Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Swinging Shale: Shale Oil, Global Oil Market, And The Geopolitics Of Oil, Inwook Kim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Is shale oil “revolutionizing” the global oil market and the geopolitics of oil? If so, how? While two aspects of the shale boom—a new source of supply and a cause for the price collapse in 2014–2015—dominate the conventional wisdom, I argue that the most revolutionary change is the least understood aspect of shale oil—shale oil producers’ rise as new swing suppliers due to its unique extraction technique and cost structure. Shale oil producers also differ from traditional swing producers in motives, contexts, and an amount of accessible excess capacity such that while shale oil lowers the medium-term price ceiling, it …

Urban Warfare: Emerging Geopolitical Conundrum, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Urban warfare is as old as human history. It is becoming increasingly important in international political and military planning due to increasing global urbanization and the presence of megacities (urban areas with populations exceeding 10 million) in many global regions and being in areas of recent and potential military conflict. 2018 World Bank data notes that approximately 56% of the world's population lives in urban areas which is up from 34% in 1960. Many of these megacities, including New York City, Los Angeles, Sao Paulo, Mumbai, Shanghai, and Manila are adjacent to oceanic waters and vulnerable to trade and supply …

Europe And Asia’S Melded Future: A Critique Of The Dawn Of Eurasia, Faith A. Chudkowski

Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy

This book review examines political scientist Bruno Maçães’ The Dawn of Eurasia, which presents the emergent Eurasia, China and Russia’s role in shaping it, and what preceded this shift. His book delves into the background that shows the pairing of Europe and Asia to be key in understanding today’s political landscape. Maçães writes that the world has stepped into globalization’s second stage, which is unsteady due to the heightening juxtaposition of different nations that muddle the geopolitics of Europe and Asia. He goes on to argue that this new moment has made a shift in power feasible and appealing …

Literature Review: How U.S. Government Documents Are Addressing The Increasing National Security Implications Of Artificial Intelligence, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

This article emphasizes the increasing importance of artificial intelligence (AI) in military and national security policy making. It seeks to inform interested individuals about the proliferation of publicly accessible U.S. government and military literature on this multifaceted topic. An additional objective of this endeavor is encouraging greater public awareness of and participation in emerging public policy debate on AI's moral and national security implications..

Australian National Audit Office: Evaluating Australian Army Program Performance, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) evaluates the management and financial performance of Australian government programs for the Australian Parliament, Australian government agencies, Australian taxpayers, and individuals interested in the performance of these programs globally. This article examines how ANAO has examined the performance of Australian Army programs and strengths and weaknesses found in these programs while recommending changes to improve program performance. It also examines how government agencies and corporations which have been the subject of ANAO analyses have reacted to ANAO findings. This assessment also examines how Plan B (the possibility that Australia might have to rely less …

Social Trust And Soft Power: The Role Of Social Trust In Democratic Countries’ Soft Power Use, Judit Trunkos

Theses and Dissertations

We have learned about democracies’ peaceful behaviour but we know relatively little about why some democracies are more peaceful and use more soft power instruments than others. I argue that contrary to competing theories that link soft power use to budget size or institutions, it is the variation in the public’s social trust that drives the variation in peaceful behaviour. Individual’s social trust toward peaceful foreign policies are shaped by their core beliefs about trusting other people, which vary across democracies. I argue that leader’s with more trusting populations will be more likely to use soft power instruments becasue they …

New Balance Or New Front? Egyptian Foreign Policy In Eastern Mediterranean, 2013-2019, Moatamer Amin, Moatamer Amin

Political Science

Since the beginning of the millennium, all the regional energy players in the East Mediterranean had good cooperation with little intra-state rivalry or tensions. The Arab Gas Pipeline was successfully carrying Egyptian natural gas to Jordon, Lebanon, Syria and Israel. Egypt had signed agreements to further connect with the Turkish pipeline network, carrying natural gas to the European markets. However, the Egyptian government was facing an internal challenge concerning the normalization of economic relations with Israel. Public opinion was completely against the deal, yet the rest of the Arab Gas Pipeline destinations represented aspiration for further Arab cooperation.

In 2010, …

Pressure Through Economics: Assessing The Effectiveness Of Us Policy Across Shifting Geopolitical Contexts, Hailey Reed

Honors Theses

While some US policymakers argue that economic sanctions always work and continue to use them as a key foreign policy tool, and while some other scholars argue that sanctions never work, this thesis focuses on when, not if, sanctions work. Contextualizing a discussion of the effectiveness of sanctioning undemocratic regimes in the Middle East and North Africa around the early 2000s shift away from US hegemony back to multipolarity, I conclude that the rise of Russia, China, and smaller states in the early 2000s affected the process through which the US is able to sanction adversarial regimes. Through an analysis …

William S. Culbertson And The Search For The Geopolitical Imperium, Gerard Colby

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This thesis aims to demonstrate that the Middle East was not, as so often depicted, a mere peripheral concern as World War II progressed, but an integral part of President Roosevelt’s goals as he planned for the postwar era. This thesis seeks to demonstrate how the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt undertook an unprecedented policy of trade expansion and corporate investment in the Middle East, a region previously an unchallenged British and French sphere of influence. Using the Lend-Lease program to challenge the hegemony of France and Britain’s imperial preferential systems, Roosevelt achieved American economic penetration and dominance of …