Longer? Kim Jong-Un’S Two Years Of Diplomatic Summits And What North Korean Media Can Tell Us About Them, Jaimie Ding

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines the English-language output of the Korean Central News Agency, the main news agency of North Korea. I conduct an analysis of the KCNA news coverage of a series of diplomatic summits that North Korean leader Ki Jong-un holds with Chinese president Xi Jin-ping, South Korean president Moon Jae-in, and U.S. president Donald Trump from 2018-2019. For this analysis, I coded for certain phrases and rhetoric and examined the content of each article to look at how news coverage of these summits reflects North Korea’s foreign policy goals and stances toward the respective countries. I found several recurring …

Veterans And Disaster Relief: Charity And American Welfare, 1920-1960, Gordon Stearns

Senior Projects Spring 2021

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Presidents And The U.S. Constitution: The Executive’S Role In Interpreting The Supreme Law Of The Land, Mitchell Scacchi

Honors Theses and Capstones

In 1832, President Andrew Jackson issued a veto message claiming the same duty as the Supreme Court to interpret the U.S. Constitution. Do modern presidents exercise the principal role in interpreting the U.S. Constitution that President Jackson claimed was their duty, and, if so, in what ways do they choose to articulate their interpretations? The hypothesis is that modern presidents have exercised a principal role in interpreting the U.S. Constitution similar to the interpretative duty expressed by President Jackson, and they perform this duty, in part, through the issuance of veto messages and signing statements. After a content analysis of …